Evan Ryan Canady’s Trials and Tribulations is an album that feels both ferocious and surprisingly ornate. It is built on a foundation of heavy riffs and relentless percussion, but there is an attention to detail here that gives the record more shape than just brute force. When I pressed play, I expected a straightforward barrage of metal. What I found instead was something that shifted between intensity and grace, often in the span of a single track.
I grew up on the metal of the 80s and 90s, so I recognize those aspects running through these songs. There are passages that nod to symphonic metal with their layered arrangements, while other sections tear forward with the kind of velocity that recalls speed metal at its peak. What surprised me most were the moments where Canady pulls back, folding in elements that feel almost out of place until they suddenly click. The classical piano that threads through certain songs is one of those touches. It adds a stark elegance, almost cinematic, and it lingers in contrast to the heavier guitar lines around it.
The sheer variety across the tracklist kept me engaged. Some songs feel like controlled chaos, while others lean into slower, more deliberate grooves that allow the atmosphere to build. There are times where the record sounds almost like a score for an imagined film, sweeping and theatrical, then it snaps back into the raw physicality of thrash. For me, that unpredictability is part of the appeal.Trials and Tribulations is a very solid metal album and is an exploration of what can happen when aggression and refinement are allowed to coexist.
The riffs are punishing, but the details whether it’s the placement of a piano line or the layering of vocal harmonies show that Canady is reaching for something larger. It is the kind of record that will satisfy fans of heavy music, but it also rewards anyone willing to sit with it and catch the quieter intricacies between the blows. For me, that balance makes it one of his most compelling statements yet.