In the excitable universe of Kerrang!, Florida death-metal adolescents Trivium are a four-K sensation, the magazine's highest rating. In the real world, the quartet - half of whom are still too young to legally guzzle bats' blood - are receiving an unusually warm welcome, too. Well, "warm" may be overstating it, but when you consider that daytime Radio 1 normally regards metal with revulsion, the drivetime playlisting of Trivium's new single is pretty remarkable. A skull-crushing screech-metal combo crossing over? Something is afoot.

That something appears to be an affinity with the 1980s and the genre's founding fathers, Iron Maiden, whose core qualities - melody, musicianship and a sense of the ridiculous - they've adopted. They're fathoms prettier than your average metallists, something reflected by the proportion of girls in the house. Half-Japanese leader Matt Heafy (swishy hair, elegantly long limbs) has the buoyancy of an MTV presenter. Scream and swear though he does, there's a sweetness that won't be dispelled.He's clearly top pup: his three bandmates, heads down and legs splayed, have the submissive postures of the supporting members of a boy band. Between them, they produce a noise more complex than it initially seems. Suffocating Sight, from their breakthrough Ascendancy album, has Heafy and co-guitarist Corey Beaulieu speeding up and down the frets, a free-for-all middle section whose volume sucks the air out of the room, and a soft, harmonic comedown.

The Radio 1 favourite Dying in Your Arms, is similarly entertaining. Heafy scampers up a ramp, onto a podium and back again, never missing a lightning-fast note. There's a melodic undertow that explains its radio appeal, and the audience sing every word back to Heafy. Best of all, though, is the prog-rock drum/guitar duel. It's only old metal, but they like it.