TRIVIUM Wanted To 'Go Silent' During Making Of 'Silence In The Snow'

Jägermeister conducted an interview with guitarist Corey Beaulieu of Florida metallers TRIVIUM at this year's Bloodstock Open Air festival, which was held August 6-9 at at Catton Park, Derbyshire, United Kingdom. You can now watch the chat below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the band's lack of social-media presence during the making of TRIVIUM's new album, "Silence In The Snow":

"Going into it, we pretty much talked about just going silent, not talking about it. Pretty much, over the years, just seeing all these other bands, and just everyone that just has gotten so sucked in to social media and Instagram, and just constantly tweeting every dumb thing on their mind, or every little thing they're doing, and posting pictures of shit, or bands that are just posting pictures, like, 'In the studio working on the best thing we've ever done.' And that's not exciting to me. It just kind of seems like spewing a bunch of bullshit just to get people to pay attention. And it also kind of… When you're constantly just posting little stupid things that really don't matter, it kind of dullens [sic] the effect of when something matters comes out. If you just keep tagging people on, dropping little breadcrumbs to make 'em follow, the end result doesn't seem as exciting to me. So we decided to not say anything, not post anything, not even say we were making a record. We just made the record, and we were, like, 'No one's gonna hear anything about what we're doing until something's coming out.' So that's what we did. And a lot of people didn't know anything. Like, we put the video [for the 'Silence In The Snow' title track] out there, and [people were] absolutely blindsided. And it seems to be work, because the new video we put out just kind of surprised people. It got tons of traffic. It's already over half a million views since it came out just over a week ago. So it was kind of like we went away and we didn't constantly badger people, so when we did come back, people weren't fed up with constantly hearing, 'Ah, I'm making a peanut butter sandwich. I'm gonna write some riffs later.' I have a personal life, and it's, like, I don't need to tell everybody what I'm doing to get people to pat me on the back or talk about me. So I kind of stopped using all that stuff; I only use it, really, to promote something that the band does. I kind of got sucked into it for a little while, where I used it a lot, and then I just kind of got sick of how people were so… It's like talking about what you're doing on Twitter is, like, the most important thing you can do. And it's just, like, no one really gives a shit."

On the musical direction of "Silence In The Snow":

"The inspiration for the record was from our listening to our favorite bands and our heroes and just kind of seeing, like, what made those records so special in the history of music, and how were those records constructed, vibe-wise or song styles… really analyzing why [IRON MAIDEN's] 'The Number Of The Beast' is, like, one of the best records ever, or [DIO's] 'Holy Diver', or RAINBOW. We used that as our inspiration, because we felt like metal bands really don't make records like that anymore, unless you're bands from that era; you just don't have the uniqueness in the sound and the songs. Everyone uses the same fucking drum samples and this or that, and they mix everything the same way; there's no dynamics, 'cause they master it so loud that when you turn it up, it hurts. And we just kind of used it as… What everyone does now for metal, or the way they make metal, it was kind of, like, [let's] not do that — let's do the exact opposite and make a record that breathes and has dynamics and has the variety in songs, from your short, straight-to-the-point song to something that has a little bit more elaboration in it. So it's pretty much, from since we started, all the practice and hours of playing and writing songs. It's kind of, like, ten years of creation and touring and everyting, and developing our skills, has brought us to being able to make this record. This record is something we wouldn't, vocally or musically, have been able to do at any other point in our career, and have been able to… the end result be what it is. So it's kind of a culmination of our career of things we did well, things we tried that maybe didn't do well. It's like the learning process to get to the point. It's got the feel of classic metal, but also it sounds very modern and has… it's very identifiable to who we are. So I think it's definitely… We put out the one song [so far], but it's definitely a record from… The amount of people that we've played it to, it's a record that's kind of like start to finish — every song's needed to create the whole piece, 'cause each song brings its own vibe and character to the overall record… We came up with the whole concept and the whole endgame of what we wanted the record to be, and we didn't waver from that idea and wrote what the record needed. And we had some extra songs, but we were, like, 'Those aren't it,' so we dropped it, 'cause we wanted to have each song represent a different part of the record. And that was also the point of listening to all those other records. Each song has its purpose, and it's not just like filler or this or that. You have the dark, fucked-up-lyric-type song that's just really one way, and then you have another song that's very uplifting and triumphant that's the other direction. And then you have the slower, darker, ballady song. But everything fits together really well; it's the perfect cohesion of music. So we can't wait for it to actually come out, so everyone can hear the full vision of what we were looking to create, not just make ten songs and put it out there. We had a bigger goal in mind with making the record than just… To us, the last record was kind of that; it was just, like, 'just write a bunch of songs we think sound cool and work on that.' And this one had a lot more… There was a lot more planning and vision with what we wanted it to achieve."

On whether he thinks a sonic evolution is important for a band's longevity:

"I think so. If any band evolves or develops their sound, there's always a certain amount of fans that want 'em to sound like 'X' record or what time period. But it's, like, that was ten years ago. I'm not the same person I was ten years ago, I'm not in the same situation I was ten years ago, my musical taste changed, I don't wanna write that kind of music. I love that music that we made, but moving forward, I don't wanna write the same song or try to copy another song, because it's not gonna sound as good as the original version, because that was honest and that's just what came out of us at that moment in time. So try to go back in time and put yourself in the same situation you were to try to write like that, it doesn't happen. And we don't like to write the same stuff twice, because that's not as exciting for us as an artist… When I write music, I write music at my house by myself. I don't have someone over my shoulder [saying], 'Yeah, you should use that.' I go off what lifts me up. When I write a riff, I'm just, like, 'All right. That's what I'm going for. I can work with this and create something out of it.' So we're always pushing forward. We always try new things to try to push the boundaries. And, as I said, some stuff works, some stuff doesn't. But you can't be, I guess, afraid… 'Cause there's lots of examples of bands that never evolved or developed their sound that were popular at one point, that just disappeared and are no longer bands anymore. And I think you have to evolve, 'cause what was popular ten years ago… 'Cause some people were [excited about] 'Ascendancy', and we just had the tenth anniversary, so there was a lot of nostalgia about that record. But that record broke big at that time, 'cause that was a new sound, that was the new thing that really created this new, I guess, step in metal. But if you do that record now, it's like, there's been so many bands that have done that exact same kind of style of screaming and then singing chorus, that way of writing or the blueprint of that style, it's been done so much over [the last] ten years, doing it now, that's not what's cutting edge and moving forward. We always loved our history, but we don't wanna feel like we have to go back and try to copy something. That's why, after 'Ascendancy', we went in a different direction, because, to us, there's no topping that record in that style of metal that we did. To us, that's the perfect record for that kind of sound, so there's no way we're gonna top it. It's like SLAYER doing 'Reign In Blood' [and then going], 'We're not gonna be able to top that, so we'll slow it down and do something different.' So we just went [in a] different direction, and we continue to do that, 'cause, musically, there's a lot of things we like to write — new types of songs — so this record was kind of like the next step of our evolutionary life."

"Silence In The Snow" will be released on October 2 via Roadrunner. The follow-up to 2013's "Vengeance Falls" was produced by Michael "Elvis" Baskette (SLASH, ALTER BRIDGE, THE AMITY AFFLICTION) and was mixed by Josh Wilbur (GOJIRA, LAMB OF GOD). The album is further heralded by its first official music video; the sweeping "Silence In The Snow", which can be seen below.

Long known as one of modern metal's most potent live acts, TRIVIUM will celebrate "Silence In The Snow" with an epic worldwide schedule highlighted by the upcoming 2015 HardDrive Live Tour. The dates — which see TRIVIUM co-headlining alongside TREMONTI — get underway September 9 at Fort Lauderdale, Florida's Culture Room and then continue through mid-October. The band will then head straight to San Bernardino, California for an October 24 main-stage performance at the upcoming Knotfest, headlined and curated by TRIVIUM's labelmates SLIPKNOT.

TRIVIUM in May 2014 parted ways with drummer Nick Augusto due to personal differences. Stepping in for him on TRIVIUM's most recent dates and during the recording sessions for the new album was the band's drum tech, Mat Madiro.