BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE Guitarist Was 'Pissed Off' About Being Excluded From 'Temper Temper' Recording Sessions

Guitarist Michael "Padge" Paget of Welsh metallers BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE has revealed to U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine that he was left out of the recording sessions for the band's 2013 album "Temper Temper".

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE frontman Matt Tuck and drummer Michael "Moose" Thomas flew to Thailand to create the CD, leaving Padge and then-bassist Jason "Jay" James behind.

Padge told Metal Hammer: "It really pissed me off, to be honest. Being told over e-mail that you're not going to record an album with your band. I'm sure it would piss anyone off. I was fucking confused, hurt — and I just didn't understand it."

"Temper Temper" fell some way short of the quality many were anticipating from the band following the surprise breakthrough success of "The Poison" in 2006 and "Scream Aim Fire" in 2008. Padge told the magazine: "Do I think it was for the best in the long run? No, I don't, because our momentum kind of levelled off."

Moose had his own doubts about "Temper Temper". He said: "I wasn't in the right frame of mind to be writing and recording an album. Me and Matt were getting on, but I felt bad for Padge and Jay."

Although Tuck did not reveal the exact reason for the tension within the band, he told Metal Hammer: "When things need to be done, I'm not afraid of decisions that aren't going to be popular. There were certain things going on that people needed to sort out. At the same time, we needed to get work done." Looking back on the "Temper Temper" period, however, Tuck admitted: "Everyone, me included, lost perspective on what's important. In a way it was tainted before it had even begun."

Tuck told EMP Rock Invasion that he had no regrets about how the "Temper Temper" album turned out. "I wouldn't change that record for anything, really," he said. "That's the record we wanted to make, and that's what we should be doing; we should be doing what we want, and we shouldn't be trying to please anyone else. I think a rule that we've always stuck by since Day One was we do it our way and we do it what we wanna do or we don't do it at all. I think someone else fucking up your career is not acceptable. So if we fuck it up, at least you can sleep at night, you know what I mean? So we're extremely happy with it, and here we are today still rocking big venues around the world. So we [must be doing] something right, you know?!"

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's fifth studio album, "Venom", will be released on August 14 via RCA. The CD marks the band's first release since the departure of longtime bassist Jason James and addition of Jamie Mathias. Jamie, who has been playing and touring in bands for the last ten years, fronted the band REVOKER, which released an album, "Revenge For The Ruthless", in 2011 on the Roadrunner label.

Produced by Carl Bown and Colin Richardson (SLIPKNOT, MACHINE HEAD, TRIVIUM) at Metropolis Studio in London, "Venom" is described in a press release as "an unrelenting, fierce step forward for BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE" and the band's "heaviest record to date."