BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's MATT TUCK: 'We Knew We Wanted To Make A Super-Aggressive Record'

In a brand new interview with The Aquarian Weekly, guitarist/vocalist Matt Tuck of Welsh metallers BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE was asked if it was the band's aim to create a darker, more intense record with the upcoming "Venom" or if this was something that just developed on its own. "It was a bit of both, really," he responded. "We knew we wanted to make a super-aggressive record. We thought the time was right to reignite that fire we used to have when we were younger and just take on fans' criticisms on the last record [2013's 'Temper Temper'], really. They just wanted a heavier-sounding band, you know? It's kind of what we used to do, and, for some reason, along the way things just got kind of diluted, for whatever reason. But we just thought the time was right to kind of get that fury and that anger back in our music, and as soon as we started writing songs with that in mind, it was just… all hell broke loose. Obviously, a lot of things got scrapped, a lot of things got rewrote, it took a long time to get where the album is now. But putting more effort in and having to actually think about it for once was actually a really smart move."

Tuck, however, stopped short of calling "Venom" a depature from BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's last couple of efforts. "I don't think it's a different direction," he said. "I just think it's more… I don't know. Just kind of thinking about it, we've always been a metal band, we've always had that influence and we've always had more special influences in our music like with METALLICA and IRON MAIDEN. Ultimately, we've always just done that. We always want to keep our identity but we just thought we wanted to turn things up. We didn't want to make the same album twice ever, and we've kind of done that so far. So this time around, we just wanted to make a heavy record and we knew by doing that, it would really engage the fanbase that we had when we were a lot younger, and it's just more exciting to do something like that. And next album, who knows what that may be, as well, you know? It's just us trying to make things more interesting for us and our fans. Even if this album sells like a billion copies, we would never try to make it again for the sake of that. It was just us doing things because that's what we wanted to do. Just doing it felt good and it felt natural, so we just rolled with it."

Tuck also spoke about BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's split with bassist Jason "Jay" James and addition of Jamie Matthias, Jason's replacement. "Jay never really had a creative influence on anything we ever did, you know what I mean?" Matt said. "He was just in the band, and so we weren't nervous about writing an album without Jay or anything, because like I said, he was never really a creative force in the band. Obviously, trying to replace him while writing and making a record was… not challenging, but it was something you kind of need during the process, you know? But it was just one of those things that had to happen, and me and the boys wrote and recorded the album just the three of us and while we were doing that we were holding auditions and stuff in the studio. Then Jamie's audition tape came in, so we got him up in the studio and we had a couple of live auditions and that was it, really. The job was done! The transition between him and Jay has been pretty seamless. We've done it in a very respectful, very private manner, so there's been no drama. So it wasn't a rough time, but it was a challenging time trying to replace someone that's been in the band since day one. We knew it had to be right, and thankfully Jamie came along, and even because he's Welsh, as well, something we never thought we'd be able to get, but you know, it just worked out perfect. So, it's all good."

Read the entire interview at The Aquarian Weekly.

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's fifth studio album, "Venom", will be released on August 14 via RCA. The CD was produced by Carl Bown and Colin Richardson (SLIPKNOT, MACHINE HEAD, TRIVIUM) at Metropolis Studio in London.