MATT HEAFY On TRIVIUM's Musical Evolution: 'The First Seven Records Are All Very Different From Each Other'

In a new interview with Baby Huey of the San Francisco radio station 107.7 The Bone, TRIVIUM guitarist/vocalist Matt Heafy spoke about the band's musical evolution since the Florida-based act's formation more than 25 years ago. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We've learned a lot 'cause we're very analytical — just as I am with myself, we are with our music. What's cool with our band is the first seven records are all very different from each other. [2003's] 'Ember To Inferno' to [2015's] 'Silence In The Snow' almost doesn't sound like the same band, [2006's] 'The Crusade' to [2005's] 'Ascendancy'. So sometimes it was conscious. 'Ascendancy' did really, really well in the U.K. and me being 18, 19, still there were people saying, like, 'You guys aren't metal.' And all that boiled down to was the visuals — that's purely it — because I had super-long hair, then I cut it to the 2000s emo fringe just 'cause that's what I wanted at the time. But we were still very much so playing some serious technical death metal thrashy riffs. But I said, 'Hey, let's do a record that's the exact opposite of what we just did. No breakdowns, no screaming, no double bass. Let's make a classic thrash record.' And that's what 'The Crusade' was. When it came time for the next one, [2008's] 'Shogun', we just wanted to make something technical."

He continued: "I will say that when we make stuff — when we made 'Ascendancy'… Let's start with like the classic three that everyone always talks about: 'Ascendancy', 'Shogun' and [2011's] 'In Waves'. We made whatever we wanted to make. There were no confinements, no rules. We didn't say, 'Hey, let's not go here. Let's not go here. Let's get super proggy, let's get super techy.' It was none of that. We just started making the music that we wanted to hear, the four of us in a room jamming together. And the end result is what you're hearing. Same thing with the latter three: [2017's] '[The] Sin [And The Sentence]', [2020's] '[What The] Dead Men [Say]' and [2021's] '[In The Court Of The] Dragon'. Those three, we did not say, 'Hey, let's make this or this or this.' We just got in a room together and started playing. We didn't set a writing time. We didn't set, like, 'Hey, let's make a record now.' It was us in the room making the music together. Now, there are a couple records that I still love, but we did set limitations on ourselves. 'The Crusade', obviously. I said, like, 'Hey, let's not do what we did on 'Ascendancy'.' [2013's] 'Vengeance Falls', the plan was to kind of stay in this one specific sonic region, the vibe that you hear. 'Silence In The Snow' was another one as well where I didn't know if I could scream anymore. So, like, 'Hey, let's make something that's classic even to 'The Crusade'.' But those three records, while I love them, those are three records we didn't do as extensive the four of us in a room together making the music, me singing everything in every process — vocal pre-production is what I call it, where you're actually making sure you can sing and play everything you're doing. I know that's a big thing. Every time I see [footage of] METALLICA writing, [James] Hetfield's always doing that. All the other ones, we did that. So, I love those three records, but there are parts of it where I feel, like, 'Hey, maybe we could have went over here or here,' whereas the classic three greats and the new three greats, they're flawless because we made them as a band in a room together. And anything we make going forward, now we have a state-of-the-art studio in our airplane hangar. We're just gonna write while we're together. There's no MIDI demos sent to each other, no laptop demos, no me recording something and sending it to the guys. We're never gonna do that again, 'cause that's not who we are. And our best records, those six records — and 'Ember' — were made with no demos being sent to each other. There was none of that. I know a lot of bands have to do that just as a function of maybe they live in different places, but that's why we said we need to live within 10 minutes of each other. We need a headquarters. We need to make only music together while we're together. And I think that's why the stuff is the way it is."

Heafy also talked about the addition of TRIVIUM drummer Alex Bent, who joined the band in December 2016 as the replacement for Paul Wandtke. Bent, a former member of BATTLECROSS and DECREPIT BIRTH, had previously played with TESTAMENT as a fill-in for that band's longtime drummer Gene Hoglan. Asked if Alex had "brought a whole new life" to TRIVIUM, Matt said: "Oh, one hundred percent. And what's great is — historically, everyone was always, like, 'Oh, TRIVIUM just switched their drummer again.' It kind of became a joke, whereas we haven't had as many drummer changes as some other bands out there, but for some reason they poked at us. But once we had Alex, no one said, 'Why did you switch?' They're all, like, 'Oh, that's what they were looking for.'

"We were looking for someone else who can do what we do, and that's a little bit of everything, a little bit of everything that TRIVIUM needs to do," Heafy explained. "We've had drummers that can do our simple stuff well but not the tech stuff, guys who do the tech stuff but not the simple stuff, but Alex could do everything. And to have a fourth equal where we can just be in the room together and we don't even have to overly communicate — we do, but we don't have to overly communicate of what we're looking for. Each one of us can read each other's minds of what we're looking for from the other one. And I think that's gonna really show through with whatever happens next, whatever we end up doing next."

TRIVIUM and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE recently launched "The Poisoned Ascendancy" tour during which the two bands are celebrating the 20th anniversary of "Ascendancy" and "The Poison" albums, respectively, by playing them in full.

Produced by Live Nation, the North American leg of "The Poisoned Ascendancy" kicked off on March 30 at PNE Forum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, making stops across North America in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and more before wrapping up in Raleigh, North Carolina at Red Hat Amphitheater on May 18.

Released in March of 2005, TRIVIUM crafted a classic in the form of "Ascendancy". It concluded 2005 as Kerrang!'s "Album Of The Year," went gold in the U.K., and has since surpassed global sales of 500,000 copies. Opening the main stage of Download festival that year, the Floridian four piece — barely out of their teens — delivered a set that left all who witnessed it in no doubt that they were looking at future legends, with Kerrang! readers later voting it as the tenth best gig of all time.

TRIVIUM's latest album, "In The Court Of The Dragon", came out in October 2021 via TRIVIUM's longtime label Roadrunner Records. The record was produced and mixed by Josh Wilbur and recorded in the fall of 2020 at Full Sail University in Orlando. The album cover is an original oil painting by French artist Mathieu Nozieres.