TRIVIUM Bassist On 'Lulu': 'If Anyone Thinks They Understand It, They're On Drugs'

Niclas Mller-Hansen of Sweden's Metalshrine conducted an interview with bassist Paolo Gregoletto of Florida metallers TRIVIUM when the band played in Stockholm on November 18, 2011 with IN FLAMES. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

Metalshrine: Have you listened to [the METALLICA and Lou Reed collaboration] "Lulu"?

Paolo Gregoletto: Oh yeah! (laughs)

Metalshrine: What do you think of it?

Paolo Gregoletto: Eehhh, it's really weird.

Metalshrine: Do you understand it?

Paolo Gregoletto: If anyone thinks they understand it, they're on drugs. It's a weird album, man! We listened to it When the hell did we listen to it? Oh, on the last tour. We did a show in Tampa and a couple of us drove back to Orlando for the night because we were playing there the next day and we listened to most of it. We were just like, "What the fuck is this?" It's so weird. I saw some videos of it live and I don't know, man. If those dudes are happy doing that, then more power to them, because they're still my favorite band, but it's really weird and I think everyone thinks that, too.

Metalshrine: Probably. It's pretty funny that METALLICA fans in general, hate it, but magazines like Mojo and Uncut are giving it rave reviews, like 4 out of 5 and so on.

Paolo Gregoletto: I feel that that's why they were making this album, whether they say it is or not, but I feel it's kind of to make those kind of magazines I guess, what's the right word? Like metal's kind of the outcast and everyone looks at us like a second-class genre and it's like trying to make those people respect you more. I couldn't give a shit if those magazines would review our albums ever! I would never do an album like that to make them like us. It's so weird.

Metalshrine: I can understand why they're doing it. They've got millions of dollars and they can do whatever they want and they need something to get them out of bed.

Paolo Gregoletto: I've got a good thing to counter that. So does IRON MAIDEN. They've got millions of dollars and when they get out of bed, they play metal and they still pack arenas and they seem like they're having a good time. (laughs) I can understand that they do that and as an artist myself, I definitely don't wanna be constrained to one thing, but I also don't wanna make a non-metal record with TRIVIUM. We've established that we're a metal band and our fans love us for that But METALLICA even said that "a lot of people aren't gonna get it, but we wanna do it." and you gotta respect that they do what they wanna do. And hey, they're playing the "black album" this summer! Every time they do [something questionable], they do something cool. They made "St. Anger" and then they did "Death Magnetic" and it was like, "Alright, they've still got it." They do some interesting things sometimes. They're one of the best live bands by far.

Read the entire interview from Metalshrine.