TRIVIUM Bassist On 'The Sin And The Sentence': 'We Wanted It To Be As Energetic And Intense As Some Of The Early Stuff'

Dann of "The Mike James Rock Show" conducted an interview with bassist Paolo Gregoletto of Floridian metallers TRIVIUM prior to the band's April 16 concert at the O2 Academy Bristol in Bristol, England. You can watch the entire chat below. A few excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On whether TRIVIUM's diverse back catalog helps them draw a wide array of fans:

Paolo: "I think the key is that when it comes to touring, obviously in the U.K. and Europe, we headline a lot, but it's playing festivals, having a bill with new bands, keeping the focus on always trying to win new people over and not just getting set in our ways, has really helped us to do that. We've noticed that in Europe, we've noticed that in the States, all over the world. We still keep bringing in new fans, but we're retaining a lot of the fans that had been with us since the beginning. We met a couple of guys and girls in the meet-and-greet today, people we've been seeing since '05, '06, that's a really awesome thing. It's cool to meet someone who has just discovered our band on this record and going backwards from there with the back catalog. That's what we want. Part of it, is the way we tour and also trying to make music that's relevant, feels fresh, feels new and exciting. I feel like with this record, we sort of nailed it."

On the writing process for the band's latest studio album, "The Sin And The Sentence":

Paolo: "We kind of talked about what we wanted to do for a year, year-and-a-half before we actually did the record. So, it was sort of like talking and psyching ourselves up for what we wanted to achieve with it, but there was a lot of things that came into play like [new drummer] Alex [Bent] being in the band, just actually getting in the room and writing and seeing how the riffs and everything felt. We had like a certain level that we wanted to achieve with the record and we were, like, 'We're not going to do it until it's exactly how we want it to be.' I think being that focused with the vision and idea, made it better and of course, Josh Wilbur, amazing producer, amazing mixer, it was the perfect storm. Going forward from here, we have a real good, a bar being set for us again. Whereas an album like 'Ascendency' was a bar, maybe 'In Waves' or 'Shogun', this is another bar for us. It's, like, 'Okay, the next record, we're going to have to do something beyond this and how do we do that?' A lot of it's just really planning ahead and knowing what you want to do."

On whether TRIVIUM looks back at their previous albums for inspiration while writing:

Paolo: "I think with this record it was, like, 'Lets see what kind of riffs we have. Let's see what songs people have a blueprint for.' All of those records, we wrote them, so it's subconscious there, with those riffs, the different riffs. Whether we're playing on the six strings or the seven strings, you go toward different riffs depending on which guitar or bass you're on. I don't know, with this record, we didn't want it to feel like a nostalgia record, we wanted it to be maybe as energetic and intense as some of the early stuff, but something new and fresh and exciting. I think the songwriting and the hooks and the melodies were something we felt we were really able to push to another level. Even the heaviest songs have really big hooks and that's something I've always thought like, 'That's such a cool thing to have.' To be able to have fast double-bass, blast beats, all of that cool stuff, but, still a great song underneath. If you strip it back and just played the chords on acoustic guitar and sang the melody, you'd say 'Oh, that's a cool song.' To be able to do that and amp it up to 11 and go crazy, that's fun."

On whether having a drummer like Bent changes the writing process:

Paolo: "Yeah, you have different abilities and skills, every person is different. You got different personalities and different experience in the studio. So, it changes everything. This record could have been very different without Alex. We had an idea of what we wanted to do, but he brought in so much we thought we were going to have that it added to it. It added to the excitement of making the record. We did, I think it was last year, we did the tour over here and we had been writing, we already had half the record written with him, then we were going to do the next half and start the record, so having Alex on the tour, that was his first tour with us, there was this real buzz for us internally, like 'This is going to be awesome. We're excited to do this record.' It could have been different. It's just like anything. If you change one ingredient, it really can affect the whole."

Recorded with Wilbur (LAMB OF GOD, GOJIRA) at Santa Ana, California's Hybrid Studios, "The Sin And The Sentence" finds TRIVIUM — Matt Heafy (vocals, guitar),Corey Beaulieu (guitar),Gregoletto and Bent — returning with its first new music since its celebrated 2015 LP "Silence In The Snow". The new LP also features the band's first recordings with Bent, who joined the band in 2016.