TRIVIUM Drummer: I've Always Considered Us To Be A Melodic Thrash Metal Band

Blasting-Zone.com recently conducted an in-depth interview with TRIVIUM drummer Travis Smith. Several excerpts follow:

Blasting-Zone.com: What can you tell us about the new record?

Travis Smith: "Well, it's a lot different than 'Ascendancy' as far as that goes. The music is better just from us being on the road touring and playing so much, us getting to know each other better and us learning our instruments. It's better in that aspect. We've also changed up the way the vocals sound. It's something that we've always wanted to do and we got the opportunity to do it. Matt's [Heafy] vocals have come a long way from two or three years ago. We ended up creating this new thing with him practicing his vocals all the time and we wanted to put it to use and try something different. We were getting sick of the same sound, ya know? There are so many bands out there right now that sound almost exactly alike. It's getting really old, so we wanted to come out of the chute with a new album and say 'We're not anything like that…' We're gonna do what we wanna do, play the music that we wanna play regardless of what the outside opinion thinks. We're just gonna do what we wanna do."

Blasting-Zone.com: So touring extensively is a lot like being able to rehearse every day?

Travis: "Yeah… you get to practice in a way. Even though tour after tour you're playing the same song, you can try and put a different spin on 'em. I don't mean playing the songs differently, I mean playing the same thing differently. Trying to get the same effect from a part by playing it a different way. You just practice and practice it and you just get better by playing together as four musicians. In a way it's like practicing, but in way it's also not like it because you're just playing the same damn thing all the time. We warm up for like an hour before we go on and that's when we get our real practice in with different warm up techniques that we do, rudiments. It's not like we're writing any new material or anything."

Blasting-Zone.com: Did you find the songwriting process for "The Crusade" to be easier because of the success of "Ascendancy" or more difficult because you wanted it to be that much better?

Travis: "Well, it was little different than the last album because we had to write this one on the road and we'd never done that before in our career. With us touring so much, we didn't have any time where we could just say, 'Okay, let's take a month and write a new record…' But that's not who we like to work anyway. We're always on the go working and working. We wrote it on the road and it actually worked out really great for all of us. We got to stay out and play and we got to write our new record, so it was like the best of both worlds. 'The Crusade' came out of it and we're really, really proud of it."

Blasting-Zone.com: Do you think "The Crusade" is capable of going gold?

Travis: "We always hope because it good for us. But you never know. You just gotta take it one day at a time and see what happens. We've got a really good feeling about this album. We're really proud of it and we're really stoked about the songs. There's not one song on there that we're not happy with. We can hope that it will do very well because obviously we want it to do well. The reaction that we've gotten from people….has been very positive, so we're gonna be very positive and think positive about it."

Blasting-Zone.com: Do you consider the music TRIVIUM creates thrash metal? Does it drive you crazy when people insist on referring to your music as emo or mallcore?

Travis: "Yes, we do. I've always considered this band, from day one, a melodic thrash metal band. We're totally thrash metal guys. That's what we grew up listening to. It's what we listen to… it's our influence. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, that's great, but it doesn't mean we have to sit there and react to it or give it any of our attention. We know we're not and a lot of our fans know it as well. You just gotta kinda go with it and not spend too much time worrying about it or dreading it because everyone's gonna put labels on everything. You just gotta let it roll off your back."

Read the entire interview at Blasting-Zone.com.