TRIVIUM Frontman: 'We're Recreating Everything With This New Record'

Florida metallers TRIVIUM recently finished recording their new album at Audiohammer Studios in Sanford, Florida with the production/mixing team of Colin Richardson (MACHINE HEAD, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, SLIPKNOT, FEAR FACTORY) and Martin "Ginge" Ford. The follow-up to 2008's "Shogun" is currently being mixed in England for a tentative August 9 release via Roadrunner Records.

During an appearance on this week's edition of the Metal Injection Livecast, TRIVIUM guitarist/vocalist Matt Heafy stated about the forthcoming CD, "We've been writing this same record for a year and a half. We demoed it for eight months. . . [but] when we actually started the record, it took us about three months or so of tracking and it's gonna take maybe two months to mix, and Colin and the team are working on that right now."

On the new album title and artwork:

"We've been working on the album's art almost for about a year now with There's a bunch of different people involved with all the different stages of the art. But we're not releasing yet. We have everything, yes, but we can't give any of it out."

On which previous TRIVIUM album the new CD sounds most like:

"It's hard to say which one it sounds most like, but I can say, to date, my favorite one that we have ever done is 'Ascendancy' [2005] that's been my favorite. There was a lot of experimentation on 'The Crusade' [2006] and 'Shogun' [2008]. 'The Crusade' was the opposite of everything 'Ascendancy' was and 'Shogun' was kind of pulling elements from every single record. Whereas this one, nothing sounds like any of the other ones at all, but with this record it sounds more like us than ever. 'Cause with the other records, you could go, 'OK, maybe this sounds like this kind of music' or 'This sounds like this kind of band,' or maybe 'It pulls from here or there,' whereas this is just definitive 'our' sound; there is nothing that really deviates from the past; it's all in the realm of itself. I know that's really broad and it doesn't really answer too much of it. It's a whole new thing. It's not like anything we've done before again."

On the lyrical themes covered on the new TRIVIUM album:

"With 'From Ember To Inferno' [2003] and 'Ascendancy', they're both kind of in the same realm; they're both a lot of personal stuff, a little bit of social things, things that I saw around me. With 'Crusade', it was a lot of sociopolitical [commentary], maybe drawing more from specific current events and a couple of other bits here and there; there are obviously some things that are personal. With 'Shogun', there was a lot of mythology influence, there was a lot of Japanese history influence. With this new record, the long answer, or the short answer, is basically is that there is no right or wrong answer on what anyone's gonna perceive of what the lyrics mean to them, but I will not be saying what they mean to me at all. Because I really want people to come up with everything Everything down to the music to the visuals to the art because we're recreating everything with this new record. There's a new TRIVIUM logo, there's a new style of art, there's a new look, there's a new feel, there's new kinds of videos and everything going on. And I really want it to be up to the ear and the eye of the beholder of what they feel it means to them. So whatever it means to you is gonna be right. I don't want people to go into it with a preconceived notion of what I feel like it should mean where it could mean something else to that person and to that listener."

TRIVIUM guitarist/vocalist Matt Heafy on Metal Injection Livecast (interview begins around the 48-minute mark):

In an interview with U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine, Heafy stated about the songwriting process for TRIVIUM's new CD, "When we did [2006's] 'The Crusade', we were in a very weird time as a band; we weren't talking very much, it was very tense. I used to hate going to band practice and used to hate touring because it was always such a weird environment so tense. Now everything is just fun. There are no limits to creativity now.

"[Bassist] Paolo [Gregoletto] has really stepped up as an integral songwriter on this record. Most of the music we started with on this record was brought to us by Paolo. He has really created this new soundscape for this band that's kind of mindblowing.

"The last record was our 'super-long-song' record. This one doesn't have as many long songs as [2008's] 'Shogun', but they are there when it's appropriate to do so. Some of the songs are the most to-to-point and best songs we've ever done that's not about technicality."

"Having our four brains and all our ears together for eight months, we have learned what each person is supposed to do in the band, like what we each bring to the table, what each person can offer a song. I truly believe it sounds more like us than ever.

"Some of the songs are the most intense technically and maybe melodically. It's such a broad spectrum [of sounds], but it really feels like it all fits. There are things on here we've never done before."

"The whole concept of this album has been thought out for a year, so it's not just music, it's a whole package, enhanced and realized. We've had the album art done for awhile now and there are days when I just sit and stare at it and listen to the music we have and write lyrics. Even now I don't know what the picture of of, though. When I ask [the artist[ what it is, he just smiles and says, 'It is what it is.'"

Regarding what TRIVIUM's latest addition, drummer Nick Augusto, has added to the band's sound, Heafy said, "This is the first time Nick has ever been in a proper studio. He's a sick drummer; he can play technical death metal, extreme death, he can play blast beats at a million miles a minute, double-kick faster than kids who need triggers. But he's also learned to rein it in as well so we can bring in extra dimensions. People questioned whether he could play groove drums or simple rock things. He really can and it's incredible."

TRIVIUM's last album, "Shogun", sold just under 24,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 23 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD followed up "The Crusade", which opened with 31,000 copies in October 2006 to land at No. 25.

"Shogun" was released in North America on September 30, 2008 via Roadrunner Records. The CD was mixed in London by Colin Richardson, with Jeff Rose and Martin "Ginge" Ford assisting on engineering duties.