TRIVIUM Guitarist Talks About Songwriting Process For 'Shogun'

Simon Milburn of Australia's The Metal Forge recently conducted an interview with guitarist Corey Beaulieu of the Florida-based metal band TRIVIUM. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the songwriting process for TRIVIUM's new album, "Shogun":

"The previous record, we had so much touring stuff going on, we had a certain amount of time to get it done before we would go back out on tour. So the last record there was a little bit more of a time restraint, I guess. This one, we wanted to take a breather from touring because we were getting pretty burnt out by the end of it. We just really wanted to be able to just stay at home for a bit and just kinda unwind and just really focus on the record. When we were touring and kind of like hearing just guitar riffs or song ideas that — we were kind of making little guitar demos and listening to each other and we could tell that the new material that we were coming up with was gonna be a lot more work 'cos it was a lot more technical and more in-depth with lots of parts and stuff. It just wasn't something we could just fly through. There was a lot of detail in the songs. We just had to focus on the songs because some songs we'd work on for a couple of months before we got it to where we really were totally happy with it. We were very nit-picky and just very adamant about not rushing it and making sure everything was exactly the way we wanted it when we go into record it. We felt very excited when we actually went into the studio to record it because we were very pleased with how the songs were and how they came out in pre-production and stuff, and actually hearing in the studio with good tones and stuff, it was really exciting for us."

On how "Shogun" compares to previous TRIVIUM albums:

"It's really interesting. Everyone's been really stoked that has heard it. I think it's got a lot of familiarity in it — it's got a lot of elements from all our past records kind of all blended into one. There's also some other stuff like ideas and just different things we've added to it to give it the next step in the evolution of the band and our song writing and stuff. So there's a lot of stuff where there's all the albums before it all meshed into one sound with some new stuff sprinkled on top. Even people that just like 'The Crusade' record, they loved it and people who were more fans of the 'Ascendancy'-type stuff were really into it. So it's got a little bit of everything for everybody in it. It's just really cool. It's a very intense record — no ballads or anything like that. It's just full on powerful, epic metal — lots of really heavy, brutal stuff and some really catchy melodic hooks and stuff. So it's really kind of something that we felt was pretty special and we're really happy with how it came out because it's kind of exactly what we've been striving for."

On the difference in the band's approach between "The Crusade" and "Ascendancy":

"Well, it's definitely easy to see why because those records are kind of the opposites of each other. So, some people who are used to our earlier stuff are kind of thrown off because it doesn't sound really close to those and there are fans who might have been more into that style of stuff. So I think this new record kind of bridges the gap where it's got kind of the people who were into the 'Ember To Inferno' and 'Ascendancy' stuff they like the intensity of the screaming stuff and 'The Crusade' was pretty much just all singing and the new record has a good balance. There's screaming in it but it's not like the way we did it on 'Ascendancy' where 'Ascendancy' was like… I hadn't heard that record in a while and I popped it on and I was like, 'Wow! There's a fuckload of screaming on this album!' It's just really in your face, and I think on this record it's just a really good balance of the really heavy, aggressive singing style that Matt [Heafy] was doing on the previous album and also the screaming that we used where we felt it was needed because some of the stuff is really heavy and we couldn't really get that intensity and aggression with singing over it — it just didn't really fit. So we tried the screaming and it sounded good so we just kind of used it where we thought it added to the song and not overdo it with just a shitload of screaming throughout the song. I think we found a really good balance that incorporates both sorts of vocal stylings to make it sound really cool and work the dynamics of the two going back and forth and stuff. So it makes it a lot more interesting to listen to 'cos it's not just one thing or the other the whole time. It flips back and forth. Some songs have a lot more screaming that others and some don't have a whole lot — it just depends on the song. The track that we put up online, people are really excited with it. It's got more of 'Ascendancy' in the music — it's really aggressive, just full-on, in-your-face kinda style to it. It'll be really cool once people can here the whole record 'cos all the songs kinda got their own thing going on. So it's pretty cool."

Read the entire interview from The Metal Forge.