TRIVIUM's Advice To METALLICA: Get COLIN RICHARDSON To Produce And Mix Your Next Album

Riccardo of Juice TV's "The Metal Bar" conducted an interview with Corey Beaulieu and Matt Heafy of Florida metallers TRIVIUM before the band's May 2, 2011 concert in Auckland, New Zealand as part of the Australian/New Zealand leg of the "Music As A Weapon" tour with DISTURBED, AS I LAY DYING and FORGIVEN RIVAL. You can now watch the chat below.

TRIVIUM recently finished recording its 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, along with engineer Carl Bown. The follow-up to 2008's "Shogun" is currently being mixed in England for a tentative August 9 release via Roadrunner Records.

On working with Colin Richardson on the new album

Matt: "In our minds, we always felt like the two best producers in the world are Colin Richardson and Andy Sneap. We've never had either of them producer a record before; we've had both of them mix records of ours before. I think it was just through being such fans of Colin that we wanted to see what he could do We knew he was a killer producer, and I guess there was a three-year lull when people only hired him to mix, where he is actually a badass producer as well. So we wanted to see what he could do with us. One of his main things was that he was so meticulous with tone and with setting things up; we've never seen anything like that. We came into it where metal started getting into the new school of way of recording with metal, and the way you do that is you plug into a shitty amp, [fix] the guitar tone on Pro Tools, send it and hopefully when it gets mixed and mastered, the guy makes it sound better. But Colin doesn't even like start recording a note until you have the guitar of the album. So drum tones [it] took four and a half days just to get a good drum tone, guitar tones including technical difficulties, having to fire a studio and relocate took about four or five days, just to get a guitar tone. We tried, I think, 20 heads and 10 cabs and 20 guitars and all this stuff. And it was really great to see how much effort he puts in everything before we even start. And he doesn't ever lose his patience. I told him that I admire his patience a lot. I'm not that kind of a patient guy I'm not as patient as he is and it's amazing how much detail they all put into it . . . And if they'd be up for it, I'd love to have them again for another record."

Corey: "[Colin] obviously mixed the last couple of [TRIVIUM] records and we actually talked to him about [producing] 'Shogun'. But I think now was kind of like the perfect storm. Because the way we are now as a band, maybe the way Colin works, if we did any other record with him, it might not have really turned out that good. He doesn't go in there and take a shitty band and make you amazing; you have to be on your shit, you have to be able to play your stuff, 'cause he take your ability as a band and what your sound is and capture it the best you can possibly sound. He makes your playing come across a certain way and he can really capture your band. And I feel like now that we're stronger than we've ever been, and we've been playing our asses off the last year, we went in there and everyone was just on fire as far as playing is concerned. So he was able to just get the possible sound out of everybody. When we were hearing back just the raw tracks, I think even he was surprised at how just good everything sonically sounded on just the very lowest like, nothing done to it just the raw sounds. We're really excited. We're just like chomping at the bit, 'cause they've been working on the mixing. I know what they're capable of doing and we can't wait to hear what they do to the final outcome of the songs. Even before it's mixed, it's the best-sounding album we've done."

On METALLICA's "Death Magnetic":

Corey: "I checked it out. It was better than 'St. Anger'. I think they did a really good job of getting back to what made them METALLICA in the first place, and I just wish they would get someone like Colin [Richardson] or Andy Sneap to mix the shit out of those records. 'Cause ['Death Magnetic'] and the new SLAYER album ['World Painted Blood'], if they had the production quality of, say, the new MEGADETH and EXODUS albums, they'd be brutal as shit. I think there's good songwriting, but if you [combine] cool songs with killer, modern production, it really adds to the listening experience. . . You can make a really killer-sounding record in your bedroom on your laptop with Pro Tools and all the technology you have nowadays. So hopefully the production quality on the next [METALLICA album] and they just deliver something that is sonically crushing like the 'black' album was; [that record] was ahead of its time as far as album production for a metal CD. So hopefully they do that."

Matt: "If they did their next record with Colin Richardson, it wound sound better than the 'black' album. So hopefully they'll hear that and do that. They should definitely, definitely record with Colin. Theyve gotta do it. Let Colin Richardson produce and mix [the next record] and it will crush the 'black' album, and the 'black' album is the best-sounding metal record there is, so it would be nice if they topped it."

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.