TRIVIUM's MATT HEAFY: Heavy Metal Is 'Alive And Well'

In a brand new interview with the "DOMKcast", TRIVIUM frontman Matt Heafy was asked to weigh in on the current state of the heavy metal scene. He responded: "Metal is alive and well. There's too many records to even list of how many incredible bands there are. There is no shortage of incredible bands making incredible music.

"Anyone saying that metal is not making anything good right now is incorrect; it means they're not looking and they're not listening to the pulse of what's going on," he continued. "There's this record label called Holy Roar Records out of the U.K.; they're releasing countless insane records. This band called CONJURER — it's like post-death metal, kind of sludgy, hardcore tech-death. It's freakin' awesome; I think it's one of the best records of the year. This band called MØL from Denmark — they mix black and shoegaze, weird atmospheric rock. POWER TRIP is definitely a band that deserves so much of the [recognition] they're getting. CODE ORANGE was nominated for a freakin' Grammy.

"There is no shortage of metal, there is no shortage of fantastic records," he added. "And anyone who needs to know what records to listen to, just look at my Spotify. For any guy that's, like, 'There's nothing good going on in heavy music,' go to my Spotify right now and look at the top records of 2018, 2017, 2016, and I will show you otherwise."

Heafy, however, was less enthusiastic about the rock scene as a whole, insisting that originality is sadly lacking with many of the newer bands.

"There still are some really great bands doing great things in rock, but I do feel like there are some bands trying to fit into a specific thing," he said. "They are maybe looking across platforms, they are saying, like, 'Oh, this is doing really well on alt rock [radio stations]', or, 'This is doing really well on indie rock. We should make our rock band sound like these bands who are singing alt rock and indie rock.' And that's where it starts to get scary for rock; that's where it starts to make things kind of go the wrong direction versus trying to break out and be different. Look at a band like AVENGED [SEVENFOLD], look at a band like SLIPKNOT — they totally break the formula. Or even now GHOST — it's so awesome that GHOST is doing well at rock radio, because they're doing something that's so different.

"I feel rock is supposed to be rebelling against the other formats, and it's supposed to be the answer to being away from that stuff," he continued. "And that's why I love metal so much, 'cause metal is even more so the rebellion against everything else. So I would just encourage individualism in bands. And if you wanna be a rock band, make stuff but different. Make songs that you love that [are] gonna connect with people, but don't feel like you have to try to sound like something else that's a success.

"I think the same thing happens in metal and the same thing happens in pop where genres will see something that is a success and go, 'We need to do that,'" he added. "But when you say that, that person is already on the next step… So you'll see things like that where that happens in heavy music, and, obviously, that'll happen in rock as well where people see, like I said, an alt-rock band do really, really well and they're, like, 'We should try to make a song that sounds like that so that we can get those people to come over.' But that's not the answer. The answer is to keep making something that's different than what the other guys are doing. And that's a band like SLIPKNOT, I feel, [has become] a household name — they do something that's so different than everyone else is doing. Or when DISTURBED first came out, it was such a different thing. So there are those bands that are riding that line between being heavy and rock, where they can get [non-metal fans] into it. And I feel like that's where we fit in as well — we're absolutely a metal band first, but we are able to cross over and bring some people to the dark side, show people who like rock, 'Hey, here's metal. Come check this out. And there's a lot more genres within it.' And that's a very good thing."

TRIVIUM will continue its successful "The Sin And The Sentence" world tour with another leg of North American dates this fall. The band will hit the road on a headline run this October. The bill will feature very special guest AVATAR and LIGHT THE TORCH. The 25-date trek kicks off on October 3 in Tampa, Florida and runs through November 3 in Berkeley, California, with several stops in Canada.

TRIVIUM's latest album, "The Sin And The Sentence", was released last October via Roadrunner. The disc was recorded with producer Josh Wilbur (LAMB OF GOD, GOJIRA) at Santa Ana, California's Hybrid Studios. The LP features the band's first recordings with new drummer Alex Bent, who joined the band in 2016.