TRIVIUM's MATT HEAFY On Coronavirus Pandemic: 'We Are A Band That Can Survive This'

TRIVIUM frontman Matt Heafy recently spoke to Ireland's Overdrive about how he is dealing with the coronavirus crisis and what the touring circuit might look like post-pandemic.

He said: "Well, firstly I don't think it's the end of the world, but there is no question that there will be a profound side effect from all of this. I've been preaching to my Twitch followers and on my other socials, basically saying, 'Let's do this right. Let's physically distance ourselves from people. Let's do this correctly.'

"I don't know what is going to happen with the future of the entertainment/live music side of things when we come out the other side of this pandemic, but I know that from our perspective, we [TRIVIUM] are a band that can survive this," he continued. "We are not a globally huge band — I don't live in a mansion and have fancy cars or anything like that. Bands below our size, I worry for those bands as they can't play live, they can't promote their albums and connect with the numbers they normally would. Bands of our size and upwards, I think, will be relatively fine. I think it's gonna be a case of adapting to the aftermath of this whole situation.

"All of the studies that I've read, it looks like the effects of COVID-19 are going to linger on a little more than most people think, and it might change some things, and if that happens, there is no other way but to just adapt to the changes," he added. "That is something that TRIVIUM has always done and we're ready to do it again, if needed.

"We have seen that across the board, music streaming is down, podcasts are down in numbers. However, things with visuals is up. We've noticed that our videos are reaching a lot more people in half the amount of time than our previous online releases.

"It's a strange time, and, to be honest, it's very hard to quantify as things are changing on a weekly basis."

TRIVIUM's ninth full-length album, "What The Dead Men Say", was released on April 24 through Roadrunner Records. The LP, which was produced by TRIVIUM and Josh Wilbur, is the follow-up to 2017's "The Sin And The Sentence". That effort marked the band's first release with drummer Alex Bent, who joined TRIVIUM in 2016.

TRIVIUM is scheduled to support MEGADETH and LAMB OF GOD on a 55-date North American tour this summer and fall.