TRIVIUM's MATT HEAFY On Premature End Of 'The Poisoned Ascendancy' Tour: 'We Wanted To Play Shows And Someone Else Didn't'

TRIVIUM and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE were on the road together earlier this year to celebrate the joint 20th anniversaries of their respective albums "Ascendancy" and "The Poison". In May, TRIVIUM revealed that plans were scrapped to have the two bands hit other territories around the world as part of "The Poisoned Ascendancy" tour. Details surrounding the cancelations were unclear, although TRIVIUM bassist Paolo Gregoletto said in a livestream that BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE frontman Matt Tuck had pulled out of the tour early as he "didn't wanna do it." Gregoletto also claimed that Tuck made the move because he is "the sole decision maker of [BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE] and he has no respect for us or our crew."

The members of BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE later shared a statement on social media saying that they were "grateful" to the fans who wanted to see them live but explained that they had decided to focus their efforts on making a new album instead.

"We're incredibly grateful to have been given the chance to look back at a pair of life-changing albums for us & TRIVIUM, who we have nothing but respect and admiration for," they said. "With that being said, the four of us collectively feel that the time is right for us to divert our full attention towards the next chapter of BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE."

They added: "We can't wait to get back in the studio later this summer and finish what we promise you is our best album to date. To go along with this, we are already starting to make plans for the 2026 & 2027 touring cycles, hitting every corner. We are super excited to drop new music for you all. We value our fans above all else and are forever grateful for your support. We'll be back with all of you very soon."

In a new interview with Fox40, TRIVIUM frontman Matt Heafy elaborated on the premature end of "The Poisoned Ascendancy" tour and TRIVIUM's decision to embark on the "Ascend Above The Ashes" trek this fall, with support from JINJER and HERIOT. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "Everyone is kind of wondering, 'Hey, this ['The Poisoned Ascendancy'] was supposed to be a world tour. You and that other band [BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE] said this is gonna be a world tour from January through December.' Well, we did — we flew over to the U.K. to do a press conference [with BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE], promising a world tour from January through December. And you know the old saying 'it takes two to tango' — well, our dance partner dropped off after three months of touring, and we're, like, 'We wanna keep playing.' We've had people say, 'Hey, what was the drama with this story?' It's just we wanted to play shows and someone else didn't. So we're gonna keep playing shows. That's why you're gonna see us at [the] Aftershock [festival in early October in Sacramento, California]. That's why we've got this TRIVIUM, JINJER, HERIOT tour. We've got an EP ['Struck Dead'] coming out [in October]. We're already writing record eleven at the same time. So there's no stopping us, man. It's incredible. So this new tour is a pivot. It's not the 'Ascendancy' tour; it's the 'Struck Dead' tour. So we're playing greatest hits of everything we've ever done, plus the new EP."

TRIVIUM performed "Bury Me With My Screams", the lead single from "Struck Dead", live for the first time at Bloodstock Open Air on August 8 after the song was officially released earlier that day.

During "The Poisoned Ascendancy" tour, TRIVIUM and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE celebrated the 20th anniversary of "Ascendancy" and "The Poison" albums, respectively, by playing them in full.

Produced by Live Nation, the North American leg of "The Poisoned Ascendancy" kicked off on March 30 at PNE Forum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, making stops across North America in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and more before wrapping up in Raleigh, North Carolina at Red Hat Amphitheater on May 18.

Released in March of 2005, TRIVIUM crafted a classic in the form of "Ascendancy". It concluded 2005 as Kerrang!'s "Album Of The Year," went gold in the U.K., and has since surpassed global sales of 500,000 copies. Opening the main stage of Download festival that year, the Floridian four piece — barely out of their teens — delivered a set that left all who witnessed it in no doubt that they were looking at future legends, with Kerrang! readers later voting it as the tenth best gig of all time.

"Ascendancy" ignited a string of six consecutive Top 25 debuts on the Billboard 200 and five straight Top 3 debuts on the Top Hard Rock Albums chart, culminating on 2017's benchmark "The Sin And The Sentence". That album elevated the group's total stream tally past a quarter of a billion. Additionally, "Betrayer" received a Grammy Award nomination in the category of "Best Metal Performance". Unanimous acclaim followed from Decibel, Loudwire, Ultimate Guitar, MetalSucks and Metal Hammer, who dubbed them "quite simply one of the best bands in modern metal." 2020 brought LP "What The Dead Men Say". The album was produced by TRIVIUM and Josh Wilbur and debuted at No. 35 on the Billboard 200; at No. 2 on the Top Current Albums chart, and at No. 3 on both the Hard Rock Albums chart and Top Rock Albums chart.