The Trivium story began back at the dawn of the millennium, when drummer Travis Smith and then frontman Brad Lewter recruited 15-year-old guitar prodigy Matt Heafy for their new band, after seeing him blaze his way through Metallica’s ‘No Leaf Clover’ at a school talent show. After a handful of gigs, Lewter departed, enabling Heafy to take over as the band’s singer, as the band – which also featured bassist Brent Young - hit the studio to record their debut album, ‘Embers To Inferno’. A strident and preternaturally confident first effort from such a young band, ‘Embers...’ (released in 2003) showcased the trio’s highly original but extremely timely sound; a ferocious blend of classic metal, thrash and extreme influences that stood in stark contrast to much of what was popular at the time. It also gained the interest of Roadrunner Records, who duly signed the band and set them to work on their second studio album. Meanwhile, Trivium bolstered their ranks by bringing in Corey Beaulieu as their second six-string wizard, and replacing Young with new bassist Paolo Gregoletto. Recorded at Audiohammer Studios in Sanford, Florida, with engineer and all-round nutjob Jason Suecof, ‘Ascendancy’ (2005) was the perfect album to introduce the now four-man Trivium line-up to a now revitalised global metal scene. Anthemic songs like ‘Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr’ and ‘Like Light To The Flies’ exhibited great depth and musicality and immediately set the band apart from the rest of the metal scene, turning them into one of the most widely hailed new bands the genre had produced in years.
“’Ascendancy’ was ahead of its time,” states Matt Heafy. “We were doing that stuff before we knew it was ‘in’. People put all kinds of terms on it, but always thought it was metal as fuck. It was never metalcore. There’s death riffs all over that shit. The pre-chorus riff on the title track is so ‘Symbolic’-era Death! How could you think it was anything else, you know?” Both in the US and in Europe – and particularly in the UK, where Trivium shot from nowhere to conquering the annual Download festival at Castle Donington and becoming a major headlining act, all within a matter of weeks – Heafy and co were making major waves, touring relentlessly on both sides of the Atlantic and building up a huge international fan base that was frothing at the mouth in anticipation of the band’s next move.
Again recorded with Suecof at Audiohammer, and released in the autumn of 2006 - a mere 18 months after its predecessor - ‘The Crusade’ was a massive milestone for Trivium; a bold, and adventurous move that both consolidated their reputation as metal’s hottest young band and proved that unlike their peers, Trivium were more than happy to take a few risks in order to further nurture their art. Shedding every last trace of metalcore from their sound – including losing Heafy’s screamed vocals – the band’s new material ranged from the punishing modern thrash of ‘Ignition’, ‘Detonation’ and ‘To The Rats’ through to the Megadeth-meets-Motley propulsive rock of ‘Anthem’, the moody balladry of ‘And Sadness Will Sear’ and the epic instrumental craziness of the album’s eight-minute title track.
“With ‘The Crusade’ it was very much a reaction to the previous record,” says Heafy. “We wanted to do something completely different, something out of the box for Trivium. We wanted to go with whatever the opposite of ‘Ascendancy’ was. If we’d made Ascendancy Part 2, we wouldn’t be doing this anymore. We wanted to state early on in our career that we’re not afraid to do something different and to diversify.”
Buoyed by critical acclaim, a hugely positive response from the fans and a seemingly never-ending stream of high profile tours, including a successful cross-Europe joint as special guests to Iron Maiden and a triumphant stint on the Ozzfest tour in the US, Trivium quickly threw themselves into the writing process for their fourth album, spending many on-the-road hours honing and refining their newest material in anticipation of hitting the studio, this time with renowned producer Nick Raskulinecz (Foo Fighters/Stone Sour/Death Angel).
“We were writing on tour for a year straight,” says Heafy. “When we were on the Black Crusade tour in Australia, I showed the Machine Head guys the songs. I respect Robb Flynn such an incredible amount as a musician and a person and I wanted to know what he thought. He called me up and gave me a really good talk about demoing and revisiting songs and all that, so we went back to the rehearsal studio and completely re-wrote everything. Then we sent the stuff to Nick, and then between us we picked the 13 best songs. We went to Franklin, Tennessee, where we lived for eight weeks, and recorded at Sound Kitchen Studios. It’s a legendary country music studio where Willie Nelson recorded. We met Lynyrd Skynyrd there! Everyone was amazing and so nice, so it was a great working environment for us.”
There is a moment for every great band when everything comes together and a definitive musical identity emerges. This is precisely that moment for Trivium, as the thrashy energy of ‘Embers…’, the cocksure melodies and aggression of ‘Ascendancy’ and the adventurous bravado of ‘The Crusade’ coalesce around a core of new-found creative muscle ‘n’ bone, resulting in an album of songs that proudly surpass everything the band have achieved in the past. ‘Shogun’ sounds huge, in every sense. The collaboration with Raskulinecz has taken Trivium to new levels of compositional and technical brilliance, while the album’s brutal, bone-shattering production means that they’ve never sounded heavier or more powerful. With lashings of vicious riffs that celebrate the band’s love of death, black and thrash metal, alongside the most incisive and memorable melodies the quartet have ever written, ‘Shogun’ is a monstrous achievement that promises to have the cynics and naysayers choking on their toast.
“It was all very natural,” explains Heafy. “We didn’t care what was going to come out, and that’s why it sounds this way. We all still love extremely heavy music with the brutality and no melody, but we also love stuff that’s incredibly melodic and simple and memorable, so that explains the two extremes. We like to have everything. Vocally we tried everything from the lowest note I can sing to the highest note, from the lowest growl to the highest scream, and everything in between. We wanted to try it all. That was the whole concept behind the record. No limits. Just try anything and see what comes out.”
Simply one of the most important metal bands on the planet right now, Trivium have been threatening to make that final leap from established contenders to full-on metal heroes for the last few years. With ‘Shogun’, their fourth and manifestly best album to date, they have clearly mastered the metal arts and are ready to step into the arena with the genre’s greats. From the bludgeoning bombast of opener ‘Kirisute Gomen’ – a dynamic paean to the ways of the Samurai – through to the hook-laden savagery of ‘Down From The Sky’ and ‘Into The Mouth of Hell’, and on to the towering steel-plated genius of the 13-minute ‘Shogun’ itself, this is truly Trivium’s defining album and the first stone-cold classic of their career. With over 600 live shows under their belt to date, Florida’s finest are ready to hit the road again and this time they have both the songs and the self-belief to take on all-comers.
“We wrote this album exactly the way we all wanted to,” concludes Heafy. “We really did our own thing this time. When people check it out, they’ll realise that we’re not an exclusive band. We’re not doing this for one specific kind of person. If you want to come to a show and rock out, that’s what we’re here for. We’re just four normal guys who just happen to be able to play metal for lots of cool people around the world. And that’s what we’re gonna do. This first shows we do for this album are gonna be just us, our instruments and the music. There’s not going to be any fancy shit going on. It’s just gonna be raw, brutal and exactly what this album is. It’s about the music, and that’s all we’re about. We hope everyone comes out to see us and we hope you all dig the record. We’re really fucking proud of it.”
02/07/2009 - THE METAL HAMMER GOLDEN GODS FEAT. TRIVIUM AND DEVILDRIVER HITS SCREENS SATURDAY! As ever there were TV cams at this years Metal Hammer Golden God Awards and we just got word of when you will be able ... 30/06/2009 - PAOLO CAM!!! THIS IS TRIVIUM AT DOWNLOAD 2009! TRIVIUM'S Paolo set up his cam when he was on stage at this years Download festival, headling the second stage, and he got some great ... 17/06/2009 - GET ROADRUNNER RELEASES FOR JUST £4.99 ON ITUNES In celebration of the plethora of bands that Roadrunner had play this years Download festival, iTunes are letting you download (see what we did there?!) ... 11/06/2009 - DOWNLOAD STAGE TIMES! PLUS SEE HOW YOU CAN GET THE BACKSTAGE GOSSIP!! It's almost time people!! Tomorrow DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2009 kicks off and this year, Roadrunner UK has a staggering ELEVEN bands on the bill, including the ... 03/06/2009 - EXTRA CAMPING TICKETS RELEASED FOR DOWNLOAD If you were one of those folks who had a ticket for DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL but had no camping sorted yet, you will be happy to ... 29/05/2009 - DEVILDRIVER & TRIVIUM AT THE REVOLVER GOLDEN GODS + NEWS OF METAL HAMMER GOLDEN GODS COVERAGE So this year saw the first ever Revolver Golden Gods (Revolver being the US sister mag of the UK's Metal Hammer) and Roadrunner USA were ... 30/04/2009 - TRIVIUM ON 'THE LOWDOWN' FROM THE DOWNLOAD FEST If you head on over to the OFFICIAL DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL WEBSITE and check out episode 2 of 'The Lowdown' you will see a video message ... 25/04/2009 - CHAT WITH TRIVIUM'S PAOLO THIS SUNDAY (26TH APRIL) That's right- you can chat to TRIVIUM bassist Paolo tomorrow! Just head to the Trivium World website (HERE) and get on in to the 23/04/2009 - DEDICATIONS WHAT YOU NEED- TRAVIS FROM TRIVIUM INTERVIEWED TRIVIUM hit Australia shortly to coninue their touring of current album SHOGUN and so Travis sat down and chatted 21/04/2009 - DAYS AND STAGES CONFIRMED FOR DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL Wondering when your fave Roadrunner bands are hitting the stage at this years DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL?? Then wonder no more. Here are the full deets on ... 17/04/2009 - CHECK OUT TRIVIUM AT THE REVOLVER GOLDEN GOD AWARDS Check out the latest interview from the Revolver Golden God Awards which happened in sunny LA last week, again brought to us by those lovely ... 09/04/2009 - CHECK OUT THE COMPS SECTION- NEW COMPS, WINNERS ANNOUNCED!!! If you entered the competition to win signed singles from THE PARLOR MOB then you should head over to the 09/04/2009 - SLIPKNOT AND MEGADETH TRIUMPH AT THE REVOLVER GOLDEN GODS, LA April 7th, Los Angeles. Out comes the red carpet and in roll the metal elite for the first ever Revolver Golden Gods. Performances at this ... 03/04/2009 - TRIVIUM CONFIRMED FOR THE METAL HAMMER GOLDEN GODS AWARD SHOW METAL HAMMER have confirmed that TRIVIUM will be headlining this years Metal Hammer Golden Gods show at the Indig 03/04/2009 - WHO'S THE BIGGEST JOKER IN TRIVIUM? WHO GETS THE MOST CHICKS? MATT HAS THE ANSWERS... Check out this recent Altitude interview with TRIVIUM'S Matt Heafy, where he gets grilled on the antics of the band... 01/04/2009 - HOGCAT = GOTCHA!!! Sadly, there will be no RR supergroup of members of Trivium, DragonForce, DevilDriver, Black Stone Cherry and Killswitch Engage performing at this years Download festival.It ... 01/04/2009 - HEAFY AND LI CREATED SUPER-GROUP TO PERFORM AT DOWNLOAD Matt Heafy TRIVIUM, Howard Jones KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, John Fred Young 25/03/2009 - TEN ROADRUNNER BANDS NOW CONFIRMED FOR THIS YEARS DOWNLOAD! It's another killer year for Roadrunner at DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL with TEN of our artists now confirmed for the fest! Stirring up the mosh pits and ... 19/03/2009 - NEW COMPS LOADED- CHECK OUT THE COMPETITIONS SECTION Check out the COMPETITIONS PAGE for THREE killer new comps for you to enter!!! Up for grabs are SIGNED copies of 19/03/2009 - MATT HEAFY OF TRIVIUM INTERVIEWED BACKSTAGE IN IOWA When on tour with label mates SLIPKNOT recently, Matt Heafy of TRIVIUM fame was interviewed 02/07/2009THE METAL HAMMER GOLDEN GODS FEAT. TRIVIUM AND DEVILDRIVER HITS SCREENS SATURDAY! As ever there were TV cams at this years Metal Hammer Golden God Awards and we just got word of when you will be able ... 30/06/2009PAOLO CAM!!! THIS IS TRIVIUM AT DOWNLOAD 2009! TRIVIUM'S Paolo set up his cam when he was on stage at this years Download festival, headling the second stage, and he got some great ... 12/02/2008TATTOOED CRUSADERS Back from their tour of Australia and gearing up for their upcoming jaunt with Machine Head, Lamb of God and Gojira, Trivium have posted a ... 12/02/2008Urban BBQ How quickly time flies. Before you know it, Autumn will be upon us and this summer will be all but memories...and the US installment of ... 12/02/2008Gojira and Sanctity joining Trivium on their upcoming tour We are pleased to announce that French band Gojira & new Roadrunner signing Sanctity will be joining special guest Annihilator as support on Trivium's upcoming ... 12/02/2008WHEN DREAM THEATER & ROADRUNNER RECORDS UNITE! Roadrunner Records is proud to announce the signing of progressive metal pioneers Dream Theater. A new studio album, Systematic Chaos is due in June. Dream ... 11/06/2009DOWNLOAD STAGE TIMES! PLUS SEE HOW YOU CAN GET THE BACKSTAGE GOSSIP!! It's almost time people!! Tomorrow DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL 2009 kicks off and this year, Roadrunner UK has a staggering ELEVEN bands on the bill, including the ... 12/02/2008Hell F*ckin' Yeah A quick update direct from Trivium's world, written a couple days ago on Aug 30th... "Matt here in Denver! Tonight can be summed up in ... 12/02/2008Sanity And A Dream Last week we posted an update on the site from Chimaira frontman Mark Hunter talking about the band's upcoming DVD titled The Dehumanizing Process. Since ... 29/05/2009DEVILDRIVER & TRIVIUM AT THE REVOLVER GOLDEN GODS + NEWS OF METAL HAMMER GOLDEN GODS COVERAGE So this year saw the first ever Revolver Golden Gods (Revolver being the US sister mag of the UK's Metal Hammer) and Roadrunner USA were ... 12/02/2008METALLICA'S KIRK HAMMETT ENDORSES TRIVIUM! METALLICA'S KIRK HAMMETT ENDORSES TRIVIUM! Singer/guitarist Matt Heafy revealed the news on a German radio show. With the band's forthcoming album 'The Crusade' completed and ... 09/12/2008DOOR AND STAGE TIMES FOR TRIVIUM BORDERLINE SHOW Just to give you folks lucky enough to have a ticket for the TRIVIUM show at the Borderline, London on December 9th a heads up, ... 12/02/2008A special show about the preparation of their UK tour with Iron Maiden plus a competition to boot! TG2 brings you up close and personal with Trivium - the critically acclaimed 'Future of Metal' as they set-up for their UK tour with Iron ... 12/02/2008A FULL WOJ OF TRACKS Walls Of Jericho recently completed a video for the track 'A Trigger Full of Promises' which was filmed by director Dale Restighini (TRIVIUM, HATEBREED, FALL ... 12/02/2008Trivium New Video on Kerrang! TV Trivium's new video for their track Entrance of the Conflagration is now showing on Kerrang! TV, number 102. So what are you waiting for... get ... 12/02/2008Chicks Dig Tattoos "Chicks Dig Tattoos," reads the headline of an interview at the online e-zine Fourteen G. The interview we speak of is with Trivium's Corey Beaulieu ... 19/02/2009RR DIGITAL SPECIAL EDITIONS AVAILABLE MARCH 2ND Here's your chance to own some of the best Roadrunner Records has to offer with the digital releases planned for March 2nd! With full special ... 12/02/2008WHAT'S UP BOYS AND GIRLS TRIVIUM frontman, Matt Heafy manages to check in, and update his blog to tell the world what they've been up to. Or more importantly what ... 12/02/2008Interview with Travis Smith of Trivium Travis Smith of Trivium has given an interview with Modern Drummer Magazine, a piece of which is shown below: Modern Drummer: On the subject of ... 12/02/2008Catch the band live on tour with Iron Maiden A live video of TRIVIUM performing the song "Ember to Inferno" last year during the band's U.S. headlining tour has been posted online at the ... Shogun Shogun Shogun Special Edition Shogun Special Edition Down From The Sky Down From The Sky Into The Mouth Of Hell We March Into The Mouth Of Hell We March The Crusade The Crusade Ascendancy Ascendancy Promo Live Shots Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Unholy Alliance Tour: Chapter III, November 7th 2008, Amsterdam, Holland Press KERRANG! 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