Trivium frontman Matt Heafy thinks it’s “silly” that their co-headline tour with Bullet For My Valentine ended prematurely.
Back in February 2024, the two bands announced the Poisoned Ascendancy tour, where they’d play their respective breakthrough albums Ascendancy and The Poison in full to mark their 20th anniversaries.
The run was promoted as a “world tour” set to last from January to December 2025. However, in May, after the package had only reached Europe and North America, it was suddenly revealed that the shows would be wrapping up.
Trivium members Paolo Gregoletto and Corey Beaulieu publicly blamed Bullet singer/guitarist Matt Tuck for the early finish; Bullet issued a counter-statement explaining that they wanted to focus their efforts on finishing their next studio album.
Heafy tried to play peacekeeper as fans expressed their disappointment, urging people to “calm down” via Instagram. In the new issue of Metal Hammer, though, the singer/guitarist is less diplomatic, saying that the abrupt end disrupted Trivium’s entire year.
“When we flew up to London [in February 2024] to do a press conference for a world tour that was meant to go from January through December, we didn’t intend our press conference to be for a world tour that was essentially three months long. Which is silly!” Heafy tells us.
“What’s a three-month-long world tour that plays two continents? I mean, I could brush over the details if you want, but in retrospect... we had to change a lot of things. We had to completely uproot our entire year.”
Heafy adds that he is “very cool” with Bullet bassist Jamie Mathias, calling him “one of my favourite people in the world” and “a wildly talented human being”. He claims that he “could write a book on all the things that [Trivium] had to deal with” during the Poisoned Ascendancy tour, but that he won’t speak further “out of respect for [Bullet’s] fans”.
Trivium were able to quickly regroup after the Poisoned Ascendancy trek’s conclusion and schedule the Ascend Above The Ashes North American tour. The shows kick off on October 31, the same day the band release their new three-song EP Struck Dead. Jinjer and Heriot will serve as support acts.
Trivium fans were rocked by more last-minute news earlier this month, when it was announced just one day before a planned set at Aftershock festival that longtime drummer Alex Bent had exited the lineup. The band proceeded with the show, with Sepultura’s Greyson Nekrutman filling in. On Friday (October 24), they announced that former Whitechapel drummer Alex Rudinger will fulfil the Ascend Above The Ashes dates and help write the next Trivium album.
Meanwhile, despite saying they wanted to turn their attention to recording, Bullet announced in July that they would tour Australia, playing The Poison in full, in October. The tour wrapped up with a date in Singapore on the 20th, and the band have no further live dates announced at time of publication.
As well as the interview with Heafy, the new Hammer contains a guided tour of power metal wardogs Sabaton’s hometown of Falun, led by singer Joakim Brodén and bassist Pär Sundström. Order your copy now and get it delivered dircetly to your door.
