Trivium (band)

Trivium

Trivium is a band from Orlando, Florida. The band formed in 2000 after the band's original singer saw Matt Heafy performing "Self Esteem" by The Offspring at a high school talent show. Their most recent album, The Crusade, peaked at #25 on the US Billboard 200 and #7 in the UK. Trivium was originally a metalcore band, as is heard on their first two records: Ember to Inferno and Ascendancy. However, they have recently developed a more thrash metal sound as heard on The Crusade.

Biography

Early Days

The band members chose the band Trivium, which is Latin for the crossroads of the three schools, because they "liked the way it implied an open-mindedness to different styles, and summed up their musical aesthetic". After a couple of gigs at parties, the original singer quit the band and Heafy took over the vocals. Heafy also spent time in the Orlando black metal band Mindscar, alongside Mike Radford, before leaving to focus on Trivium. For the next two years, the band spent time honing in on its sound. In 2002 Heafy won the Best Metal Guitarist Award at the Orlando Metal Awards. In the beginning of 2003, Trivium went into the studio to record their first high-quality demo disc. From this demo, German label Lifeforce signed Trivium and sent the band into the studio to record their debut album, Ember to Inferno.

After going through various lineups, the band finally settled on guitarist Corey Beaulieu, who brought a new influence to the band's sound. In 2004, Paolo Gregoletto joined as the band's bassist just prior to a tour with Machine Head. After good sales of their debut album, Trivium was signed to Roadrunner Records and began writing songs for their follow-up album, Ascendancy.

Rise to Fame

The writing for the band's second album, Ascendancy, was mostly completed by July 2004. It was recorded in the Audiohammer and Morrisound Studios in Orlando, Florida and released on on March 15, 2005 through Roadrunner Records. The band toured relentlessly to support the release of the album playing along such bands as Machine Head, Iced Earth, Killswitch Engage, and Fear Factory. This touring schedule helped add to the hype building about the band. "What's cool about a tour is every night's a party," Heafy says. "It's not always because everyone's drinking, but people are getting along well and hanging out. The energy from the crowds is amazing."[2] Their touring cycle also included the Roadrage 2005 US tour, featuring bands such as The Agony Scene, Still Remains and 3 Inches of Blood. The band also made 13 appearances at 2005 Roadrage in the UK through the summer. This tour heightened their popularity in the UK considerably, building a good reputation with Kerrang! and Metal Hammer magazines. Trivium also performed on the main stage at Download Festival 2005. Kerrang! hailed their show as 'The band of the weekend by a long mile.

During the months of July and August, Trivium appeared at Ozzfest 2005, playing second stage alongside bands like As I Lay Dying, Arch Enemy, Killswitch Engage, and Rob Zombie. After Ozzfest, the band headed back over to the UK for a headlining tour with All That Remains and It Dies Today. They toured in Japan with Arch Enemy. They then toured in the United States and Canada for a main support tour with Children of Bodom and Amon Amarth. In early 2006, Trivium were the main support for the Swedish band In Flames North American tour, along with DevilDriver and Zao.

In 2006, Trivium recorded a cover of "Master of Puppets" for the Kerrang! Remastered 20th anniversary tribute to Metallica's album Master of Puppets. Also appearing on that album doing tributes are Machine Head, Mendeed, Bullet for My Valentine, Fightstar, Chimaira, Mastodon, and Funeral for a Friend. This was released exclusively with the issue of Kerrang! magazine, released on April 5 2006.

The Crusade

Trivium began writing and recording a new album in April 2006, just after their 2006 headlining tour "The Crusade III: Ascend Above the Ashes" with God Forbid. The band played on the main stage of the Download Festival in 2006, beneath only KoRn & Metallica.

"The Crusade" was a change in their musical style. The majority of the lyrics are sung, unlike in the past two albums where most vocals were screamed. According to an interview with Blabbermouth, Heafy was quoted as saying

"If anyone is wondering why the screaming is gone it's because the four of us were never into bands that scream and we don't like any of the current bands that scream, so we asked ourselves why we're doing it. The only reason I started screaming in the first place is because I sucked at singing and wanted to be the frontman of a band. This time around I wanted to be a better singer because that's what we wanted to hear, so we dropped the screaming and did a lot of vocal training and vocal work. I think everyone will be really happy with it and those that aren't can go listen to any of those dime a dozen bands that are all doing the same thing. I have this quote that I've been randomly throwing out and that is ‘evolve or be eaten' and we evolved."

The album was placed at #172 in the UK Rock Charts and debuted in the UK album charts at #7 It debuted on the U.S. Billboard charts at #25. The album saw use of seven string guitars on a number of songs, including the tracks "This World Can't Tear Us Apart", "And Sadness Will Sear", "Becoming The Dragon", "Contempt Breeds Contamination" and the title track of the album. The album is a departure from their previous sound: Heafy has abandoned his harsh metalcore scream in favor of a more melodic style (more inspired by lead vocalists such as James Hetfield) and the band's style has been described as a return to the classic thrash sounds of bands such as Metallica, Testament, and Megadeth. The album received generally positive reviews from critics , with one critic noting, "If the closest point of comparison is mid-80s Metallica, how bad could it be?". However, it has also received a backlash from some metal fans , with entire websites devoted to this [3]. The album was voted #6 on Metal Hammer's Best Albums of 2006. As well as being voted the Best Live Band at Metal Hammer's Golden Gods Awards .

To support the album they toured under Iron Maiden on the European leg of their 2006 world tour from November 12th - December 23rd. During this short tour of the UK, Kerrang! 105.2 arranged one day in which Trivium was the headline band, on 13 December. No tickets were sold for the gig; tickets were awarded through a competition on Kerrang.

The third and most recent single the band has released is from "The Crusade" and is called "The Rising". It debuted at number 32 on the US Mainstream Rock Charts. The music video debuted in the UK on Scuzz TV on the 20th April 2007.

When performing live, Corey will sometimes take over the screaming vocals. Unofficially, it has been said that Matt damaged his voice during a show and Corey had to take over from there on out, although this has never been announced. Many people feel that this is supported due to the statements made by Heafy regarding the change in vocal style. Critics argue that the statement about not liking bands that scream makes no sense, seeing as two albums were made as a screaming band. Corey also screams during parts of songs that require signing and screaming vocals at the same time, which is impossible for one vocalist to do live. Furthermore whilst Matt has mostly abandoned his screaming for a more thrash metal/Hetfield-like sound, some people believe that he sounds much heavier live than he does on the albums. It also has been reported that he screams some parts that are sung on the album at live shows.

Recent events

On April 28, 2006, Trivium announced a North American re-release of their album Ascendancy, which includes four bonus tracks, one of which is their cover of the Metallica song "Master of Puppets". It also contains reworked art, and a DVD featuring all existing music videos.

Trivium toured Australia in early 2007, making appearances at the Big Day Out (also the Big Day Out in New Zealand) and all capital cities. Trivium has just been announced recently that they will take part on the Family Values Tour alongside Korn, Atreyu, Hellyeah, Flyleaf, Evanescence and more.

Photo of Trivium playing on their Spring 2007 European Tour

Between April and June 2007 they went on a headline tour of much of Europe and the UK with label mates Annihilator and Sanctity as well as Gojira. They opened their sets with a song from Final Fantasy, 'One Winged Angel'.

Matt and Corey of Trivium visited the Dean Guitar stand at the London Guitar Show in the ExCel centre London, to do autographs for their fans, and to promote Dean Guitars, on the 27th of April 2007.

Recently, Matt and Paolo signed on as endorsed artists for EMG active pickups. Also, in an interview with the music channel "Scuzz", Corey informed fans they could expect a new album by summer/winter 2008, although no particular date or target has been set as of now.

Band members

Current members

• Matt Heafy - Vocals, Lead/Rhythm Guitar
• Corey Beaulieu - Lead/Rhythm Guitar, Backing Vocals (2003-present)
• Paolo Gregoletto - Bass, Backing Vocals (2004-present)
• Travis Smith - Drums

Past members

• Brent Young - Rhythm Guitar then later Bass (2001-2004)
• Brad Lewter - Vocals (2000)

Discography

Studio albums

Date of release	Title	Label	US billboard peak	UK chart peak	US sales	UK sales
2003	Trivium	Self-Financed	-	-	-	-
October 14, 2003	Ember to Inferno	Lifeforce Records	-	-	-	-
March 15, 2005	Ascendancy	Roadrunner Records	151	78	145,000+	100,000+ (Gold)
October 10, 2006	The Crusade	Roadrunner Records	25	7	100,000+	60,000+ (Silver)

Singles

Year	Title	Chart Positions				Album
		U.S. Modern Rock	U.S. Mainstream Rock	UK Singles Chart	UK Rock Singles
2005	"Like Light to the Flies"	-	-	-	-	Ascendancy
2005	"Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr"	-	-	-	-	Ascendancy
2005	"A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation"	-	-	-	-	Ascendancy
2006	"Entrance of the Conflagration"	-	-	-	-	The Crusade
2006	"Anthem (We Are the Fire)"	-	-	38	1	The Crusade
2007	"The Rising"	-	32	-	-	The Crusade

External links

• Official website
• Trivium at Roadrunner Records
• Trivium Interviews
• Trivium at Myspace