“This is the beginning of Bullet 2.0,” says vocalist and lead guitarist Matt Tuck when describing their self titled deluxe album released last year. “It signifies where we are right now. The music is fresh, it’s aggressive, it’s more visceral and more passionate than it’s ever been.”

Since Bullet For My Valentine formed in 1998, the Welsh metallers have become one of the biggest bands in metal, selling over 3 million albums worldwide and scoring three gold albums, as well as defining British metalcore with their now classic debut, The Poison.

Bullet For My Valentine follows the success of their last album, 2018’s Gravity, which saw the metal juggernauts play their biggest shows to date, including a UK arena tour and a massive show at London’s Alexandra Palace. But this time around, the band have taken things back to basics. Bullet For My Valentine is stacked with squealing solos and monstrous riffs that will delight fans both new and old.

“I think it’s the most ferocious side of Bullet For My Valentine that I’ve ever known,” says lead guitarist Michael “Padge” Paget. “It’s time for us to put out a really angry, heavy, aggressive record. I think this direction is where we really shine. I just can’t wait to grimace on stage!”

“I wanted to come out guns blazing, f*cking middle fingers flying and just go for the throat,” agrees Matt. “I think this is a far more aggressive, intense part of Bullet For My Valentine. It’s always been there, I’ve just never opened the floodgates on it. I want to take people’s heads off, in a metaphorical way. Everyone who’s naysaid the band for 15 years and had sh*t to say about us… this is for them.”

From a first listen, fans will recognise this as Bullet on the form of their lives. Vicious opener Parasite and the album’s furious first single, Knives, are pure metallic adrenaline: galloping drums, seething vocals and frantic solos, creating a dark sound that reflects the challenging period in which the album was recorded. Having taken the biggest risk of their careers with Gravity’s glossy anthemia, the band are now completely in their element, able to take their music wherever they want to go and experimenting with texture and tone on the disorientating Rainbow Veins and blackened rock’n’roll of Bastards. Elsewhere though, powerhouse tracks like My Reverie, the thrash-influenced Paralysed and groove metal stomper, Shatter, are classic Bullet For My Valentine, merging menacing riffery with huge, expansive choruses that will tower over huge rooms as soon as our pits are allowed to reopen.

Fans will get the chance to hear the new music live for the first time when the band return to the US in May. “We can’t wait to see how people react to the new material,” says Padge. “We can’t wait to get out there, smash everything and get back to playing music again.”

“I think we’re an age now where we can’t be ignored as one of the f*cking big boys of metal,” says Matt. “You don’t stick around for twenty years and seven records if you’re not classed as that. It’s exciting times ahead we feel like we’re on the cusp of something mega.”

Matt began writing the album in September 2019 before the Coronavirus pandemic brought things screeching to a halt in early 2020. But in June 2020, Matt and long-time producer, Carl Bown, who co-produced the band’s 2015 album, Venom, and produced and mixed Gravity, picked up the pace again. Together, they hunkered down at Treehouse Studio in Chesterfield, where the remainder of the album was written. Recording took place during Covid-safe sessions with each member of the band laying down their parts separately. “The writing process wasn’t different to usual, because I write all the music anyway,” says Matt. “But the option to get together and record in the same room was taken away from us.”

While the recording process posed its own challenges, the band have triumphed, creating an album that will cement their place at the very top of modern British metal.

“Our journey has had ups and downs but the four of us in the band are still as hungry and confident as ever,” declares Matt. “This is the best album think we’ve ever made and long may that trend continue. I think this album is special. I think as soon as people hear it, we’re going to make a lot of people smile.”

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE ARE:

Matt Tuck – Vocals and rhythm guitar

Michael “Padge” Paget – Lead guitar

Jamie Mathias - Bass

Jason Bowld – Drums

Various belief systems throughout history exalt the number 10 as divine. 10 years comprise a decade, we
traditionally possess 10 fingers and 10 toes, our very decimal system remains based on 10, and so on and so
forth. Trivium grasp for collective perfection on their 10th full-length offering, In The Court of the Dragon
[Roadrunner Records]. Following 22 years, over 1 million units moved, hundreds of sold-out shows, and halfa-billion streams, the GRAMMY® Award-nominated Florida quartet—Matt Heavy [vocals, guitar], Corey
Beaulieu [guitar], Paolo Gregoletto [bass], and Alex Bent [drums]—deliver a definitive statement cast in
ironclad guitar fireworks, pummeling rhythms, lyrical provocations, and stadium-shaking choruses. It springs
from the past, seizes the present, and hints at the future of Trivium—and metal—all at once.
“Getting to album 10 felt momentous,” says Paolo. “Not many bands get this far, so it had to live up to being
the 10th record. We didn’t know if we were going to be able to tour, so it had to still be impressive enough to
keep everyone’s attention. It was the sole focus for the last ten months. We had to make sure we met the bar
we’ve set for our fans and ourselves.”
“To be 10 records in is an accomplishment in and of itself,” agrees Corey. “To us, this music felt special. We’re
the strongest we’ve ever been as friends and as a band. I hope it shows in the songs.”
“I feel like we’re four people who just started a new band with all of the aspirations and dreams in the
world,” exclaims Matt. “I’m excited to go to practice. I’m excited to play our music. I’m very happy to be in
the band with these three guys. 22 years into this thing, that’s incredible.”
Those 22 years have set the stage for this era. Trivium crafted a classic in the form of Ascendancy. It
concluded 2005 as KERRANG!’s “Album of the Year,” went gold in the UK, and has since surpassed global
sales of 500,000 copies. Retrospectively, Metal Hammer cited it in the Top 15 of the “The Greatest Metal
Albums of the Century.” They’ve earned six straight Top 25 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 and six Top 3
debuts on the Top Rock Albums Chart. One of many standouts from 2017’s The Sin and The Sentence, the
single “Betrayer” garnered a GRAMMY® Award nod in the category of “Best Metal Performance.” The quartet
reached new heights on 2020’s What The Dead Men Say, appearing everywhere from The New York Times,
NPR, Forbes, Billboard, Tech Crunch, and Kotaku to Revolver and Alternative Press. They are the rare band
who can incinerate a stage alongside Metallica and Iron Maiden and hold a captive audience of tens of
thousands on a Twitch stream.
In the midst of the Global Pandemic, the members safely congregated in order to practice and volley ideas
back and forth. During the summer, Alex and his wife moved across the country from California to Florida as
Paolo also relocated back home. Once conditions permitted, they returned to the studio in Full Sail University
with producer Josh Wilbur [Lamb of God, A Day To Remember] in 2021.
“When I moved, everything changed,” says Alex. “We could easily get on a group text to practice or write
virtually anytime. It isn’t like I had to hop on a plane anymore. Everything was so much simpler and
smoother. We weren’t working with any time limitations, and everything paid off.”
It most certainly did…Trivium sent shockwaves through heavy metal with the surprise release of the first
single and title track “In The Court of The Dragon.” Within a month, the song piled up millions of streams as
Guitar World hailed it as “one of the standout metal tracks of the year.” With its striking renaissance-inspired
artwork, enigmatically unnerving fantasy visual, and conflagration of guttural screams, hammering
percussion, orchestral intro courtesy of Ihsahn [Emperor], and sweeping hooks, it unlocked a gateway into
another realm.
“As far as the meaning goes, there is no right or wrong answer,” grins Matt. “I want people to come up with
their own interpretations of everything they hear, see, and experience on In The Court of the Dragon. Of
course, I’m obsessed with Scandinavian stories, Vikings, Japanese history, and the tales of Odin, Thor,
Ragnarok, and the end of the world, Paolo was like, ‘Why don’t we create our own mythology?’ We’ve
definitely used pre-existing myths for inspiration in the past. We created our own myth now.”
Meanwhile, “Feast Of Fire” burns bright with a massive chant hyper-charged by nimble melodic thrash and a
smart-bomb precise solo. “To us, ‘Feast Of Fire’ is in the direct lineage of ‘Dying In Your Arms’, ‘Unti The
World Goes Cold’, and ‘Black’,” Matt observes. “We really fleshed it out perfectly with the chorus, and it was
meant to feel big.”
Then, there’s “Like A Sword Over Damocles.” A hulking groove gives way to a skyscraping refrain uplifted by
thick distortion.
“I had the initial backbone of the song, and I really wanted to do a barnburner,” Corey reveals. “I had
researched the concept. It was a cool story about the struggles of being someone in power and always having
people question you. What happens when the person who’s questioning you has your job and responsibility?
They don’t want it. Paolo built on that idea, and we made our own story. I’m really stoked for everyone to
hear it.”
The near eight-minute “Fall Into Your Hands” originated on Matt’s uber popular daily Twitch stream and
organically progressed into one of the most epic compositions in the band’s catalog. However, everything
culminates on “The Phalanx.” It twists and turns through incendiary leads, heart-wrenching screams, an
entrancing melody, and final symphonic comedown.
“Thematically and musically, the song has three acts,” Matt states. “For as conceptual as it is, it also reflects
our chemistry in the room. Since we’re so technically proficient at our instruments and I spend hours singing
every day on stream, we’re over prepared. For In The Court of the Dragon and What the Dead Men Say, we
went in and played without thinking. We default to technical, elaborate, and long ideas, because that’s what
we grew up on. It all felt natural.”
In the end, Trivium have inched towards this moment for ten albums and finally arrived like never
before as they triumphantly rise In The Court of the Dragon.
“This album has everything,” Matt leaves off. “It has the singing, the screaming, the death metal, the
black metal, and the catchy metal. When we have all of those elements together, we’re the happiest. It’s
the key to Trivium.”
“This is a new chapter,” Paolo concludes. “We’re crossing into something else. I don’t know what it is,
but I’m excited for it. We have a lot left in us, and I want to prove that.” – Rick Florino, August 2021
BOILER
For over two decades, Trivium have quietly raised the bar for heavy music by conjuring a near-magic balance
between towering melodic metal infectiousness, extreme metal unpredictability, black metal scope, and a
kick of rock ‘n’ roll spirit. After forming in 1999, Trivium crafted a classic in the form of Ascendancy. It
concluded 2005 as KERRANG!’s “Album of the Year,” went gold in the UK, and has since surpassed global
sales of 500,000 copies. Retrospectively, Metal Hammer cited it in the Top 15 of the “The Greatest Metal
Albums of the Century.” They’ve earned six straight Top 25 debuts on the Billboard Top 200 and six Top 3
debuts on the Top Rock Albums Chart. One of many standouts from 2017’s The Sin and The Sentence, the
single “Betrayer” garnered a GRAMMY® Award nod in the category of “Best Metal Performance.” The quartet
reached new heights on 2020’s What The Dead Men Say, appearing everywhere from The New York Times,
NPR, Forbes, Billboard, Tech Crunch, and Kotaku to Revolver and Alternative Press. They are the rare band
who can incinerate a stage alongside Metallica and Iron Maiden and hold a captive audience of tens of
thousands on a Twitch stream. Following 22 years, over 1 million units moved, hundreds of sold-out shows,
and half-a-billion streams, the GRAMMY® Award-nominated Florida quartet—Matt Heavy [vocals, guitar],
Corey Beaulieu [guitar], Paolo Gregoletto [bass], and Alex Bent [drums]—deliver a definitive statement cast
in ironclad guitar fireworks, pummeling rhythms, lyrical provocations, and stadium-shaking choruses on their
10th full-length offering, In The Court of the Dragon [Roadrunner Records]. It springs from the past, seizes the
present, and hints at the future of Trivium—and metal—all at once.