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Talent and
charisma are key ingredients for any professional musician,
but without dedication and perseverance, many bands quickly
fade to black. Then there are those like Orlando, Florida band
Trivium, who are so determined, their behavior borders on
insanity.
The day before Hurricane Charlie decimated Florida, Trivium
were playing the Masquerade in Atlanta. While they knew they
were up against their own Perfect Storm, they decided not
cancel the next night's show in their hometown. "We drove a
van with a trailer right through the eye of the hurricane," 18
year old singer and guitarist Matt Heafy says. "[Drummer]
Travis [Smith] drove the whole way and he was like Tom Cruise
in ‘ Mission: Impossible' or something. He just kept going and
we made it for the show." Showing his dedication Heafy says "we
all live for this band. We wake up, practice a little bit on
our own and then go to band practice and play for hours and
hours. That's all we do, and all we want to do for the rest of
our lives."
The same type of dedication and youthful exuberance goes into
the band's music. Ascendancy, the group's second album, their
first on Roadrunner Records, is filled with carefully crafted
songs that surge with energy, passion and originality. Like
their solid 2003 debut Ember To Inferno, Ascendancy is rooted
in ‘80s and 90's thrash, recalling the glory days of
Metallica, Slayer, Pantera and Testament. But, the new disc
doesn't stop there, incorporating aspects of melodic death
metal and even prog-rock. Twin guitar harmonies and point/counterpoint
dynamics abound, twisting around vocals that alternate from
melodic and pained to caustic and full of rage. "We had so
much more to work with this time," says Heafy of the Jason
Suecof-produced disc. "I had great guitar sounds, Travis is
playing like a machine and the vocals are so much more
multi-dimensional."
While the first album, lyrically, addressed romantic
disillusionment and child abuse, this time the songs confront
spousal abuse, suicide, depression, tyranny and freedom of
speech. However, even at his most poignant, Heafy prefers
expressing gut emotion to preaching. "I've found that when you
have a negative aspect in your life, you can find so much
negativity in other people's lives around you, and in the
world. For me, it's good to write about the negativity to get
some of it out of my system."
Trivium formed in 2000 after the band's original singer saw
Heafy perform the Offspring's "Self Esteem" with a drummer at
his high school talent show. The band members chose the name
Trivium, which is Latin for the intersection between the three
schools of learning: grammar, rhetoric and logic, 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 the wheel. For the next two years, the band honed
its sound, and in 2002 Heafy won the Best Metal Guitarist
Award at the Orlando Metal Awards. Trivium headed into the
studio in the beginning of 2003 to record their first
high-quality demo disc. From this, German label Lifeforce
signed Trivium and sent the band into the studio to record
Ember To Inferno.
After going through various lineups, the band finally found
guitarist Corey Beaulieu, who compliments Heafy's precision
playing with solid riffs that help anchor the songs. Landing a
bassist was even more difficult. Numerous players came and
went before Paolo Gregoletto, who has jammed with Iron Maiden
drummer Nicko McBrain, was brought in just in time for the
tour with Machine Head. Feeling so strongly about the group,
their music and their dedication to their craft, Paolo left
another group to be a part of Trivium.
By July 2004, Trivium had 80 percent of the material for
Ascendancy written and fine-tuned. Then in September, the band
headed into Audiohammer and Morrisound Studios with Suecof,
where they recorded the songs. As much as Trivium enjoyed
their studio experience, they're happiest on the road. In the
past year they've embarked on tours with Machine Head and Iced
Earth as well as played dates with Killswitch Engage, Fear
Factory and others, and won over new fans with every show. "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."
With their second album finished and on the shelf, Trivium
look forward to spending most of the year on the road – which
doesn't mean they're not constantly working on new material. |
