Trivium

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