Corey Beaulieu, the lead guitarist for TRIVIUM took some time to chat with us back stage at this year’s ROCKSTAR ENERGY DRINK MAYHEM FESTIVAL. We talked mainly about their process of making their new record In Waves (Roadrunner) which came out on August 9th.
TRIVIUM dropped their new album In Waves in August.
MAA: What is more fun: the side stage or the main stage?
CB: Today is our first show on the main stage. We have done other tours where we played the main stage and it sucked because nobody else was there. But this is gonna be pretty cool because from what I’ve seen even during the first band, the main stage has been pretty packed in. There are a portion of fans that don’t even go to the side stages and half the crowd just goes to the main stage. So they are just waiting there for the main stage to start and we will get to play for a few thousand more people than normal. The more people the better and we love playing on the bigger stage. We have been chomping at the bit waiting for our turn to play the main stage. So we will try to impress everybody. (laughs)
MAA: How is the new material meshing with the older tracks from in the set list?
CB: It works great! Even though the songs are on the Internet, and as big as the Internet is, or how big people think the Internet is; it’s kind of cool that people are unaware that we have new songs out. Even people that are fans. So we’ve been playing the stuff. A lot of people have been getting into the songs and learn `em which his cool. On the side stage we played two new songs. Today for the main stage we’re going at switch it up. We will do a slightly different set for the main stage which is cool, with a different songs that we think will go over really well with more singing and the bigger PA. So it will be really cool.
MAA: What can fans expect from In Waves when it comes out?
CB: It’s just a full on fucking metal TRIVIUM album. It has a lot of diversity. We think this album really defines what we are. We have taken our sound, everything we have ever done and expanded on it even more. We just made our own little world going on that sounds like TRIVIUM. It will showcase everything we do well. You have to listen to it as a whole because there is lots of shit going on. Everybody stepped it up to another level individually, performance wise and what we do as a band. We really got to capture what our band is all about on record.
MAA: As far as record producers go what is Colin Richardson like to work with compared to Jason Suecoff or Nick Raskulinicz?
CB: He’s very detail orientated. Other records we have done we used record and then go back later on and re-track guitars or re amp them and fix things. Just get it tracked and then go back and fix the important details later. On this record we spent six days getting drum sounds and four days getting guitar sounds before we ever recorded a note. It was really inspiring to record the entire time with killer sounding instruments. Just the way it sounded made us play better. We really tried to nail down what we wanted the record to sound like it was supposed to from the very beginning instead of at the end. It helped bring out all the intensity and emotion and really helped us get what we had in our heads out of us and on to the record. Colin is amazing with tones. He and his team were instrumental in helping us make the best sounding record we could. Sonically we were able to make the best sounding record we have every put out.
MAA: Did you and Matt add any interesting new guitar techniques to your repertoire to prepare for the album?
CB: I think this record is really cool because we really tried to find our own individual niche on this one. Matt felt his best attribute for the solos was the more simple, soulful solos. He felt we really needed to separate our styles more. I did what I normally do and he changed mostly. Matt went the more melodic route, just more simple tasteful solos. I just wanted to craft really strong solos, not about being the fastest or how technical you could play. It was about being more memorable, hooky and better overall. Some of the solos are very fast with with quick little parts so you had to come up with something cool to make an impact. Some shit off the top of your head just kind of happened and I was like “I can’t believe I really thought of that!” The only thing I added was some crazy, wacky tapping shit, like some Guthrie Govan stuff that I learned right before we recorded. And I thought “Well I’ll try that!” and it just worked out. There is some really difficult, blazing fast string-skipping stuff that is really hard to do. Everything I just normally did before, I’ve gotten better at. I definitely played the best leads I’ve done and got the best tone too. Definitely more advanced and mature. (laughs)
TRIVIUM will be supporting their label mates DREAM THEATER on tour this fall.
MAA: Who is the guitar player on Mayhem Fest in your opinion that you want to watch everyday?
CB: It has to be MEGADETH, hands down. MEGADETH is my favorite band ever. The Rust In Peace album change my life when I was a lot younger. I had never heard lead guitar playing like that before. Marty Friedman is one of my main idols, but Chris Broderick plays that shit really perfectly. Even though Friedman is not here anymore, Broderick is unreal at guitar. And Dave Mustaine is Dave, he’s the fucking man. I have easily watched MEGADETH more than any other band and if I can’t watch their entire set because I have other shit going on, I try to catch at least part of it. Broderick is such a sick guitarist, he makes me feel like I suck when I watch him. He’s just ridiculous, just sickeningly good.
Major thanks to everyone who attended our event last night at IDLE HANDS BAR in Manhattan! The drinks were flowing and the metal was cranking. The new TRIVIUM album is in stores now so I hope you all go and pick that up. Also, I want to take some time and give a special thanks to TRIVIUM and Roadrunner, especially Chris over there, for allowing us to put this together.
Our next METAL ARMY NIGHT in NYC will be on September 13th, when we return to Idle Hands Bar for more metal and alcohol! Stay tuned for more info on that night and the new nights that we are planning for other cities around the country!
METAL ARMY NIGHT is upon us once again. At 9PM, we will descend upon IDLE HANDS BAR in Manhattan and take over for the rest of the night serving up drink specials, special guests, heavy metal and the only official release party for TRIVIUM’s ‘In Waves’. Stop by to hear the new album in it’s entirety as well as other metal classics while you have some drinks and hang with other metal heads from across the five boroughs!
I will admit that I have liked something about every one of TRIVIUM’s albums up to now. Ember to Inferno (Lifeforce) started it off back in 2003. While they might have seemed like a novelty at the time (their relative youth, the budding neo-thrash movement, metalcore) they have grown a lot over the years into a solid act on record and an excellent live proposition. Front man Matt Heafy, who is still just twenty five years old, has become a very accomplished songwriter and vocalist in the preceding time. From his own band to projects like being one of the leaders of the Roadrunner United album, Heafy has been plotting a course in metal all pointing to this time and place in the bands career. Just prior to reviewing this new album I got to hear some of these new songs live for the first time at the Mayhem Festival. In Waves definitely continues the growth arc of the group.
With the opening piano and military drums of the intro of “Capsizing The Sea” you get a nice bit of drama to begin the album. They came on stage to this live before launching into the title track which is also the first single. The song is an uptempo chugging rocker with equal parts metalcore, modern metal and active rock. Heafy, to his credit has never apologized for having a great melodic singing voice nor should he. At the same time his screaming style, which he went away for a few albums has now been brought back en masse. He sounds super harsh and truly killer on these parts. The cool melodic verses and balls out hardness of the chorus is a nice change from the norm and I dig it. Heafy also doesn’t get enough credit for his introspective and philosophical lyrics. “Inception of The End” is a more thrash/melodic death metal inspired affair with even more light/dark vocal work played to full effect. The song has some of the best guitar riffs on the album between Matt and lead guitarist Corey Beaulieu. Both of them have continued to improve as lead players as evident by several striking solos on the album. Also, recent addition Nick Augusto is a big improvement on the drums over departed founding member Travis Smith. Augusto’s pounding rhythms and inventive beats have definitely helped the band step up more than in the past. There is even some blast beasts that show up for accents on some songs! “Dusk Dismantled” is another harsh song that was leaked early by the band and is already a big hit live. I definitely hear a LAMB OF GOD influence on this song and it surely one of the hardest, most straight up songs the band has ever done. The combination of growling lead vocals and hardcore backing vocals on the chorus is well done and it’s cool to see the band explore some new ground. “Watch the World Burn” is one of the more catchy songs on the album with an almost active rock verse. The infectious melodies can not be denied and I suspect this song will be a video/single at some point. This idea continues for the rest of the album with some radio friendly tunes like “Black” and second single “Built to Fall” mixed in with more tough songs like “A Skyline’s Severance” and “Drowning In Slow Motion”. I also like the acoustic guitar jamming of “Ensnare the Sun”. The bonus version of the album has many extra tracks like the God of War III video game song “Shattering the Skies Above” and a cover of SEPULTURA’s “Slave New World”.
Tomorrow, we return with one of our coolest METAL ARMY NIGHTS yet! We will be taking over Idle Hands Bar in Manhattan for the official TRIVIUM ‘In Waves’ release party and you do not want to miss this killer event! We will be playing ‘In Waves’ in its entirety AND we’ll give away a special edition copy of the record to one of the fine fans who joins us. There will also be great drink specials and tons of other metal playing throughout the night! Show up at 9PM and be on the look out for some of our special guests that will be hanging out!
TRIVIUM will release ‘In Waves’ tomorrow via Roadrunner Records and is currently playing the main stage of Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival throughout North America.
As I announced last week, METAL ARMY NIGHT is back this coming Tuesday (August 9th) and we are taking over Idle Hands Bar in Manhattan. Not only that, but this is sure to be the biggest, coolest Metal Army Night yet as we are the only official release party for TRIVIUM’s new opus ‘In Waves’. Come join us at Idle Hands bar for drink specials, prizes, special guests and to hear thew new TRIVIUM album in it’s entirety!
This will be one of the best events of the month so make sure you get there and rock out with us! Metal Army Night will kick off at 9PM on Tuesday (August 9th)!
Idle Hands Bar is located at 25 Avenue B (downstairs) in New York, NY.
It was announced yesterday that IN FLAMES have been forced to drop off of the rest of Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, effective immediately. The press release says that this cancellation was caused by “a serious terminal illness of one the band’s immediate family members”. While we don’t know any specifics, this is a completely understandable reason to leave the festival and we here at Metal Army wish all the best to the IN FLAMES guys and their families during this troubling time.
‘Sounds of a Playground Fading’ is out now via Century.
Tomorrow, I will see ALL SHALL PERISH live for the first time in several years. They are currently out on the road as part of the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival and today is the day that they release their highly anticipated new album ‘This Is Where It Ends’. Now, from that album, the band has launched their new David Brodsky directed clip for “There Is Nothing Left”.
Check it out now and be sure to catch the band on Mayhem Fest. The new album from ASP has made it’s way around the Metal Army Compound and EVERYONE here loves it. Trust us…
Disturbed during happier (and brighter, apparently) times.
DISTURBED’s 2008 album was titled ‘Indestructible’, however it appears that the band is anything but if you’ve heard what their singer David Draiman has to say. In fact, Draiman revealed to an Idaho radio station that the nu-metal nuisances may be calling it quits after the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival wraps this summer. He revealed:
“We don’t know what we’re doing… We’re not gonna do our own thing either. This is gonna be the last tour that the American people get to see us in for a while, if not indefinitely. We have some things going on internally, we have some personal things going on. So I don’t know. It’s hard to tell.”
Could it be? COULD IT BE???? Are we finally going to get rid of this fucking fungus that has infested the hard music scene for more than a decade? All I can say is that I was recently backstage at a show that DISTURBED was performing at and there weren’t any… ahem obvious problems to speak of so this appears to be some kind of personality clash. One can only hope that it’s irreconcilable differences!
