This websites’ long term admiration for Trivium is no secret. So when we were afforded an audience last month backstage at the 2015 Bloodstock Open Air Festival ahead of Trivium’s headline performance at Catton Hall understandably we jumped at the chance. The band were generous hosts as they always are, and guitarist Corey Beaulieu was happy to talk to – so much so we’ve had to divide this interview into two parts. This first part focuses on Trivium’s new album Silence In The Snow which is now just a few days away from being released. So without any more build up, it’s over to Corey!
Why the decision to release ‘Silence In The Snow’ as the first single for the album?
We just felt that it was the best representation of what the record’s all about. The basis of the song was written back in 2007 – it’s always lingered around and it kept coming up; we liked the idea of the song just it never really fit with anything that we were doing up until now. We were on tour, I think in the UK with Killswitch Engage; we were in the dressing room and I played it on my ipod, and then that song kinda became the catalyst of starting what became this record. It all spawned from bringing that idea back. We eventually fine-tuned it and rewrote a lot of parts because originally we’d stopped working on it after only a little bit! Once we’d finished it, we felt it was a great track that really showed what we were doing on this record. Nothing on this record really steps on another’s toes though, I think that song stands out on its own, and then hopefully all the other tracks follow suit!
Was Silence written around the time of a lot of the Shogun stuff?
That was when we first worked on it. We were touring on The Crusade record and we opened for Heaven and Hell in Japan. Paolo and I particularly had both been Dio fans for a long time. Matt knew Dio, and the Heaven and Hell and Sabbath stuff that Dio did. The venue we were playing – I think it was in Nagoya, Japan – the balcony was closed to the public so we just all went up there to watch the show. So, we basically had our own balcony show! Matt was really blown away by seeing Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler, y’know, legends and the godfathers of heavy metal. He was really inspired and started that song afterwards, so all the main riff and melodies just stem from that show. It became a focal moment in our history and our manager would always bug us about working on that song or using it for something and we just felt that at this time, doing this record, it was time to dust it off and give it the love that we never did back then because we had so much material! People hearing Shogun back then and hearing Shogun now, you can definitely see why it wasn’t used. It just didn’t fit with the rest of that record. There’s a lot of songs which we did that were all over the map that didn’t fit with that album.
Are there other songs that use 7-strings on the album?
Yes. There’s actually more seven string than six string on this record and there’re new tunings and all sorts of fun stuff. Everyone that’s heard it has said that start to finish it’s an awesome listen.
Who’s producing the new album?
We worked with Elvis Baskette, he’s on a lot of stuff including the new Slash record and Alter Bridge.
Why did you choose not to work with David again?
Every record we kinda work with someone new that fits the sound of the record. This time around, with scheduling as well, we talked to Draiman and knew that 2015 was the time they were planning to come back with their own record. We didn’t know if they were working on anything else, but we just knew that we wanted to do it in Florida and Elvis is an Orlando guy too. It’s always fun to work with different people and find the right person that will fit with what we’re doing on each particular record.
What was Ihsahn’s role on Silence In The Snow?
We finished the record and we were getting ready to mix it – we had the first couple of songs done. Once we figured out Silence In The Snow would be the title and the track for the record… we hadn’t done an intro in awhile and we really wanted something to cap off the whole vibe of the record with the artwork and the music. We had a different piece for a different song that we thought would then be the opening track but we weren’t totally sold on it. Matt’s really good friends with Ihsahn so we hit him up and sent him the song. We gave him an idea of a very cinematic Hans Zimmer Inception-ish sound and then just let him do his thing with it. He just took the main melody and idea and pretty much nailed it! It’s exactly what we envisioned as the record having as a piece to open the entire thing up.
Each Trivium album has had a unique sound. How would you describe ‘Silence In The Snow’?
It’s like… a classic metal influence with a modern twist to it. Pretty much everything we like about heavy metal and everything we do as a band over the years; just experimenting with sounds, experimenting with different song ideas. This far into our career we’ve pushed ourselves and developed our craft that we’re able to make something that is exactly what we envisioned from the start.
It always feels like Trivium can get another album out a lot faster than other bands, why is this?
We write pretty fast. There are three people in the band that write songs and to write enough material for a record… that’s about ten songs. Each of us can write ten songs on our own so there’s no shortage of ideas!! We’re pretty quick workers and it doesn’t take us long in the studio. We probably would have been quicker if we didn’t run into some issues with scheduling post-record for the mixing. But we did it [Silence In The Snow] pretty fast and we didn’t talk about it in advance either so no one knew what we were doing. We had the record done by, probably, March/April. We love writing and we already have some stuff written for the next one. Who knows when that will be…
Trivium’s brand new album Silence In The Snow is released on the 2nd of October 2015 through Roadrunner Records. The second part of our huge interview with Trivium’s Corey Beaulieu will be available later this week, along with a review of Silence In The Snow, so please stay tuned for Rock Sins for lots more from the world of Trivium.
