Trivium's Matt is Good to be Home for the Holidays

Trivium has been around for a long time, seven albums to their namesake, most recent being "Silence in the Snow", with them going on to re-release their debut album "Ember to Inferno" with tons of bonus content. Frontman vocalist/guitarist Matt Heafy discusses the re-release, acoustic material, as well as plans for other projects and more touring.


1. It's been 7 years since we last spoke, back then you had done the combined tours out in Hollywood, with Chimaria and Cannibal Corpse, do you remember that showcase?

Matt: I think, I do remember that show, Hatebreed was on it, Cannibal Corpse, yeah it sounds about right, it was awesome.

2. What has the band been up too since then, can you give me a brief summary.

Matt: Since then, touring obviously. It was a bit difficult to remember that show, but ever since 2004, we have been touring, being out on the road, constantly playing shows, touring, and releasing records and music. We have 7 albums out there, have done thousands upon thousands of shows, it's going good. Like is good right now, it's nice to finally have some down time, with a break happening right now.

 3. Why did you want to go and re-release/reissue your debut album "Ember to Inferno", what's the differences between the 2003 release and 2016's version?

Matt: Well originally "Ember to Inferno" was on a record label called Lifeforce Records, an independent German record label, they were the first label to express interest in us, when we released our first "blue" demo. It was self-titled as Trivium, so we released that locally. Our webmaster of our site as well as In Flame's site, had past it onto Lifeforce Records, who then had signed us.

So once signed, they went on to release the album, but when it was first released, it wasn't available everywhere, it didn't have the proper distribution, outside of the world. A year later it was then made available everywhere else. The contract with Lifeforce Records was pretty short, that it ended up expiring, so all of the rights, of the record itself had gone right back to me and the band.

Which is rare, for a band to retrain it's right back to its source. So I got everything back, but wanted to do it all the right way, waiting for the right time and moment. With this record " Ab Initio" meaning "from the beginning" in Latin, what I wanted to do was bring everyone up to speed of where the band had started up until now.

So with the "red" album that had recording's nobody had ever heard, where the "blue" album some people have heard it, the next being "Ember to Inferno" that's been out of print, then the next is the "yellow" demo, a 3-song release of tracks that got a more defined sound. So I wanted to just bring everyone up to speed with the beginning of the band with this re-release.

The difference would be, as far as the difference between the album, I didn't want to re-record or re-master the album, I wanted to keep it original, so everyone could enjoy it as it was then. The standard edition is that, untouched, just as it was back then. The deluxe edition has the red, blue, and yellow editions, of things people have not heard before.

The blue album having stuff people may or may have not heard. While the red album has material that no one has heard before. While the yellow album has a few songs that have been heard before, so it's a ton of extra bonus of music, with brand new artwork as well.

4. Which do you prefer to own as far as a collection goes, CDs, Vinyl, cassettes, or mp3s and why?

Matt: My whole life it was always CD's, having an extensive CD collection. But recently I had taken my CD collection, to a music shop, for store credit towards my vinyl collection, and have been building upon that. I have an extensive collection of classic rock vinyl from family and friends. A mixture of other stuff in my collection from folk, blues, black metal, etc.

I am a fan of black metal quite a bit, and while it has influenced our sound as Trivium, we won't be going full force with that direction of genre. But I am doing a solo project that is more focused on the black metal genre, where I have been working with one of the guys from the band Emperor. So someday there will be sometime of that coming together and us doing that for sure.

5. Will we be seeing anymore Trivium releases, receiving a re-release treatment?

Matt: Well there is no more, to release after this album. Everything that is out, is out for us, this is it, as far as this re-release of our material.

6. Do you have any new music in the works in terms of a follow-up to "Silence in the Snow"?

Matt: Right now, no plans on recording any new material. Aside from us touring in the New Year, in Europe, we just finished up a tour here in the U.S. But no plans as of now for recording new music.

7. You have yet to release a live album or live DVD, when can we expect to see one of those from you guys?

Matt: We have always wanted to do it. We just don't know when we are going to do it, but have always wanted to do it.

8. Will we ever hear Trivium's material in acoustic format?

Matt:  Yeah, quite a bit of that has been out, and is out right now actually. There are versions of all sorts of songs in acoustic format, going around. There hasn't been an actual Trivium acoustic record yet. I don't think there will ever be an actual acoustic record.

9. What did you all do for Halloween this year.

Matt: This year Halloween, we were off tour, so we had a get together at my house, where I dressed up as one of the characters from The Walking Dead.

10. How about the rest of the yearly holidays, what plans do you all have for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve/Day?

Matt: Yeah just family, hanging out with family and friends. We aren't normally on tour during those holidays. Sometimes we had been but not this time. So it will be nice to be able to be at home with everyone.

11. Anything else you'd like to say or want to add on?

Matt: It's just going to be us rehearsing between now and the New Year, to get ready for the European tour, but now it's just spending time at home, as a well deserved break, needed for everyone. It's been good to be home.