Trivium ProfileMatt Heafy, the lead vocalist and guitarist of the American heavy metal band Trivium, is the last person you’d expect to leave the band.
However, in a new interview with Metal Hammer, Heafy admitted that last year, he very nearly left the band he’s fronted for over 25 years. In the interview, he explained that changing dynamics within the group almost pushed him to the breaking point.
“[Our] chemistry starts falling apart a little bit,” he told the publication. “Not from one person, not from me, but it’s just the sum of its parts. Things aren’t going right. Quiet explosion. I’m tracking guitars. I stand up. I leave. I call [my wife] Ashley. I’m like, ‘I’m done with this fucking band. I can’t do this shit anymore. It’s 26, 27 years of this shit that just keeps happening.’”
Heafy explained that, at the time, he was at a converted hangar the band uses for rehearsals and writing. He started driving, convinced he was about to quit the band, when his wife helped convince him otherwise.
“Ashley lets the dust settle, and she’s like, ‘You’re not quitting the band. You can’t quit the band. You’re part of this band. You’ve got to figure this out. Go back to the studio.’”
Heafy ultimately reversed his decision to quit the band but told Metal Hammer that internal issues persisted.
Those problems resulted in the departure of drummer Alex Bent. Without elaborating further on the line-up change, Heafy said that sometimes changes happen for the good of a relationship, band, or whatever the situation entails.
“Sometimes, when there’s a change, when your favourite married couple gets divorced, you break up with your girlfriend, you get fired from your job, you fire someone from your company, sometimes things have to happen for the survival of the ‘whole,’ or the ‘whole’ will not survive anymore,” he explained.
“[Trivium] would have been gone. It would have been done. We made the correction, and now we are tighter live than we’ve ever been.”
Earlier this month, Trivium returned to Australia on a co-headline tour with fellow US metal outfit Lamb of God. Reviewing the band’s performance at Melbourne’s John Cain Arena, The Music’s Monique La Terra wrote:
Over the speakers, the instrumental The End of Everything signalled the band's arrival before Rain and Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr sent the room into overdrive.
The latter remains one of Trivium's most enduring anthems, sounding every bit as savage live, with singer Matt Heafy switching effortlessly between clean choruses and guttural screams, all with a healthy dose of Gene Simmons tongue wagging.
