“In my heart, I believe this is going to be the metal tour of 2025,” grins Matt Tuck, sat opposite his co-conspirator Matt Heafy, in the bustling bar area of the Sanctum Hotel in central London, as they prepare for a press conference to announce a tour that’s been 20 years in the making.
Next year, Bullet For My Valentine and Trivium will be performing their landmark albums (The Poison and Ascendancy, respectively) back-to-back on the suitably titled The Poisoned Ascendancy Tour. Kicking things off in the UK next January – “back to where it all started first,” Heafy nods – the double-header will cover the entire planet, giving OG fans and new converts the chance to relive that pivotal period in metal when everything felt so alive.
“If you were around in that era, 2005-6, that two-year period, if you were in the scene – whether you were 16 or 60 – that was a proper moment for metal,” says Tuck. “Nothing compares to how special that moment was. That’s why we want to do it and why we want to do it with a band like Trivium who were experiencing that exact same moment at the exact same time.”
The Poison and Ascendancy sent both bands into the stratosphere overnight – Main Stage sets at Download, tours with Maiden and Metallica, Kerrang! covers, and gaining legions of fans across the globe. Or what Tuck succinctly describes as “fairytale shit”.
And now, after two decades of riding that high and flying the metal flag, they’re taking it back to the source with the ultimate celebration of 2000s metal.
“The weird thing is we’re going to play it in order, and Tears Don’t Fall is fourth on the record,” the Bullet frontman laughs. “It’s going to be really weird not closing with it or having it as the encore or something like that. After 20 minutes, it’s done.
“We still have to work out the realities of what the set’s going to entail length-wise, because we don’t want to be on that stage so long it affects changeovers and travel times for crowds,” he continues. “I think 75 minutes seems like the right amount of time, both albums come in around 55 minutes, then you get to have 20 minutes of whatever you want. From a crowd perspective, that’s probably enough as well (laughs). You’re just getting your ears and head assaulted by heavy metal for three fucking hours!”
Before they start working out the logistics of pulling off such a monumental tour, however, the two Matts take us through how the tour came about, what makes those albums so important, what they love about each other’s bands…
So guys, where did this tour idea come from?
Matt Tuck: “We wanted to do something to do a 20th anniversary of The Poison, and we just needed to find that perfect dance partner. And it’s been there all along: Trivium and Ascendancy, Trivium and Bullet. I couldn’t think of a better band to celebrate an anniversary with. It’s what the fans want, it’s what the bands have wanted for so long, it’s just taken this long to do it. It’s celebrating a milestone year of both of our bands’ existence, and of albums that our fanbases hold so dear – the albums that started this whole journey for both of us, really. It was a very important album for us personally and for metal music around the world.”
Matt Heafy: “I first got into Bullet in 2005; the first time I came over [to the UK], the EP was out and it was incredible. To hear another band taking the ingredients that we’d been inspired by but doing it in their own way, with their own unique sound… and when you hear a Bullet riff you know it’s Bullet – that’s the kind of thing I love. It’s a band we’re fans of and have been pals with, but as Matt alluded to, this tour happening now, 20 years later, will be 20 times better than it would have been back then. I think it’s going to be an absolutely massive thing.”
What is it about the songs from both albums that still resonate with fans 20 years later?
Matt Heafy: “We all weren’t thinking about it, we were just making what we wanted to make as fans of music. That’s what connected with fans so much.”
Matt Tuck: “It’s the fearless aspect of being young and hungry and not having a back-catalogue or a fanbase to worry about, or press, or all the things that get in your head as albums go on. It can influence you and sway you in certain ways. But I think they’re special because they were made in a way that was so pure because we didn’t give a fuck, we were just doing it for ourselves. Nothing existed until after these were created, so I think that’s why they’re so special. It was the right albums and the right time for a lot of metalheads as well, coming off the back of the nu-metal scene. Timing and stars aligning and all that beautiful stuff.”
Do you remember the first time you heard Ascendancy?
![Trivium - Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr [OFFICIAL VIDEO]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/d0dD59FYxJ4/hqdefault.jpg?auto=compress&fit=max&w=3840)
Matt Tuck: “I was given it by our agent at the time, Paul, who’s still Trivium’s agent. We’d just released our EP and were making The Poison, I remember taking it back to The Chapel Studio where we made The Poison in Lincolnshire, putting it on and going, ‘Fuck.’ Like, ‘Holy shit, this is what we’re trying to make.’ Trivium is far more technical than Bullet, but it was the rawness, the DNA, that kind of young, fierce sound but done in a contemporary way while having these traditional elements. I was so inspired. Not only were we in a studio making our debut album, but I had this as fuel to be like, ‘Right, these are our guys. This is us, this is what we need to achieve as well. This is what we’re trying to do, in our own way.’
“It was a phenomenal record, it had a huge impact on my life and the band’s life, it was the kick up the arse that we needed to get us over the line in a time where we were a little unsure over what was going on. Even though we were fearless and being brave and living our dream, it was still a moment where we didn’t wanna fuck it up. We’d never done it before, so to hear a young band from overseas hitting the nail on the head, it was like, ‘Okay boys, let’s do this.’ It was a really powerful moment.”
