Photo Credit: Luke Daley - Makezure

Trivium’s Matt Heafy took some time out of the band’s busy touring schedule to catch up withFull Metal Jackie! He talked about what it was like to work with one of his childhood heros, David Draiman, the best compliment he has received about the band’s latest albumVengeance Fallsand what 14 year old Matt would say about his music!

Your latest LP, Vengeance Falls was produced by David Draiman from Disturbed. Matt, how did your relationship change from you being a fan once he became your working partner?

It was amazing. David took such good care of us. He became a mentor, a friend and a producer, a vocal coach, so much. When we werent being incredibly diligent and working regimented schedules in the studio, we were all just hanging out and doing the same thing. We all share the same love for food and hanging out, friends and family. It was a really great time. We all share the same humor, which was amazing. All five of us were always joking about the same stupid stuff. Its great to have him as someone I was such a fan of as a kid, and still am, but someone thats a friend now.

Now that fans have had a chance to really get familiar with Vengeance Falls, whats been the best compliment youve heard so far?

Whenever we play Strife for example, the entire crowd sings the intro guitar part,Iron Maidenstyle. Thats one of the biggest compliments that could ever be given. A non-spoken compliment, just the fact that people are singing along like that. Every time Ive ever seen Maiden and they go into Fear of the Dark, or any of their songs where people sing the guitar parts which is pretty much all of them, Ive always wanted that as a kid and to now have that on so many of our songs, especially our new songs, its amazing.

Matt, you were barely a teenager when Trivium started. Youve grown up onstage over the course of the last 14 years or so. Personally and musically, what would surprise the 14-year-old you about Matt Heafy as an adult?

At 14, I was probably at my most extreme metal phase. I didnt like anything with singing. I didnt like any mainstream bands. I was only into black metal and thrash and anything that was popular, I wasnt into it. Fourteen-year-old me, he probably wouldnt get whats going on now. He probably wouldnt be as much of a fan of the melodies as Im into now. Its sort of what I grew into, being into things with melodicism. My favorite metal bands, Ill always quote Iron Maiden and those bands have melody, things you can sing. Whether its guitar parts, drum parts of vocal parts. When I was at my most extreme back then, I wasnt into that. I didnt get that.

Now? Im able to incorporate all of it. There are a lot of other peer bands of ours now a days that are kind of doing the same thing. Bands that came from an extreme background that are writing more anthemic songs that people across all musical spectrums can get. But, with us we still do inject our extreme metal backgrounds death metal, black metal and melodic death metal thats a big part of our sound. I guess maybe its not seen as much when theres singing on top of it, but its very much so there. The 14-year-old wouldnt get where Im at now.

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