Tremonti & Trivium: The HardDrive Live Tour

Dedication breeds the best results. Grammy Award-winning
multiplatinum guitarist and singer Mark Tremonti continues to wholeheartedly commit
himself to his craft, barely drawing a breath for air in between his eponymous band, Alter Bridge, and Creed. Following tours supporting his critically acclaimed 2012 so
lo debut, All I Was, and Alter Bridge’s chart-topping
Fortress, he immediately began writing in his Orlando Studio
at the top of 2014. Joined by longtime guitarist Eric “Erock” Friedman, drummer Garrett Whitlock, and bassist Wolfgang Van Halen—a studio first—Tremonti penned more than twenty-five songs over the course of multiple sessions.
“We wanted to do a ton of songs,” he affirms. “I decided to take my entire catalog of
material, get everything out, and purge it. On All I Was, we couldn’t spend as much time on pre-production. Now, we took the time to tear the songs apart and put them back together again so they could become as dynamic as possible. That helped make the new music what is.”

Emerging from the most prolific period of his two-decade career, Tremonti delivers
successive albums—Cauterize and Dust—on his Fret12 Records with production by
Michael "Elvis" Baskette [Alter Bridge/Slash]. With Cauterize leading the charge in
summer 2015 and Dust following in the near future, the one-two punch of modern
thrash and melody that has become the group’s signature fuels this engine, but
Tremonti tweaks it with a polyrhythmic jackhammer at just the right moments. As a
result, the music stands at a crossroads between timeless metal, infectious hard rock,
and progressive pummeling. “We were going after three elements,” he goes on. “To me, melody is the most important part of any song. Combining that with speed
metal is the most rewarding aspect of assembling the music. Then, we color the songs with a modern twist of polyrhythms. It makes a statement.”

Blasting out of the gate, “Radical Change” tempers a galloping guitar assault and
double bass charge with an unshakable refrain as a searing lead explodes on impact.
“It’s about somebody facing a huge change in his or her life and feeling the weight of the
world,” he explains. “If you equated it to my life, it could be when Creed was breaking
up. I was taking that step in a new direction as all of these decisions weighed down on
me.”
“Flying Monkeys”—titled as such because it could serve as the perfect battle-cry for
The Wizard of Oz’s flying monkeys—churns out a chugging groove and another jarringly
catchy refrain. It could very well be the lovechild of Gojira and Alice In Chains, or a
glimpse at the future of heavy... “It’s one of my favorite riffs,” he grins. “The song itself discusses someone who takes a grudge to the grave and can’t forgive and forget. It’s
somebody I don’t want to be.

You’ve got to let go of that anger and resentment, but it’s not always easy.”
The single “Another Heart” punctuates a dominant distorted stomp with a gargantuan
melody. “It goes right to the heart of a hypocritical dark person,” continues Tremonti.
“Everyone has an individual like that in their lives.” On the other end of the spectrum, “Sympathy” rises out of intricate instrumentation into
a towering chorus worthy of stadiums. In many ways, it’s a
landmark moment for the
musician who has penned some of the biggest rock anthems i
n history.
“It enhanced the entire experience dynamically of
Cauterize
,” he says. “I love hard,
dark, and moody music, but moments like this really show yo
u how heavy the rest of the
album is. It’s the light and positive energy of the re
cord. It’s about the ups and downs of
life and fighting adversity at all times. You get knocked
down, but you’re driven to get by
whatever problems you’re having.”
Tremonti’s tenacity is as loud as his tone, and it course
s through
Dust
as well. The
second album touts battering ram intro of “My Last Mistake
,” the undeniable hum of
“Unable to See,” the expansive and enthralling title
track “Dust,” and more.
“On these records, we knew what we were capable of, and
we ran with it,” he asserts.
“The great thing about touring as a band is you realize
what songs excite you on the
road. That’s why when we got back into the studio, we f
ollowed the path we did and
fortified this sound.”
It’s a sound that continues to engage listeners. The gro
up sold out countless shows on
its first-ever tour in 2013 and has a full slate of dat
es lined up ahead—including
appearances at major festivals such as
Rock on the Range
,
Welcome to Rockville
, and
more as well as
ShipRocked
. Meanwhile,
All I Was
solidified them as a metallic force
with
Ultimate-Guitar
awarding it an impressive 9-out-of-10 and
Revolver
praising it with
4-out-of-5 stars.
However,
Cauterize
and
Dust
usher in the next age of Tremonti.
“I hope people can enjoy the music the way I do,” he le
aves off. “As we were recording,
there was this excitement amongst everyone. We go into ev
ery record questioning if
we’ll be able to outdo the previous album. That’s my g
oal—to make a better record
every time. If one fan thinks it’s better than
All I Was
, we’ve done our job.” –
Rick
Florino
, March 2015


With their fifth full-length album, In Waves, Trivium make a crucial statement.

It's a statement about writing their own rules about what it means to be a contemporary metal band. It's a statement that encompasses boundary-defying music, moods, movement, and visuals. It's a statement that's emblematic of their evolution. It's a statement that's going to impact anyone open to it.

While on the road in 2009, the first rumblings of In Waves began. Trivium vocalist and guitarist Matt Heafy had already started pondering the direction the band would take for their fifth offering. So far, they'd excelled at the standard hallmarks of the genre, and he wanted to do something new.

Each one of their albums—Ascendancy (2005), The Crusade (2006), and Shogun (2008)—garnered unanimous critical and fan acclaim. Ascendancy cemented the band's place in the metal-verse, selling over half-a-million copies worldwide.

Shogun debuted at #23 on the Billboard Top 200 and in the top 100 in 18 other countries. All over the globe, they rose to the ranks of metal elite, sharing the stage with everyone from Iron Maiden and Slipknot and dominating festivals such as Download, Rock Star Energy Drink Mayhem Festival and OZZfest. They'd done everything the way that a metal band is supposed to. However, even with all of this success, Heafy and his cohorts guitarist Corey Beaulieu, bassist Paolo Gregoletto, and drummer Nick Augusto had gotten frustrated with the state of metal and yearned to break out.

"In my opinion, this album really was a response to what we've ever done as a band and everything we're seeing in contemporary music," declares Heafy. " We want to take metal a step further. We're not going to tell anyone what In Waves means. We want to put imagination and creativity back in the mind of the listener."

Trivium let the music do the talking this time around. The title track and first single hinges on a pummeling polyrhythmic guitar groove that breaks into one of the band's most infectious choruses just before a haunting guitar melody sails off into the distance. Rather than simply modifying their sound, they expanded it with elegant sonic textures and crushingly calculated chaos. The technical prowess is tempered by a melodic sensibility often unexplored by bands in this genre.

About the song, Gregoletto explains, "To me, the 'In Waves' riff is what anger and hopelessness I felt would sound like if emoted musically. It was the first riff I wrote after we got off the road for Shogun, and it's inspirationally somewhere in between the technicality of Meshuggah and the straightforward groove of Sepultura, but it channels a new intensity. After that song, we weren't afraid to push ourselves out of familiar territory anymore."

"It was the turning point for the music," Heafy reveals. "It's got the simplest chorus we've ever had, and it meant something different to each of us. There's minimalist spin."

However, that simplicity breeds complexity as each song takes on a life of its own. "Inception of the End" drops from a speedy thrash air raid into an anthemic arena-filling refrain, while vocal harmonies climb alongside schizophrenic screams on "Watch the World Burn." "Of All These Yesterdays" takes flight on a propulsive hum and an off-kilter solo. Everything culminates during "Leaving This World Behind," which pairs a classically influenced acoustic guitar with a chilling scream and an orchestral, electronic undercurrent. "Built to Fall" shatters an off-time riff with a hyper-charged hook that sees Heafy channeling a new charisma.
(continued above)

The entire album moves and shifts like one fluid entity. Heafy adds, "There was a conscious effort to tie everything together. Since we pulled back on so much of the musical complexity, it was about the song and we were able to connect on a basic level. It wasn't about trying to insert another big word in the lyrics or another solo. We weren't worried about showing how technical or brutal we could sound. It was about making something great. When I simplified the lyrics, they were able to be translated into multiple definitions, expanding the album to a multi-purposed work of art."

In order to paint this aural pastiche, the band retreated to Paint It Black Studios in Altamonte Springs, FL with production triumvirate Colin Richardson [Machine Head, Bullet for My Valentine], Martyn "Ginge" Ford and Carl Bown in early 2011. The band had already conceived the vision for the album over two years of writing and volleying visual concepts around, so recording allowed the band to continue to experiment. Surprisingly, Heafy didn't turn to his iPod for inspiration though.

"On this record, my influences weren't music," he explains. "My influences were film and directors like David Lynch, Lars Von Trier, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Christopher Nolan. It was also the idea of modern art. I used to not get modern art and museums. I went to The Louvre four years ago and it got me into classical art. Then I started getting into modern art. I like modern art because it completely disregards all of the pre-set rules. Contemporary art can be anything. There is no right or wrong. That encouraged me on In Waves. We made the music we wanted to make."

In order to keep pushing the envelope, Trivium experimented with a myriad of sounds and textures, employing everything from cardboard tubes, fire extinguishers, napkins, and out-of-tune pianos to make sounds. Working with new drummer Nick Augusto in the studio also helped facilitate the process. Beaulieu exclaims, "Nick's a fantastic drummer, and he soaked everything up really quickly. We moved at such a fast pace together and we were able to accomplish a lot more in a short amount of time. It was a very creative, fast-moving, and enjoyable experience. Having that positive environment with Nick made it a lot more fun and it made the songs better."

However, the songs will ultimately continue to get better as their vision comes into clearer focus. Heafy sums it up best. "If a CD is like the soundtrack to a movie, In Waves is the entire film. It's everything. It's the soundtrack, the visuals, and the packaging. It's a full-on visual experience rather than being the standard format. The whole purpose of art is to inspire creativity and other art. No one made the album we wanted to hear yet so we made it ourselves. It's time to take metal to another place and bring in new people."