Trivium

with special guests Whitechapel

The Trivium story began in earnest with the release of their Roadrunner debut, 2005’s Ascendancy; the perfect way to introduce the band — Heafy, guitarist Corey Beaulieu, bassist Paolo Gregoletto and drummer Travis Smith — to a newly revitalized global metal scene. The album exhibited great depth and musicality, and immediately set the band apart from the pack, turning them into one of the most widely hailed bands the genre had produced in years. In the US, Europe, Japan and Australia — and particularly in the UK, where Trivium shot from nowhere to conquering the annual Download Festival at Castle Donington and becoming a major headlining act — Heafy and co. were making major waves, touring relentlessly around the globe and building up a huge international fan base. Released in the autumn of 2006 — a mere 18 months after its predecessor — Trivium’s second Roadrunner release The Crusade was a massive milestone; a bold, and adventurous move that both consolidated their reputation as metal’s fastest rising young band and proved that unlike their peers, Trivium were more than happy to take a few risks in order to further nurture their art.

Buoyed by critical acclaim, a hugely positive response from the fans and a seemingly never-ending stream of high profile tours, including direct support to Metallica, a successful cross-Europe joint as special guests to Iron Maiden and a triumphant stint on the Ozzfest tour in the US, Trivium quickly threw themselves into the writing process for their magnum opus to be. There is a moment for every great band when everything comes together and a definitive musical identity emerges. For Trivium, Shogun is it. With lashings of vicious riffs that celebrate the band’s love of death, black and thrash metal, alongside the most incisive and memorable melodies the quartet have ever written.

Trivium have been threatening to make that final leap from established contenders to full-on metal heroes for the last few years, and with Shogun, their fourth and manifestly best album to date, they have clearly mastered the metal arts and are ready to step into the arena with the genre’s greats.

Now at last the Trivium juggernaut storms back on to New Zealand soil for their first performance in these lands since 2007’s Big Day Out. Accompanying them will be rapidly rising US deathcore lunatics Whitechapel, whose 2008 Metal Blade release This Is Exile has seen the tri-guitar terrors from Tennessee emerge as one of leading young bloods of global extreme metal and hardcore. With two of America’s heaviest ambassadors in town, these will be THE unmissable metal events of the New Zealand summer!