MUSIC FEATURE: The Importance Of Trivium’s Passion To Share Great Music With Their Fans

Gateway bands are beyond important. No matter what smug edge lords on the comment section of the internet will tell you, no one’s first favourite band is Napalm Death.

Gateway bands help us all discover our taste for something new, and they should also help us move beyond that as well. They’re the appetiser that suggest the best main course. Gateway bands should be curators of really great music that goes beyond them for their audience.

Sadly, too few bands actually do this. They’re at the mercy of managers and booking agents and strategy and projections and other incredibly tedious things that have nothing to do with the vital rush of discovering new music, and that is reflected in the bands they tour with. Uninspired bills overflowing with industry favours and Facebook stats are at risk of flooding the touring circuit these days.

Trivium aren’t that band though. Trivium are a band who aren’t just passionate about their own music, but passionate about all music. Like any rabid fan of music, they can’t wait to share music they love with their friends and when you’re a band, anyone who supports your music is much more a friend than a stranger.

For years now Trivium have been proudly supporting bands they love, vocalising their support on stage, through interviews and on their shirts. Your first loves always inform your future loves, and the best gateway should bands do the same. In the playlist age, we could all do with more bands like Trivium to guide us. Algorithms and haircuts just don’t do it the same way someone telling you why they love something does.

If you listen to Trivium’s latest record, the borderline stunning The Sin and The Sentence, then you’re presented with a bold and exciting mix of black metal extremity, rich melody and blistering technicality played with the kind of joyous abandon that only comes from sincere passion. Trivium are their own band, clearly confidently in love with what they do, and just as desperate to share all those influences with you in case you find something else you love. ??This current tour package is just the latest example of Trivium’s desire to share great music with their fans. Not only that though, it’s a bold statement of confidence from a band so deep into their career that they would risk bringing bands on the brink of their peak to open for them without fear.

If more rock bands wrote music in the way Trivium do, and booked tours like this, then no one would ever take the phrase “guitar music is dead’ even remotely seriously. Sure, the band don’t book their supports themselves, but no one forces them to take such public pride in their supports. Mind you, with a bill this strong you’d be hard pressed not to talk about it:

Code Orange

Touted by some as a revelation, Code Orange are an undeniably formidable band. A contemporary blend of a huge range of heavy music styles from hardcore to industrial to extreme metal and grunge in a way that is immediately compelling. Despite the vague and borderline cult-ish language they deal in, it’s obvious that a band emboldened with this much talent and self belief are a serious force to be reckoned with.

Power Trip

The heritage bands produced great music, there’s no two ways about it; but they could also use a nice sit down. If you’re still thirsty for classic serrated guitar tones and grooves then Power Trip will quench your desires – and potentially spin kick you in the teeth immediately afterwards. This isn’t nostalgia though, but much more of an expert homage to great fueled by youthful vigour.

Venom Prison

Death metal is always going to be pretty niche, but niche doesn’t mean a lack of mass appeal. Bringing a flair for catchy arrangements and dark melody to the sound, without sacrificing the obnoxious extremity that makes death metal so satisfying in the first place, Venom Prison are kicking open the door for a new generation of death metal fans. Add to that their unique lyrical twist, turning the schlock horror misogyny of death metal past on it’s head, and you’ve got a band perfectly placed to be leaders of the future pack.

See Trivium, Code Orange, Power Trip and Venom Prison on tour at one of the following UK dates:

April

Mon 16th – BRISTOL – O2 Academy
Tue 17th – BIRMINGHAM – O2 Academy
Thu 19th – GLASGOW – Barrowlands
Fri 20th – MANCHESTER – Academy
Sat 21st – LONDON – O2 Brixton Academy