Bullet for My Valentine: ‘People Are Scared to Admit They Like Our Band’

"Everything we've done has just been a very, very natural progression in building our fans over the last 10 years," reflects singer Matt Tuck of Bullet for My Valentine to Noisecreep. "It's just kind of a little bit of people across the board from acoustic rock fans to extreme metal fans kind of like what we do because there's an element of a lot of stuff going on. And even though people kind of -- for some reason -- are scared to admit that they do like our band, [someone] must be buying the records or coming to the shows, because we've become quite successful over the last several years."

Successful for sure. To date, the band has sold over two million records worldwide. Even still, Tuck says the evolution of his band's sound has nothing to do with chart position or record sales. It's just organic songwriting from experience. Even about the experience and writing for personal expression, Tuck says he 'gets' why metal purists might get nervous by his band.

"It's probably not cool to like hard rock or hard metal," theorizes Tuck. "That's the only reason I can think of. If they like [a certain] kind of metal or style of music but with hunky chords and stuff, that's not classed as 'metal.' I think if you're a hardcore metal fan, that's kind of a no-no. Our songs are just kind of infectious. So I'm sure a lot of people do like it even though they won't admit to it."

Like most professional musicians, Tuck doesn't wear his metal on his sleeve. Instead, he loves all sorts of music, without fear of crossing 'forbidden' genre lines.

He says, "I can't see the mentality behind closing up your musical taste because you're afraid of what people might think. That's kind of a bit of the opposite of what music is. It's about freedom and freedom of speech and creativity and enjoying an art form -- and people that won't allow that into their lives for the sake that someone might think it's not a cool thing. It's just pathetic really. It's kind of sad."

Bullet for My Valentine are touring this spring behind 'Fever.'