Trivium’s Matt Heafy on New Drummer Nick Augusto’s ‘Death Metal Roots’

When the news broke out last year that founding drummer Travis Smith was parting ways with Trivium, it sent shockwaves through the metal community. "It's a tricky thing to explain, but if you trace back Trivium's history, we were going through a bad time during 'The Crusade' period," says Matt Heafy to Noisecreep during a chat this week promoting 'In Waves,' Trivium's upcoming fifth album.

"Now I'm not saying that's because of Travis, but the chemistry within the band was definitely not working. We were on the verge of breaking up at that point. But we were able to patch things up and make it work a bit better after that. Then things started to fall apart again after we had been touring the 'Shogun' album [2008]," remembers Heafy. 'In Waves' is the first Trivium album to feature former Maruta drummer Nick Augusto, Smith's replacement.

Augusto's entrance into Trivium happened as smoothly as one could hope for. "Travis had to take some time off to take care of some personal stuff. We still had some touring that we had committed to so his drum tech was up for the challenge of coming in and playing the shows with us. From the very first day we played with him, we knew he was the right guy for the band," says the vocalist-guitarist.

Noisecreep asked Heafy what made Augusto such a great fit for Trivium. "Nick comes from a technical death metal and grindcore background so we knew he could handle anything we threw his way. His roots are in death metal and his skills gave us a lot of freedom in the songwriting. Having him with us brought back the creativity to the band and this new album shows that. Our music has never sounded as good live as it did on our records. These days when you come see us play live, we sound as good as the stuff on the albums. We haven't sounded better than we do now."

Listen to 'Inception of the End' from Trivium

Heafy doesn't think Trivium would have been able to create an album as ambitious as 'In Waves' without his new band mate. "Let's put it this way, 'In Waves' is a very ambitious record. If we didn't have the cohesiveness back in the band, we wouldn't have been able to pull it off. Roadrunner Records believed in our vision, but the band had to also be on the same page. The lineup change was an essential move and if we hadn't had gone through it, Trivium wouldn't exist today."

Trivium's 'In Waves' will hit stores on August 9th via Roadrunner Records and is available for presale at this link.