Matt Heafy has disclosed that he nearly walked away from Trivium last year during what he described as a “quiet explosion” bubbling within the band.
Amid the group’s North American tour marking two decades of Ascendancy, scheduled for 2025, tensions rose to nearly the breaking point.
He told Metal Hammer that their chemistry was beginning to crumble somewhat.
“Not due to any one person—myself included—but it’s the sum of its parts. Things aren’t working right. A quiet explosion. I’m tracking guitars. I stand up. I leave. I call Ashley. I tell her I’m done with this blasted band. I can’t take this crap anymore. It’s 26, 27 years of this pattern that keeps recurring.”
It was his wife, Ashley, who urged him to give it another chance.
Recalling the moment he felt ready to walk away, he continued: “I was at the Hangar, the space Trivium now uses for rehearsals and writing. I started the drive home, got in, and turned my phone off. Like, I’m not going back in.” And then Ashley eased the moment, saying, “You’re not quitting the band. You can’t quit the band. You’re part of this group. You’ve got to figure this out. Return to the studio.”
Although Matt never quit, drummer Alex Bent did.
The frontman framed the situation positively, insisting they are “tighter live than we’ve ever been” with Alex Rüdinger driving the drums.
He added: “Sometimes, when a change happens—like a couple splitting up, you ending a relationship, losing a job, or firing someone—these moves are needed for the survival of the whole, or the whole won’t endure any longer.”
“Trivium would have vanished. It would have been finished. We corrected course, and now we’re tighter on stage than ever before.”
Fortunately, the band endured, and their new album Crown In The Grave is due out on November 20. Next month, Trivium hit the road with In Flames on a North American run joined by Orbit Culture, Fit For An Autopsy and Frozen Soul. A separate European trek begins in spring 2027.
