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Trivium (Matt Heafy, right) Credit: Black Card Films<\/p>\nTrivium (Matt Heafy, right) Credit: Black Card Films<\/p>\n
Over 25 years into their musical career, Trivium are still redefining what longevity looks like in modern metal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What began as a problem \u2014 namely, Bullet for My Valentine dropping out of the international leg of their co-headlining Poisoned Ascendancy World Tour with Trivium \u2014 was turned from lemons to lemonade with some quick thinking by the band. Now Trivium are headlining solo in North America, playing their Ascendancy album nightly and looking forward to a homecoming show.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are ones that once we have given our word to our fans, we always want to live up to that word,\u201d frontman and proud Orlandoan Matt Heafy tells Orlando Weekly. \u201cOur crew, we had promised them, you know, we were touring through December. So we said, \u2018Let\u2019s put something together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
That decision sparked the Ascend Above the Ashes Tour, a fall 2025 headline run that brings Trivium back home to Orlando\u2019s Hard Rock Live on Sunday, Dec. 14. Special guests Jinjer from the Ukraine and Brits Heriot join Trivium on the tour, both longtime favorites of the band.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re two bands we\u2019re huge fans of,\u201d Heafy says. \u201cIt just happened to work out. And this tour has been absolutely amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heafy joined Trivium at the ripe old age of 12. First band, first job. Now, as an adult, seeing fans of that same young age come to the concert sparks something different.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery night I ask who\u2019s seeing us for the first time, and it\u2019s been 30-60 percent of the crowd,\u201d Heafy says. \u201cKids as young as 5, 6, 7, 8, and teenagers from 16 to their early 20s. And it\u2019s such a cool thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a show in Lancaster, he met three generations of fans in one family: a grandfather, father and daughter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve always been multigenerational, but this tour has been more of this revitalization of youth and new people coming out than we have ever had,\u201d marvels Heafy.<\/p>\n
Part of Trivium\u2019s current momentum comes from a new creative home \u2014 an airplane hangar in Orlando that now houses Trivium\u2019s headquarters, practice space and a state-of-the-art recording studio.<\/p>\n
This hangar became the birthplace of a new EP, Struck Dead, written while rehearsing for Ascendancy\u2019s 20th anniversary shows. The sessions arrived during what Heafy describes as a \u201clow point, a mental breakdown\/midlife crisis.\u201d The music provided a lifeline.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese songs tell a metaphorical story of where I was in that state of mind at that time. Because I started looking back, I was like, how am I thinking these same things I was feeling when I was 19 years old? And how do I get to the root of this?\u201d he says. \u201cBut I\u2019ve spent a year working on myself. Now I feel the best mental clarity I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n
Struck Dead, released on Halloween, was originally meant to be the opening of their next full-length, Record 11. But when the tour chaos hit, the band pivoted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe said, \u2018Let\u2019s make this an EP and then focus Record 11 on something brand-new,\u2019\u201d Heafy says. Writing for the album is already underway in the hangar during off days.<\/p>\n
Playing Ascendancy in full for its 20th anniversary has created the unexpected side effect of new material that feels spiritually connected to 2005.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like we kind of time-traveled back to the same headspace,\u201d Heafy says. \u201cIt feels like a modern continuation of something that started 20 years ago.\u201d And the Orlando faithful can expect a very special hometown set. \u201cWe\u2019re pulling from almost every record,\u201d Heafy teases. \u201cIt is a fan-favorite setlist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Even after decades spent onstage, Heafy\u2019s creative mindset remains rooted in the same mission he had as a teenager: finding his own voice.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI always wanted to make music that didn\u2019t sound like anything else,\u201d he says. \u201cEmulate your heroes a little, sure, but strive to create something you feel doesn\u2019t exist yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s the advice he now gives every young musician who cares to ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything comes from something. But when creating, discover something, and it\u2019s almost as if you\u2019re unearthing something yourself and finding this thing that\u2019s never existed before,\u201d Heafy says.<\/p>\n
A hometown show hits different for a band that was once the odd man out in Central Florida\u2019s music scene.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were the only metal band in Orlando back then,\u201d Heafy says. \u201cPop-punk, hardcore, boy-bands, that was it. We were the one metal band that stuck out like a sore thumb. I was the only kid in high school with long hair, camo cutoffs and a death metal shirt.\u201d<\/p>\n
He laughs while thinking back to the early gigs. DIY Records, Fairbanks Inn with five people in the room on a Monday night. Two of them were his parents. And now \u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got all my friends from Gracie Barra North Orlando coming, all my friends from Full Circle Yoga, my family, everyone,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019re big Orlando champions. We promote our favorite restaurants and local businesses nonstop. So it\u2019s really great to be able to come home and just relish that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Heafy\u2019s love for Orlando goes beyond nostalgia. He\u2019s become one of the city\u2019s loudest unofficial ambassadors. Among his regularly recommended spots in the food scene are Domu at East End Market, Zaru, Black Bean Deli, The Ravenous Pig and The Strand in Mills 50.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel like our food scene, art scene and local communities are just amazing,\u201d he says.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked for his favorite part of a live show, Heafy doesn\u2019t choose a single moment. \u201cIt\u2019s the whole thing,\u201d he says. \u201cSeeing kids singing every word to records they weren\u2019t alive for yet, I think, is such an amazing thing. It shows that music is timeless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trivium\u2019s Sunday show at Hard Rock Live is nearly sold-out, a culmination of hometown pride and a band entering a fiercely creative era.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have had the privilege of touring everywhere, but I chose to live in Orlando. That is the place I want to be. We love being there, and we are proud of being from Orlando,\u201d Heafy says. \u201cI hope everyone comes out. It\u2019s going to be a true homecoming.\u201d<\/p>\n
(7:30 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14, Hard Rock Live \u00a0, 6050 Universal Blvd., entertainment.hardrock.com<\/a>, $62-$215)<\/p>\n Orlando\u2019s daily dose of what matters. Subscribe to The Daily Weekly.<\/p>\n Related Stories<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tAccording to Starbucks Workers United, nearly 4,000 baristas across 34 cities are now on strike amid continued efforts to secure a union contract\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tMarking the 25th anniversary of album \u201cBeethoven\u2019s Last Night\u201d\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\tBuffalo Nichols, Today Is the Day and God Is War open\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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