On February 21, Holland's FaceCulture conducted an interview with guitarist Corey Beaulieu of Florida metallers TRIVIUM. You can watch the chat in two parts below. Asked how the addition of the TRIVIUM's latest drummer, Alex Bent (BATTLECROSS, DECREPIT BIRTH), will affect the creative process for the band's next studio album, Corey said: "Well, from close friends that are in the music industry, he's definitely come highly recommended multiple times. "Before we had the previous drummer [Paul Wandtke], [Alex] was a name that was brought up [that was] highly recommended before, but he was playing in another band [at the time] that we were friends with, so we didn't wanna drummer-pooch anybody and put them in a shitty situation. So we were, like, 'All right. We'll keep looking.' But the stars aligned that we had an opportunity to [say to Alex], 'Here's what we're gonna be playing on the next tour. Why don't you come down to Florida and let's see what happens, and jam, see how it feels, have a chance to hang out, see how everyone gets along. "Everyone [was telling us] prior [to that], 'I think you guys will get along great.' He's an amazing drummer, obviously, from videos we saw. So once he came down and we jammed, everything sounded really good from the start. He played the whole set from start to finish without having to… He played everything perfect. So we were, like, 'Yes, I think this will be really cool.' He definitely played everything… knocked it out of the park. And we were just, like, 'We'll do the tour.' And it gave us six weeks to mesh as a unit to see how it's gonna work and fit. And so far we've been having a great time. People that have seen us play over the years a lot have had rave reviews. Over in the U.K., some people were saying it was the best TRIVIUM show they've seen since… Our manager even said it was the best TRIVIUM show he's seen in ten years, and that's a lot of shows to compare it to." He continued: "We've done eight shows [with Alex so far], but all the shows have been very good and he's been very consistent — he plays every set awesome. So I think with a drummer like that where he can play anything and he's got all the skills in the world, for us, as songwriters, a player of that caliber, you just get the green light… you don't have to hold anything back. If you have a drummer that's got issues with certain aspects of playing or something's not their strong suit, when you're writing, you're, like, 'Well, I can't really do a part like this because I don't think it's gonna come off right or he'll be able to pull it off.' So with someone like Alex, I think, in the songwriting process, it definitely takes any of the training wheels off, where you can just be, like, 'Well, if I wanna fucking play something that's super-fucking ridiculously fast and double bass and go nuts, he can play it.' So, as a songwriter, you can pretty much just have free will to just do whatever. So I think that'll be really cool, especially for the three of us, writing songs. There's stuff we can write and do that I think we haven't really shown anyone yet. And I think someone like Alex, hopefully, if everyone agrees — him as well — after this tour, we'll see where it goes. But if we end up writing and recording with him, I think it'll be… from playing these shows, that aspect of the band will benefit really into something pretty awesome." Corey added: "I don't wanna promise too much, 'cause we've had a long history of drummers, and you don't wanna lead anyone on — the fans or anyone — about, 'Oh, he's gonna be the guy.' But we hope so. He's been doing it great, so we're just taking it one step at a time. We're just doing the tour, and then when it comes to writing music, I think it could be a really good thing. We're all hoping that it gets to that point." Wandtke made his live debut with TRIVIUM in December 2015 at Knotfest in Mexico. A short time later, he appeared in an official promotional photo with the three core members of the band. Paul joined the Florida outfit on the recommendation of DREAM THEATER's Mike Mangini and replaced Mat Madiro, who departed due to reasons of "creativity." Madiro was the featured drummer on TRIVIUM's latest album, "Silence In The Snow", which was released in October 2015 via Roadrunner.
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