TRIVIUM guitarist Corey Beaulieu spoke to Finland's Chaoszine about the band's recently completed U.S. tour with MEGADETH, LAMB OF GOD and HATEBREED. The trek marked the four groups' first run of shows since the start of the pandemic. "Before the tour, all the bands and management and stuff were… With every tour that's going out, they can be as strict or unstrict [as they want to be] — whatever protocols the headliner deems how they wanna roll — and everyone wanted to make sure that we got through the tour," Corey explained (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "So we had pretty strict [protocols] — not super strict, but it was basically no one was doing in-person meet-and-greets, we weren't doing any guests or anything backstage. And basically, backstage was if you were indoors going to your dressing room or catering or something, it was, like, 'Make sure you wear a mask.' We'd go into catering, grab our food and then we would go eat outside. It was kind of bubbling up where each band and crew kind of stayed to themselves, so there wasn't a lot of cross-band mingling or something like that. And when the crew guys were onstage working and stuff, everyone was masked up. And then we would wear masks to stage and go onstage and play and mask up as we walked away. So everyone just stayed away from each other's camp as much as possible. And if you do talk or hang out or something, everyone was out in the backstage parking lot or something. We just wore masks and there was sanitizer everywhere and everything like that. And then we tested a lot as well. It was kind of a pain in the ass to test that much, but the payoff of playing shows and playing big shows like that was definitely worth the hassle." Corey went on to say that all musicians and crew members complied with all applicable local health and safety regulations as well as requirements from the venues in which "The Metal Tour Of The Year" played. "They did some mandatory testing some places where it was, like, everyone on the tour had to test before… As soon as you got off the bus, you'd go test, and then as soon as you got a negative test, you got a wristband and you were able to go backstage and stuff like that," he said. "We had someone in our crew that the first weekend of the tour ended up testing positive. So we got tested every day before we were allowed to be in — just to make sure no one else got sick from being on the bus. But everyone on our bus is vaccinated, so no one caught it from them. So we just kind of left him at a hotel for two weeks and he came back when he was better. We're all vaccinated, so no one caught it. He was vaccinated, so he was pretty much fine. He felt a little shitty for a couple of days, but he just had to stay away for a while till he… He obviously was, like, 'I feel fine, but I'm still not testing negative.' Just shit like that, where you just had to take a little extra precaution — 'cause there's so many people involved on the tour, and if someone in the band… Luckily, no one on any of the bands got sick or anything, but you don't wanna… There's a lot of money on the line when you have to cancel shows. So, we soldiered on, and it was a successful tour. So we were happy to show people that you can make it through and it's not all doomsday out there for touring acts." The last three shows of "The Metal Tour Of The Year" — in Toronto, Laval and Quebec City — were postponed to spring 2022 due to restrictions in the Quebec province and international logistical issues. TRIVIUM's tenth album, "In The Court Of The Dragon", was released on October 8 via longtime label Roadrunner Records. The record was produced and mixed by Josh Wilbur and recorded in the fall of 2020 at Full Sail University in Orlando. The album cover is an original oil painting by French artist Mathieu Nozieres. Last month, TRIVIUM shared the album's title track, "In The Court Of The Dragon", which featured an epic intro composed and orchestrated by Ihsahn (EMPEROR) and was accompanied by an official short film music video directed by Ryan Mackfall. Loudwire called out the song as "a skillful blend of dynamics. And blast beats just sound really, really good beneath Matt Heafy's soothing clean singing" while Revolver labeled it "epic." Guitar World christened second single "Feast Of Fire" as "pummeling" and "quintessentially TRIVIUM," as Metal Injection declared it "really, really catchy."
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