Trivium shot to fame with 2005’s breakout album Ascendancy and a star-making appearance at that year’s Download festival. But the following year’s The Crusade saw a backlash hit. In 2006, Metal Hammer caught up with the band on their first US tour to talk success, snobbery and the blessing of metal’s biggest bands.
The desert sun is blazing in a cloudless sky, turning your heavy breastplate into a furnace and boiling your brain in the heated metal confines of your helmet. Your coarse woolen tunic tears at your flesh while you struggle to keep your spear steady and your aim true. You drop the encumbering weight of your shield but your cape still tugs at your neck, belabouring your breath and making your fear of heights all the more unbearable as you stand atop a cliffside wondering whether the tiny holes dotting the landscape really are home to poisonous snakes.
