As the final notes of Rain die out, Trivium’s Matt Heafy raises both hands towards the rafters in twin devil horns, his tongue all the way out. In most contexts, watching someone spend their 39th birthday doing the same things they did when they were 19 would be a profound bummer, but the opening night of the Florida metallers’ co-headline tour with Welsh band Bullet for My Valentine isn’t one of them.
During back-to-back sets the bands engage in a spirited game of one-upmanship, trading riff after riff and scream after scream during a 20th-anniversary celebration of the records that set them on the road to stardom. Released within months of one another in 2005, Bullet’s The Poison and Trivium’s Ascendancy offered a reset at the end of nu-metal’s reign, fusing thrash, melodeath and galloping NWOBHM while serving up radio-ready hooks that made them crucial gateway texts for a generation of metal-curious kids.
Trivium are up first, barrelling out with skull-crushing salvoes and guttural roars before Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr sparks a mass shout-along. During Like Light to the Flies, a winningly naff blow-up version of the demon from Ascendancy’s sleeve hanging behind them Eddie-style, Heafy and guitarist Corey Beaulieu lean into duelling solos that feel like wish-fulfilment, a platonic ideal of metal.
But while Ascendancy hangs together as the more cohesive record, Bullet’s laser-driven performance is studded with individual moments on a different scale. Having emerged from a stacked scene in the south Wales valleys, there is a sense of conquering heroes returning during the monstrous All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me) and 4 Words (To Choke Upon), which are roared back at the band with eye-popping fervour. It’s a shame that frontman Matt Tuck’s tease of Tears Don’t Fall’s chorus prior to its riff hitting robs them of another payoff.
But it’s a minor quibble. When Bullet and Trivium first emerged, a major factor in their success was the fact they played club shows like they were headlining Wembley stadium. The budgets might have increased over the years, but that blend of chutzpah and outsized ambition remains potent.
