In 1999 at a talent show at Teague Middle School in Altamonte Springs, FL, an 8th grader named Matt Heafy performed a cover of “No Leaf Clover” by Metallica. That performance would lead him to get an invitation to join a band known as Trivium. And now 22 years and 10 albums later, Trivium is one of the most prominent metalcore bands out there today. After coming off The Metal Tour of the Year with Megadeth, Lamb of God, and Hatebreed, including a stop at Blue Ridge Rock Festival, the band released their 10th album In The Court Of The Dragon on October 8th via Roadrunner Records. Trivium decided to host an album release show for In The Court Of The Dragon in their hometown of Orlando, FL at The Beacham on October 14th and I was fortunate enough to attend the event.
When I arrived at the venue there was a huge line stretching down the block waiting for the doors to open. Fans were all decked out in Trivium shirts or other metal bands and everyone seemed super excited to be there. After the pandemic eliminating live music for over a year, everyone has been jumping at the chance to attend every show they could. And it was obvious this one filled up quickly. Once inside, everyone squeezed up and in as fast as they could. A number of VIP were given great viewing seats in balconies close to the stage. Others filtered in the back and upstairs to another large balcony area. Fans were treated to opening music from the doom metal of local band Body Box and metal from Cold Steel for their first time live performance. Both bands had the crowd amped up and even had the mosh pits going strong. By that point, everyone was ready for Trivium.
The moment the lights dropped, the crowd lit up, screaming and jumping around. And when Trivium stepped out on stage, Matt Heafy (vocals, guitar), Corey Beaulieu (guitar), Paolo Gregoletto (bass), and Alex Bent (drums) looked ecstatic to be back on stage and in front of a hometown crowd. It didn’t take them long to crank out the energy by opening up with the title track “In The Court Of The Dragon”. I absolutely love this single and it is a fantastic opening song. With those growling vocals, great guitar hooks, and heavy drums, it absolutely got the crowd going and even started having crowd surfers come up and over the barrier. And they followed up with one of my favorite Trivium singles, “Catastrophist” from the 2020 album What The Dead Men Say. It’s one of those catchy songs with clean vocals and just great guitar and bass riffs and the crowd loved it too. Matt stopped to talk to the crowd explaining after just finishing up their tour their most energized fans came out of Iowa. The fans booed at that prospect so Matt repeated it, which made them boo more. Matt explained that he wanted his hometown show to be the best fan energy they had seen on the tour and encouraged the crowd to prove it to them. Trivium decided to stay with this album performing “Amongst the Shadows & the Stones” and the crowd decided to earn that “Best Crowd at a Trivium Show” title poured out even more energy by cheering, moshing, and jumping.
After our 3 songs were done, I headed up to the balcony to watch the rest of the show. The catalog over 10 albums is far and wide for Trivium and they picked out some truly great songs to perform that night. They dug all the way back to their 2005 album Ascendancy performing both “Rain” and “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr”. Both were excellent choices that the fans absolutely loved. I watched fans singing those tracks word for word as they were performed. And then mixing it up a bit with “Down From The Sky” from 2008 Shogun, “Strife” from 2013 Vengeance Falls, and “Until The World Goes Cold” from 2015 Silence in the Snow. Throughout the show the mosh pits turned into circle pits and Matt looked quite pleased with the crowd’s response to the songs. At one point he told the crowd they earned the best fans at a show and for them to keep it up. And they had no problem doing so.
The band was having tons of fun on stage, smiling, tongues out, screaming at the crowd to get crazy. Corey’s guitar playing was absolutely on point, fast, clean, and his hair whipping about as he played. Alex’s drumming was insane as always with his fast pace, staying mostly heads down as he played, and at one point I caught he was playing with his eyes closed and he hammered away on one of the cymbals. Paolo was more reserved focusing on playing and looking to the crowd for the energy. And of course, Matt was crazy off the chain, flexing for the crowd, tongue out and throwing his head back, and just loving the energy from the fans.
Personally, besides the opening two songs they played some of my favorite tunes including the title track “What The Dead Men Say”, “The Heart From Your Hate” from 2017 The Sin and the Sentence, and “Feast of Fire” from In The Court Of The Dragon. The fans also got a premiere live performance of “The Phalanx” from the new album. One of things I loved during the show was with each song that changed album the video screens changed the Trivium logo to the one that was used during that album. Matt asked the fans to sing along to the last song they played which was “In Waves”, the title track from their 2011 album. Trivium had a kick-ass home show that night with fantastic fans supporting them. Remember to check out merch and pick up their new album In The Court Of The Dragon over at their website HERE.
Their setlist from that night was:
- In The Court Of The Dragon
- Catastrophist
- Amongst the Shadows & the Stones
- Rain
- IX
- What The Dead Men Say
- Down From the Sky
- Until the World Goes Cold
- Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr
- The Phalanx
- Strife
- The Heart From Your Hate
- Feast of Fire
- In Waves
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