Despite the 20th anniversary of Bullet For My Valentine‘s gold-certified 2005 debut album “The Poison” is currently their going concern, the Welsh metalcore group have already made considerable headway with the next entry in their catalog. Last November, the band hit the studio with producer Carl Bown (Bring Me the Horizon, Sleep Token) to work on their eighth studio album.
In a new interview with Rock Sound, vocalist/guitarist Matt Tuck has spoken of what they’ve come up with thus far. When asked for a progress update, Tuck revealed that the group have 13 tracks in mapped out, though none of them have been completed yet. He stated:
“13 tracks. So a huge chunk. A long way to go. None of them have proper top lines or vocals on it. It’s just in the studio with guitars and just having fun instrumentally, writing stuff, messing around with tunings. And that’s how we’ve done things on the last album.
We don’t go in there with an agenda to write a certain way. We just try and make things different, like tuning the guitar differently or using a different amp. All those little things just kind of make your brain think in a different way, and you can play certain riffs in different tunings on a different amp, which sound better than others for some reason, even though it’s the same riff.
So it’s just discovering something which gets the heart racing, makes you wanna play guitar. And then you just keep going until you get it. And sometimes it’s six months, sometimes it’s a year. So I don’t know how long this journey is gonna be, but we started it and it’ll be done when it’s done.”
When asked if the the time spent revisiting “The Poison” has impacted the direction of this next outing, Tuck offered:
“We did have conversations about it before the creative process started. And because of this, the conversations have restarted. So it’s a difficult one because, obviously, ‘The Poison‘ and that sound and that era of the band is a huge reason why we’re still around today. It was a huge record for us, it was a huge record for metal and British metal.
We were in the right place at the right time. We were part of a movement with Trivium and Avenged [Sevenfold] and Killswitch [Engage] and all that stuff. It was a genuine new breed of heavy metal, which we were part of, which was amazing. And that’s kind of what gave us this platform.
But as you grow older and you get creatively different, things change. You wanna experiment, you wanna be brave, you go on that journey. And we’ve never really come back around. And seeing, obviously, what this tour has done and the reaction it’s getting and putting us back 20 years, the feeling it was making that record, there has been conversations about, should we kind of reignite that old sound?
But it’s a tricky one. It’s a tricky one, because in my head, I kind of feel I know where I’d like to go next, but this has kind of started some conversations, which all our brains have kind of thought, ‘Oh, fuck, what do we do?’ It’s hard. But whatever we decide, it’s gonna be sick. We won’t put anything out there that we’re not fully behind just for the sake of it.”
The band’s live celebration of “The Poison” just commenced and finds them out alongside Trivium, who are celebrating the 20th anniversary of their own “Ascendancy” on that trek.
With Orbit Culture:
01/30 Manchester, UK – Co-Op Live
01/31 Birmingham, UK – Utilita Arena
02/01 London, UK – The O2
02/03 Dusseldorf, GER – Mitsubishi Electric Hall
02/04 Stuttgart, GER – Schleyer-Halle
02/05 Zurich, SWI – The Hall
02/07 Paris, FRA – Le Zenith
02/09 Antwerp, BEL – Lotto Arena
02/10 Hannover, GER – Swiss Life Hall
02/11 Amsterdam, NET – AFAS Live
02/13 Hamburg, GER – Sporthalle
02/14 Berlin, GER – Max-Schmeling Halle
02/15 Frankfurt, GER – Jahrhunderthalle
02/17 Milan, ITA – Alcatraz
02/18 Munich, GER – Zenith
02/19 Vienna, AUT – Stadthalle
02/21 Gilwice, POL – Arena
02/22 Prague, CZE – Forum Karlin
02/23 Luxembourg, LUX – Rockhal
02/26 Lisbon, POR – Campo Prequeno
02/27 Madrid, SPA – Vistalegre
With August Burns Red & Sylosis:
03/30 Vancouver, BC – PNE Forum
04/01 Seattle, WA – Paramount Theatre
04/03 San Francisco, CA – The Masonic
04/04 Wheatland, CA – Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Sacramento – Hard Rock Live
04/05 Reno, NV – Grand Sierra Resort
04/08 Denver, CO – Fillmore Auditorium
04/10 Las Vegas, NV – Pearl Concert Theater at Palms Casino Resort
04/11 Inglewood, CA – YouTube Theatre (no Sylosis)
04/12 Phoenix, AZ – Arizona Financial Theatre
04/15 Dallas, TX – Gilley’s – South Side Ballroom
04/16 San Antonio, TX – Boeing Center at Tech Port
04/17 Houston, TX – Bayou Music Center
With August Burns Red & Bleed From Within:
04/19 St. Louis, MO – The Factory
04/20 Omaha, NE – Steelhouse Omaha
04/22 Ashwaubenon, WI – EPIC Event Center
04/23 Grand Rapids, MI – GLC Live at 20 Monroe
04/25 Prior Lake, MN – Mystic Lake Casino Hotel- Showroom
04/26 Chicago, IL – Byline Bank Aragon Ballroom
04/27 Detroit, MI – The Fillmore Detroit
04/29 Pittsburgh, PA – Stage AE
04/30 Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore Philadelphia
05/02 Boston, MA – MGM Music Hall at Fenway
05/03 Laval, QC – Place Bell
05/04 Toronto, ON – Great Canadian Resort Theatre
05/06 Washington, D.C. – The Anthem
05/07 New York, NY – The Rooftop at Pier 17
05/09 Bethlehem, PA – Wind Creek Bethlehem – Wind Creek Event Center
05/11 Nashville, TN – The Pinnacle
05/13 Corbin, KY – Corbin Arena
05/14 Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy Theatre
05/17 Charlotte, NC – Skyla Credit Union Amphitheatre
05/18 Raleigh, NC – Red Hat Amphitheater
