There’s a genuine bromance between While She Sleeps and Trivium

[Trivium photo by: Jon Paul Douglass]

When Trivium and Arch Enemy announced an extensive North American co-headlining tour earlier this month, it wasn’t just fans of both bands who were stoked. Turns out, there’s a bromance among all the bands on this tour.

Support for the tour, which kicks off Oct. 27 in Orlando, Florida, comes from British metalcore outfit While She Sleeps and New Jersey deathcore act Fit For An Autopsy.

We chatted with While She Sleeps rhythm guitarist Mat Welsh at the U.K.’s Reading Festival last weekend – where the band were preparing to go toe-to-toe with Eminem as headliners on different stages, a prospect that didn’t intimidate the Yorkshiremen one iota. We  talked about the upcoming tour and warming up audiences for a band who not only inspired them to form While She Sleeps, but who also are genuine fans of theirs.

“We just met Trivium the other day at this festival in Germany,” Welsh says. “They’ve been at a few festivals we have this summer. I met Matt [Heafy, vocals], Corey [Beaulieu, guitar], and they have an MMA fighter who’s like their personal trainer out with them. What’s blown our minds is that Matt’s a crazy fan! He’s been a massive fan of Sleeps for years.”

Trivium’s pungent surge of metalcore influenced While She Sleeps to form in 2006, and they started off by jamming tracks such as “Like Light To The Flies” from Trivium’s sophomore offering, Ascendancy.

Welsh explains how the bromance began: “Trivium found out about us a couple of years ago and reached out from Matt’s account. The guy who produced our last three records is called Carl Bown. He’s a fucking legend; he’s part of our band, really. He’s worked with Trivium, too.

“When we released Brainwashed in 2015, Matt gave Carl a guitar,” Welsh continues, “and when we recorded with it in the studio, Carl sent Matt a load of photos of us using his guitar, and Matt was mega-stoked. He watched our show the other day, and as we were walking offstage, we said it was super cool to meet him, and we obviously know exactly who he is! He told us that he can’t wait to get on tour. It was so nice. That’s my favorite thing about meeting people: When they haven’t got any sense of ego about them whatsoever. They’re the best people in the industry. Trivium were just telling me about their new record, and I’m really looking forward to listening to it.”

Welsh also commends the other co-headliner, Swedish melodic death metallers Arch Enemy, whose frontwoman Angela Gossow departed the band in 2014 after joining them at the start of the century and has since been replaced by blue-haired Canadian vocalist Alissa White-Gluz—a move that could have potentially shattered the band into pieces.

“Arch Enemy is a throwback to being 12 or 13 years old, watching music channels and being like, ‘Holy shit—that’s heavy as fuck!’” Welsh says. “They’ve got two kick-drums, some girl screaming her head off, and it was heavier than anything I was into at the time. I know that they changed singers a few years ago, and my opinion is: If a band can do it without breaking the band, then do it. If someone wants to leave a band, then that shouldn’t ruin it for the rest who want to carry on.”

While She Sleeps have been on tour since April. They’ll be home now until the tour kicks off in late October; but after a couple of successful overseas runs supporting Welsh foursome Bullet For My Valentine, the band are chomping at the bit to warm up for another two metal goliaths.

“That’s my favorite slot,” Welsh says, “someone else’s crowd. Maybe they don’t know us. We just get to go out for half an hour and kick the fuck out of it and hopefully make a load of new fans. I almost prefer doing that than headlining, because there’s so much challenge involved, and there’s something about our band that you can be a metalhead or you can be a punk and you can both like our dynamic. It’s nice to have something to prove; trying to do that every night is super.”

Here are the tour dates:

10/27 – Orlando, FL @ House of Blues
10/28 – Atlanta, GA @ The Masquerade
10/29 – Charlotte, NC @ The Fillmore
10/31 – Baltimore, MD @ Soundstage
11/01 – Philadelphia, PA @ The Trocadero Theater
11/03 – New York, NY @ Playstation Theater
11/04 – Worcester, MA @ The Palladium
11/05 – Montreal, QC @ Metropolis
11/07 – Toronto, ON @ The Danforth Music Hall
11/08 – Detroit, MI @ Royal Oak Music Theatre
11/10 – Sioux City, IA @ Anthem At Hard Rock
11/11 – Kansas City, MO @ The Truman
11/12 – Chicago, IL @ Concord Music Hall
11/14 – Minneapolis, MN @ Skyway Theater
11/15 – Milwaukee, WI @ The Rave
11/17 – Denver, CO @ Summit Music Hall
11/18 – Salt Lake City, UT @ The Complex
11/20 – Calgary, AB @ The Palace Theatre
11/21 – Edmonton, AB @ Union Hall
11/23 – Vancouver, BC @ Vogue Theater
11/24 – Seattle, WA @ Showbox Sodo
11/25 – Portland, OR @ Roseland Theater
11/27 – Sacramento, CA @ Ace of Spades
11/28 – San Francisco, CA @ The Regency Ballroom
11/29 – Los Angeles, CA @ The Wiltern
12/01 – Phoenix, AZ @ Marquee Theater
12/02 – Albuquerque, NM @ Sunshine Theater
12/04 – Dallas, TX @ Gas Monkey Live
12/05 – San Antonio, TX @ Alamo City Music Hall
12/06 – Houston, TX @ Warehouse Live

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