Three songs, but zero filler: Trivium’s STRUCK DEAD EP burns bright between the band’s usual album cycles. It’s also the sound of a band rediscovering how fun the process can be. “It started as a single and it turned into three songs, turned into an EP,” bassist Paolo Gregoletto tells us. “It’s going to hold people over while we get to work on whatever the next album’s going to be… it felt like a solid idea on its own.”
That looseness is by design. Trivium made STRUCK DEAD while splitting days between writing and full-tilt rehearsals for the Ascendancy anniversary tour—an intentional brush with their own origin myth. The nostalgic tones bled into the riffs without calcifying them. “Rehearsing Ascendancy every day for months, the first new idea you write is naturally fast,” Paolo admits with a grin. “If anything, ‘Bury Me (With My Screams)’ has the most lineage to Ascendancy… then each song gets a little further from it.” He’s quick to add that “…but energy doesn’t just mean speed”—groove, weight, and dynamics carry as much heft as BPMs. All of which are very much present in these 3 songs.
The setting was key to this whole process. The band tracked at their Orlando headquarters, a purpose-built “Hangar” they’ve been constructing since 2020. “Hearing drums coming through the speakers for the first time… we actually pulled this thing off,” Paolo says. The space unlocked a new workflow—demo downstairs, walk upstairs to jam, pivot mid-session when a vocal line suggests a different arrangement. “It’s like getting your brain into album mode,” he says. “A soft launch of the next thing.” There’s still a grown-up in the room: producer/engineer Mark Lewis helped shepherd the sessions (“a fifth member,” as Paolo puts it), and longtime collaborator Josh Wilbur handled the mix. The result has a semi-self-produced confidence, added with the iterative precision of having Lewis and Wilbus handling the boards.
The visuals also play a big part in the presentation. The EP’s vivid dragonic chimera sleeve, drawn by artist BOY KONG, is among Trivium’s most striking visuals in their discography (and that’s saying a lot when it comes to their album covers!). “We wanted to get a little more fun with it… more color,” Paolo says. That “try things” ethos extends to the music’s palette, too. The intro to “Six Walls,” for instance, leans on Japanese instruments from Matt Heafy’s (vocals/guitar) growing collection.
Live, the new material already snaps into focus. “We did ‘Bury Me’ in Europe and at Louder Than Life.. It’s a ripper right out of the gate,” Paolo says. Those who caught Trivium’s recent production will recognize another connective tissue: the towering “Monty” stage monster from the Ascendancy celebration—a playful reminder that presentation and songcraft can push each other higher when the band goes maximal. Even the vinyl has intention. “This EP vinyl is one of my favorites we’ve done,” Paolo says, laughing about how the pressing landscape has changed since In the Court of the Dragon. Their last full-length in 2021 attracted praise from The New York Times, NPR, Forbes, and Billboard, capping a two-decade run that includes a GRAMMY® nomination for “Betrayer,” a gold-certified Ascendancy, and a streak of high Billboard debuts.
But what makes STRUCK DEAD resonate isn’t its scale—it’s the clarity. You can hear a veteran metal band stress-testing ideas in real time. The EP format, Paolo says, is “more freeing… you’re not thinking about all the stuff that goes with making a big record.” Yet there’s intention in the pacing and world-building; the art, the instruments, the live rollout all point at a next chapter already in motion. “We want to write way more than we’ll record,” Paolo says. “We’re staying open, loose enough to change things if something isn’t working.”
Trivium has always lived where discipline meets danger. STRUCK DEAD proves they still know how to weaponize both. It nods to Ascendancy without wearing its skin, as it flirts with new colors and textures, and most importantly, feels like a necessary addition to Trivium’s evolving sound. Call it a teaser, an interlude, an appetizer, or Paolo’s preferred term, “a soft launch.” There is plenty of metal firepower to come with LP11, and STRUCK DEAD is their battle cry.
Struck Dead is out now, and you can order it here. Follow Trivium on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for future updates.
