Review: Trivium/Bullet For My Valentine – OVO Hydro, Glasgow

With January bringing chaos, bewilderment, and destruction in the form of a new Trump presidency, Elon Musk saying “Hold my beer” to anyone within earshot, and the arrival of Storm Eowyn, 2025 has gotten off to a shaky start. And with Trump and Musk doing their damnest to make The Chuckle Brothers look like the founding fathers of Mensa, the remaining 11 months will undoubtedly be the same. Thankfully music is on hand to provide a welcome distraction from modern life and January 2025 doesn’t have to be a total dumpster fire because metal heavyweights Bullet For My Valentine and Trivium have teamed up for a co-headlining arena tour that has laid down a marker to every other metal band of similar standing that says “Follow that”.

Dubbed “The Poisoned Ascendency Tour”, the lengthy tour (18 shows in Europe following the 6 in the UK) celebrates the 20th anniversaries of both band’s breakthrough albums: Bullet For My Valentine’s debut ‘The Poison’, and Trivium’s major label debut ‘Ascendancy’ with both albums played in their entirety.

The band that closes each night alternates, and tonight it is the turn of Florida’s finest, Trivium, to close; but before that, there is the small matter of the tour opening act Swedish melodeath outfit Orbit Culture.

Regular visitors to these shores, the Swedes are afforded a fair crack of the whip from the co-headliners: large production, decent lights, and good sound. However, the early start catches a few punters out and the venue is still filling up as Niklas Karlsson barks out the pummelling set-opener ‘Descent’. 2020’s ‘Nija’ album turned more than a few heads and ‘North Star of Nija’ totally slams when it drops, especially the change in tempo that lands when the band floors it as the song explodes to a conclusion. Christopher Wallerstedt is putting in one hell of a shift behind his kit, and that diet of raw meat and dynamite is paying off. His work on the set closer ‘Vultures of North’ is crushingly good. Job done. Neck muscles stretched. Audience warmed up.

The whole playing-a-classic-album-in-full idea is a win-win situation for both artists and fans alike. From an artist’s point of view, it gives them the chance to dust off some deep cuts rather than relying on muscle memory to get them through a tour of setlist staples. It also cuts down on the number of gripes bands get about playing too much new material and forgetting about the earlier stuff. From a punter’s point of view; they get the chance to hear the deep cuts and save themself the trouble of having a pop at the band on Facebook for setlist moans.

Of the two co-headliners, Bullet For My Valentine are especially going deeper on this tour by offering up material not heard in a live setting for some time. So once the video footage of a young Bullet back in the day fades out and the impressive stage production flickers to life with bursts of strobes, lasers, and projected graphics; the band powers into ‘Her Voice Resides’ which was performed on the tour opening night in Cardiff for the first time since 2017.

Visually the setup is stunning. Matt Tuck is front and centre, with Jason Bowld behind his kit on an illuminated elevated riser. Bassist Jamie Mathias and guitarist Padge (still the coolest Welshman since J. P. R. Williams) are on either side of Bowld on similar risers. With a snakepit-style catwalk stretching out into the crowd, it is an impressive production.

‘4 Words (To Choke Upon)’ follows on and all 3 outfield players make use of the catwalk for the first time. With Tuck’s mic stand set up facing forward and the bulk of the audience, both Padge and Mathias are mindful of performing to those gathered in the snake pit as well as the main body of the crowd. Mic stands are also set up left and right on the catwalk, meaning band members are constantly switching sides to give everyone a bird’s eye view.

Although everyone knows what track follows, it’s still a thrill when ‘Tears Don’t Fall’ begins. This is the first chance for the crowd to get involved and the intro has Matt Tuck standing back to let the crowd take over. Once Matt screams “Let’s Go”, the band kicks in and the buzzsaw riffs from him and Padge, as the song starts to gallop, are immense.

‘Hit The Floor’ is one of those nuggets dusted off for this tour (not played since 2016) and it’s special hearing it again. ‘Room 409’ is another nugget, and one that sees the crowd surfers going over the barrier en masse. Given that bodies are coming at them from all angles, it has to be said that the security guards in the pit are doing a good job of keeping everyone safe.

With ‘Hand of Blood’ performed instead of ‘Spit You Out’ (both appear on the 20th-anniversary edition of ‘The Poison’), a killer version of ‘The End’ (the harsh vocals from Jamie Mathias steal the show on this one) brings the main set to a conclusion, once it fades out Tuck offers up “That was The Poison”, and the band briefly stand back to soak up what is an incredible reaction from the crowd.

A 2-song encore lands in the shape of ‘Knives’, and ‘Waking the Demon’ with the latter forcing fists in the air. The stage explodes in a wall of warm reds and yellows, and Tuck looks like he is having a blast as he stands there in his Cannibal Corpse shirt, surveying the madness that is unfolding in front – and behind – him.

75 minutes flies by in a fat-free set with zero chances of catching a breath. Bullet for My Valentine proving yet again that they belong in arenas.

There is a great “He’s behind you!” panto moment when Trivium explode onto the stage. With the houselights dimmed and Metallica’s ‘Hit the Lights’ playing as an intro, all the assembled photographers are lined up in front of the stage waiting for the stage lights to come on and capture that all-important money shot. But when ‘The End of Everything’ fades out and the stage comes to life, Trivium main man Matt Heafy has outsmarted them all and he is in fact in the centre of the catwalk facing the opposite direction. Cue the photographers grabbing their gear and legging it around the pit to catch Heafy who doesn’t seem to stand still all night. This, this is the setting that Trivium were built for.

Whereas with BFMV a lot of the material was aired especially for this tour; a great deal of Trivium’s set would have been familiar to anyone catching the Floridian metal stalwarts over the last few tours. Such is the importance of ‘Ascendancy’ – not only for it being their major label debut but also the first to feature guitarist Corey Beaulieu and the always-reliable bassist Paolo Gregoletto – that most of the 11 tracks rotate in the setlist year in and year out. However, that does not diminish the fervour that greets moments like ‘Rain’, ‘Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr’, and ‘Drowned and Torn Asunder’.

By the time the crowd are picked up from the floor after an intense ‘Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr’, it becomes apparent that Trivium drummer Alex Bent is going to play an important role in the proceedings and gun to the head time; yeah, he is the MVP tonight. His playing throughout ‘Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr’, and ‘Drowned and Torn Asunder’ is at times (as it is all night) astounding. His kick drum work is punishing, and it would have been interesting had a remote camera been installed at foot level. Genuinely, one of the most impressive drummers in metal today, and when he performs a short solo to allow the stage set-up to change for the introduction of a huge inflatable demon zombie on ‘A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation’, it is met with huge roars of approval rather than the mass exodus to the bar that usually meets a drum solo.

‘Gunshot…’ is a great place to talk about the amount of work that Corey Beaulieu puts in during the 75-minute set. Formidable in stature, his playing and backing vocals are crucial. Forming a killer guitar partnership with Heafy, the pair often meet in the middle of the catwalk and go toe-to-toe with some incendiary riffage. The sudden change in pace during ‘Gunshot…’ when Heafy brings the clean vocals is still a joy to hear no matter how many times you might have heard it in the past, and the twin guitar solo that follows on is goddam beautiful. Beaulieu nails the solo on ‘Dying in Your Arms’ from the middle of the catwalk, and in doing so, gives the pit a front-row view of his digits flying up the neck of his guitar.

As touched on earlier, Heafy is a blur of activity throughout the set, and at times it’s dizzying watching him lap the catwalk. He’s in stunning form and like Matt Tuck earlier, it’s great to hear both vocalists still hitting each note with the same intensity as 2 decades ago. One might argue that both are in the form of their lives. It clearly means a lot to Heafy that Trivium are headlining arenas in the UK, and deservedly so. He talks about coming to the UK since 2005 and pauses to point out people in the pit that he met who have been with the band since then. He gets the crowd to change the local chant of “Here we, here we, here we FUCKING go” to “Trivi, Trivi, Trivi-FUCKING-um” and the crowd doesn’t need telling twice.

Highlights are many, but one particular one stands out. Through the green lights of ‘Like Light to the Flies’ the shape of every surfer coming over is illuminated and it is a sight to behold. After a fast-as-fuck intro the song becomes one of the calmer moments to be found during a Trivium gig (if such a thing is possible), the combination of Beaulieu’s harsh co-vocals and Heafy’s ultra-clean vocals is perfect and highlights again how crucial Beaulieu is. There is another great moment during the song when Heafy peels off a killer solo midsong and ends it with a cutthroat gesture while sticking his tongue out. He sure does enjoy sticking that tongue out.

The OVO Hydro (like most UK arenas) is usually booked out by whichever TikTok star is trending that week. Here today, gone tomorrow kind of thing. How refreshing then to see it packed out for 2 metal acts with strong legacies who have got to this level through hard work, tenacity, passion, and kick-ass material. With prices starting from £45, this is a reasonably priced arena tour with great productions. Anyone with even a passing interest in metal would be a fool to miss it. Buy a ticket just to see Matt Heafy’s smile light up the room.

“The Poisoned Ascendency Tour” continues on January 30th in Manchester, with dates to follow in Birmingham and London. All dates can be found, HERE.

Review – Dave

All images – Dave Jamieson

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