During a recent appearance at the Download festival at Donington Park in the United Kingdom, Trivium bassist Paolo Gregoletto provided an exciting update on the band’s upcoming studio album.
Speaking with TotalRock‘s “Hobo On The Radio” show on Saturday, June 13, he revealed that the record, tentatively expected in early 2027, will be their first full-length release featuring new drummer Alex Rüdinger.
The former Whitechapel touring drummer officially stepped in to replace Alex Bent last October. When asked when fans might get to hear fresh material, the bassist explained that the band’s creative momentum ultimately altered their original timeline.
“The original plan was, like, it’d be cool to have a song out by this summer. And we ended up going longer, for good reasons, ’cause we kept writing as we were recording. So it was, like, ‘Oh, okay, let’s add this song. Let’s do this.’ And we’re still kind of in the mix stages of things and artwork, and just the overall, like, okay. Once we get all that, then it’s kind of, like, what makes the record? What do we wanna do for this or that? When you’re in it and you’re just making the music, you’re just kind of piling up all the stuff. But then you gotta make the hard choices, and you gotta kind of collectively figure out, like, ‘Okay, what fits together? What do we do with the rest?'” he said (as transcribed by Blabbermouth).
As for a concrete release date, Paolo Gregoletto noted that the band is carefully balancing their heavy touring schedule with the logistical realities of physical production.
“We’ve been planning for the touring — that stuff’s been coming no matter what — but where it fits in with the touring and the release, we’ll kind of see,” he continued. “I’m thinking — it kind of feels like maybe earlier next year, but I don’t know. It could kind of be sooner, it could be a little later. It just kind of really depends on when we turn everything in, and then it’s, like, how long will it take to get stuff made? It’s kind of something, like, in hindsight I kind of wish when we did [2021’s] In The Court Of The Dragon, we were pretty much in that time period where vinyl was taking almost a year. And I think it was even for [2020’s] What The Dead Men Say as well, ’cause right when we dropped that record, everything shut down, and we ended up releasing a bunch of stuff, but without the physical products. And it kind of sucks in hindsight, ’cause you’re, like, ‘Ah, man, I wish we would’ve been able to do this and that and that’ back then. But now, with the EP, we were able to do some of that. But for this new record, we’re definitely gonna do a lot of cool things that we’re already planning.”
The conversation then shifted to the profound impact Alex Rüdinger has had on the group’s dynamic, both on stage and in the studio. Paolo Gregoletto had nothing but high praise for the drummer’s incredible work ethic and technical precision.
“He’s a phenomenal drummer. He’s a machine. And I will say the one thing that he brings is, like, his level of perfectionism with learning material and really… I mean, he really breaks it all down, and he plays it like the albums. And I can’t wait for people to hear his Trivium stuff, what he’s written, ’cause I think he’s a phenomenal drummer, and the compositions, everything he does is great. But for now, you’re hearing the old Trivium stuff with Rudi on the drums. It’s almost, in a good way, like hearing the record. It’s a level of intensity with his playing, perfectionism with learning the material. And honestly, it’s really made Matt [Heafy], Corey [Beaulieu] and I’s playing better, just with his tightness. And he’s a great guy. And at the end of the day, the performance is the most important thing for everyone out there, but for us to get on with someone and have that same level of drive and determination, it’s very important. And just kind of getting another guy in that role doing that really pushes us,” he explained.
Reflecting on their very first jam session together, the bassist shared a fascinating piece of band history, revealing that Trivium had actually attempted to recruit him a decade earlier. Before embarking on a tour with Jinjer last year, they finally got into a room together to test their creative chemistry.
“When we first had him down, it was for writing. And we were gonna be going on a tour — the tour we did last year, the last tour we did with Jinjer last year, he was gonna be rehearsing the set, but we were, like, ‘First and foremost, let’s try to write some music.’ It was kind of crazy ’cause 12 days before that, his life was completely different. He wasn’t playing with Trivium, a band he… Technically, we had asked him to join the band 10 years ago, which is kind of a whole other crazy story. But basically, here he is, 10 years later, the moment’s arrived again, but the first thing that was the most important was, like, ‘Let’s write music. Let’s see what happens.’ And we like to write in a room together, and he hadn’t really done that with any band in years. So it was, like, we have to see if there’s chemistry here. And the first thing we popped out in the first day or two was pretty unreal. And it was kind of like a weight lifted off our shoulders of, like, ‘Okay, things are gonna be good.’ It’s gonna be good, it’s gonna be more than good, but before we could get into a full thing of new music, it was, like, ‘Okay, we gotta do this tour first.’ And then it was, like, after that first couple days of writing, shifting back into rehearsing for the tour, and I swear Rudi, he came down to our hangar. He moved in for, like, 12 days, and he played drums for 12 days straight before we went on tour. And it’s very rare you find that guy away from a drum kit. He is always antsy to play. He’s always thinking about it. And the only way to really physically get him away from the kit is to put him on an airplane or something.”
Speaking with Rock Sound on June 13 at the Download festival in the U.K., Matt Heafy provided an update on the unreleased record and the integration of their new drummer, Alex Rüdinger.
“We have Rudi now on drums, who we tried to get 10 years ago, and we couldn’t get him 10 years ago. And for those 10 years, he told us that he wondered and regretted every day not being in the band. And we wondered what that was supposed to be, and now we finally have him. We’re sitting on arguably our greatest album of all time. It’s not out yet. We’re still mixing it. So I think this is a new chapter,” Heafy said at the time.
Prior to the lineup change, Trivium released the three-track EP Struck Dead last October via Roadrunner Records. The EP served as the final recording with Bent. Produced by the band and Mark Lewis at Hangar Studios in Orlando, Florida, and mixed by Josh Wilbur, the tracks were initially planned for a full-length release.
“Yeah, we originally started the Struck Dead EP with the intent of it being part of a full record, and as plans kept shifting, things kept changing and we found ourselves evolving and growing very quickly once again, because I feel like there’s different stages of growth in life. Just like with children — they have these different brain leaps where all of a sudden they’re starting to use new words, new skills, trying new things out. I feel like as a band, we’re hitting that. And we felt inspired and started writing new material,” Heafy explained.
This creative shift carried directly into Rüdinger‘s first sessions with the band.
“I remember the first day that we jammed with Rudi, we flew him in to Florida and said, ‘Okay, welcome. This is day one. You’re gonna write new music with us.’ And so from the day one where he showed up expecting to play our set for the tour coming up, he had to write new music with us, and it really blossomed from there,” Heafy said.
Looking ahead to the band’s future live performances and the eventual album release, Heafy emphasized the clear difference in their current dynamic.
“When everyone sees us live [at the 2026 Download festival] today, they’ll see what’s happened. They’ll see this growth. They’ll see where only since we were… We played here [in the U.K.] last August [at the Bloodstock Open Air festival]. It’s a completely different Trivium now. Better than ever in every single facet of the way, and this new music is incredible. This new music, I can’t wait for the world to hear it,” he concluded.
