Trivium are back on the road in support of their new EP, Struck Dead, which arrived on October 31 via Roadrunner Records. Stepping away from their Ascendancy anniversary shows, the band’s current tour blends fan favorites with fresh cuts, joined by Jinjer and Heriot.

October proved to be a whirlwind month for the Florida metal outfit. Following drummer Alex Bent’s departure, Sepultura’s Greyson Nekrutman briefly stepped in for the Aftershock Festival. Around the time Metal Insider caught up with guitarist Corey Beaulieu, it appeared Nekrutman would handle drumming duties for the fall tour, but those plans quickly shifted. On October 24, Trivium officially announced Alex Rüdinger (ex-Whitechapel) as their new drummer, sharing the following statement:

“Hi everyone:
As we prepare to hit the road next week for our North American tour we wanted to explain where we are with our drummer.
We want to sincerely thank Greyson Nekrutman for stepping in and crushing it with us at Aftershock Festival. It was an honor to share the stage with such a powerhouse talent, and we’re grateful to both Greyson and Sepultura for making it possible.
As we look ahead to our North American tour with Jinjer and Heriot and into a new album cycle, the realities of scheduling made it clear that Greyson wouldn’t be able to continue with us for the tour. There’s nothing but respect between us — Greyson is a humble, confident, and passionate musician, and we’ll always be fans.
That said, we’re excited to share that we’ve reconnected with a drummer we’ve known for over a decade — Alex Rüdinger (formerly of Whitechapel). Fun fact: we asked Alex to join Trivium nine years ago, but the timing didn’t align.
Alex Rüdinger will join us on tour starting next week and will be part of our writing sessions for the next Trivium record. We’re thrilled to finally share the stage with him and explore what’s ahead.
See you on the road.
– Trivium”

Following the EP’s release, Bent shared a heartfelt message reflecting on his final recording with the band:

“Thanks everyone for the kind words. This will be my last released work with Trivium. This EP has a meaningful history for me. I was going between the Hangar and the hospital, day and night to write this EP. I spent countless hours trying to perfect my parts while also splitting my time to be by my daughter Layla’s side as she fought for her life in critical condition in the NICU. I am so grateful she is healthy and thriving now.
This is a bittersweet release as the band and I have since gone separate ways, but I’m very proud of how it came together. I’m looking forward to whatever the future holds and I can’t wait to get back on the road and on stage again.”

Metal Insider spoke with Beaulieu earlier in October, just after Nekrutman’s announcement and ahead of Struck Dead’s release. He discussed the making of the EP, reflecting on two decades of Trivium history, what it was like touring Ascendancy, and why he prefers comedy over horror.

Transcription:

So what inspired the song title for “Bury Me With My Screams?”

All the lyrics and stuff for the EP came from a lot of things Matt (Heafy) was going through last year. He was, you know, I can’t really dive into as much as, probably he could with as far as everything, but, just a lot of stuff with, he was, you know, going through some shit and, just was going to, like, therapy and kind of working out a lot of stuff and kind of use the, you know, the EP, the lyrics to just kind of like vent, you know, personal feelings and stuff like that.

So, just came from that, which was getting, you know, what you had inside, just screaming it out there, in the sense of… Yeah, it was all just kind of like a very, just kind of personal thing to let, letting some shit out, kind of thing.

A healthier outlet.

Yeah. I would say that’s like, you know, it’s a good, whatever you got, if you have any, stuff going on or anything that’s built up inside, you know, the arts is a great way to let out your, whatever, you know, frustrations, anger, whatever. You know, it’s a healthy outlet for creative things. He did that on these songs; they cut all three. Kind of a very, lyrically, theme-wise are very, tied together.

You’re also releasing the EP on Halloween, and that feels perfect to have a Halloween release date. Was that deliberate, or is that just how the scheduling came out to be?

Yeah, it was just a happy accident. We just felt, you know, the tour starts on Halloween, the EP comes out on Halloween. So it’s all just fallen into place very easily. Halloween being on a Friday helps, since albums come out on Fridays.

But yeah, it was just, just seemed like that was like, you know, just kind of when, you know, the business side of things, with labels kind of look at, like, all right, when record’s done, when everything’s finished, you know, the lead in time for a release, it just kind of that would just fell in on the right date.

And, Trivium has a very long history with the month of October since, like, almost like over half our albums have come out, and, in the month, so October is a very big anniversary celebration month for our band since we have a very consistent schedule of always seem to put stuff out in October.

October is a month for Trivium.

Yeah, we have like six albums or something that came out in October.

And so, with October being the spooky season too, and for you, what is your favorite horror movie to revisit this time of year?

I don’t actually really watch horror movies at all. I can’t remember even the last time I watched one.

But, like, back when I was a kid, I definitely was. I was into more horror stuff back when I was a kid, but that was like, that’s like going way back. So, like, I remember, like, probably like, if anyone mentions a horror movie, the first thing I bring up is like, Nightmare on Elm Street, like Dream Warriors type shit, like. And most of the time, it’s like I have a stronger connection to a horror movie, ’cause they usually have a really cool theme song. So, like, that Dream Warriors with the Dokken song —it’s always something; I always remember last. I can’t remember the last time I watched the movie, but, like, you know, that definitely made a connection.

And, definitely. I haven’t really watched any of the newer stuff that is out now, with all the, whatever, big franchises or like Terrifier, The Conjuring, or whatever, or any of that. So I definitely don’t, I’m more of a comedy person. So, for October, I was talking to a friend of mine about the Scary Movie franchise. So I probably watched more Scary Movie comedy than actual horror movies.

Yes. No Dream Warriors, definitely with Dokken, and you remember the song more than the movie itself. For Trivium, if you guys can book anywhere in the world —whether it’s a haunted location, or, since you’re not a horror guy, any unique location. Where would you like to be if money and scheduling were not an issue?

Just thinking of comedy movies and the fact that it’s set in Florida, so it’d be an easy location for us to be in. But it would be, pretty, pretty hilarious to shoot a music video in the Ray Finkle house and Ace Ventura. That’d be a good one.

Okay, that would actually be amazing.

Ray Finkle’s parents’ house is down in South Florida, or at least it’s based there. Who knows that where they actually, I’m sure they probably shot at somewhere down there, but, down in South Florida, Miami, that’d be pretty funny with all the Dan Marino must die stuff in the background, would be a funny music video.

That would be hilarious. If you guys ever do that, I would love to absolutely, love to see that. Is the new EP itself a hint that there will be more music next year?

Yeah. That was, like, because when we recorded the songs, our original idea —our plan —was that we were supposed to be on tour all year for the Ascendancy anniversary. So we were like, well, it’s like it’s going to be a full year. We haven’t put out new music in a while. So, you know, it’d be cool to, like, drop a song here or there throughout the year.

A placeholder of, hey, it’s been a while, but we still got stuff. But then, once we’re even ready to put out a song, you know, our plans change. So we were like, all right, we got these songs, and we need to figure out a new plan for the rest of the year. So, the EP made the most sense: we could get all the songs out, make a release out of it, and get new music out faster than we were expecting. And, yeah. So we never did an EP and, you know, with our record label, we had a lot of new people working there.

So it was like, hey, it’s like a good little way to get our working relationship fired back up with a new team and everything like that. So, it was just kind of like a, you know, a pivot to, you know, get new music out and, and and it also kind of help, clear the slate with, getting all the songs out that, you know, were kind of full on into writing the next record that we kind of, like, can start with a clean slate of, just kind of like starting from the ground up with, building a vision for the for the next record. The EP could be its own unique thing in our catalog. And then we can kind of move on with a fresh, you know, palette to build the next thing on.

Nice. And I know you guys have recently had a lineup change. Is Greyson (Nekrutman) going to join Trivium permanently, or is he just filling in while you’re looking for a new drummer?

Yeah, he’s still. He’s still with Sepultura. They’re off. They’re not touring again till spring or something next year. So, he had an opening in his schedule, and they were very cool with us borrowing Greyson for the tour. So he’s doing, you know, because when we, when everything happened, it’s like we had a show, the Aftershock festival, coming up in, like, less than two weeks.

So we didn’t have much wiggle room to dance around, trying to find or talk to a lot of people. So what… When it happened, he was, like, the first person we contacted to see if he was available. And he was like, yeah, I totally could, you know, help you guys out.

So we were very thankful we were able to get that knocked out so quickly. So we weren’t like, you know, under the gun like a last-minute try to pull something out of our ass. So he’s doing the tour and then, you know, gives us time to talk to people (on Oct. 24, 2025, Trivium announced Alex Rüdinger, ex-Whitechapel, as their new drummer). Then, you know, we’ve already talked to some people, and we got somebody, you know, we’re going to eventually bring down to Florida, to our hangar, to jam and just kind of vibe out.

So, we’re using it because we don’t have to worry about the touring side of things in the short term. We’re, kind of using the time to, you know, just kind of see our options and stuff since we’ve never really had, in that sense with, anytime we’ve had to make, a lineup change, we’ve never really had, I guess the benefit of time to really kind of sit back and just kind of let it play out naturally without forcing or having to make a decision really quick with, you know, having to, be like on a time crunch with something coming up.

Yeah. No, that’s actually nice—the timing worked out and there was somebody immediately available for the tour. For you guys, have been celebrating twenty years of Ascendancy. Do you have another tour for a different record for a future idea? Would you do this again?

Touring for albums has been a popular thing for a while. And, like, you know, it helps generate, you know, if you’re trying to sell tickets —it’s definitely a selling point to fans with nostalgia and all that kind of stuff. And we were always like, you know, we would always be asked if we could do one for this record or that record.

We never were. That was never really our thing; we thought too much about it. And we were always like, oh, if anyone still cares after twenty years, you know, maybe we’ll, we’ll do it then. So when ‘Ascendancy’ was coming up, it definitely made sense because that record definitely was like, you know, our first big kind of introduction to the world.

And it did make an impact when it came out in many places. So it made sense to do that. And then once we did the couple tours, you know, it was it was it was a lot of fun, but also in the same sense, it was, after a couple tours, it was kind of like even though we were planning on doing the full year, like once it got kind of cut short, we were kind of like, I’m not, you know, now it’s like, I’m not really too bummed that it didn’t go longer because it’s kind of like you kind of missed like when you’re playing like one record it.

You missed a lot of the other stuff that you normally would play in the set. So it definitely was nice to do, but it’s also really refreshing now, when we’re playing, to play stuff from the other records that you didn’t play for so long. So, it’s been nice to get back to that and playing new music and, you know, bringing songs from the other records back in the set and this next tour, you know, having Greyson coming in. He’s got to basically just learn the show from the ground up that, you know, were, you know, we’ve been throwing around ideas for songs that even the three of us haven’t played live in a long time. So there should be a good, fun set that has a lot of stuff that, you know, fans have been coming out to shows the last couple of years. Hopefully, that will be a good chunk of stuff that they haven’t seen us play in a while.

It’s getting back to the variety of everything. Looking back, what is the biggest lesson that you’ve learned within the last twenty years of Trivium?

At least for the last, this last year. Definitely. We’ve discussed it amongst ourselves and with our manager. We’ve made a lot of behind-the-scenes business changes to a lot of stuff. And once we made the change, it might feel like something we have been doing or working with someone for, like, a long, long time. And then we switched to someone else.

And it’s made a big impact in the positive side of things that, that we just kind of really been, you know, kind of like just saying that, like, you know, it’s like our gut instinct has, you know, once we feel something and we make a decision very thoroughly and quickly that, it’s it’s been a real positive move. So we’ve been, like, if our gut is saying one thing, it’s been working really well for us over the last year or so. So, you know, it’s like, trust your gut and just kind of go with what feels right. And, it’s, we learn that in the moment of, actually doing it.

So it’s been nice to see that, when you know, we didn’t self-doubt or, you know. Act slowly on something and regret it. So it’s been good to see that, you know, when we all agree on something and feel a certain way, it’s panned out very positively.

How do you want Trivium to be remembered for years to come in the history of heavy music?

For the music, you have a catalog of music that will stand the test of time and hopefully influence future musicians and bands and stuff like that. We’ve had, you know, probably like, just like any other band you can might feel like you might have, I guess, look back on something like, I wish I did this or had more time on this or blah, blah, blah, but, and I feel like, you know, so far into our career, I feel like we have a, a really strong body of work, in our catalog of music that, you know, I don’t think we put out anything like, horrendous or bad.

I feel hopefully like, you know, at the end of the day, like, you know, just like everything we, we worked on or put out that, you know, is viewed upon in a very positive way that, you know, hopefully, you know, inspires, the next generation to pick up an instrument or want to write music and continue the, the metal legacy, that, you know, we came from, that we’re hopefully, you know, from our influences that, that inspired us to do it. Hopefully we made them proud and, you know, pay it forward to the next.

And most importantly, to remind people to pick up an instrument.

Yeah, you definitely, definitely need to learn an instrument, you know? But, you know, you don’t want, you know, I guess, the next crop of metal albums to be AI-generated, you know, shit. Definitely the humans, to get on board with the instrumentation stuff. But there are so many amazing players out there nowadays. There’s probably more, more amazing musicians now than there ever have been. So there’s going to be plenty of awesome bands coming out that we won’t have to worry about the scene being, you know, dry of talent.

Remaining Tour Dates

11/04 London, ON @ Centennial Hall
11/06 Québec, QC @ Videotron Centre
11/07 Wallingford, CT @ Toyota Oakdale Theatre
11/08 Portland, ME @ Cross Insurance Arena
11/10 Warren, OH @ Packard Music Hall
11/11 Buffalo, NY @ Buffalo River Works
11/12 Lancaster, PA @ Freedom Hall
11/14 Gary, IN @ Hard Rock Live Northern Indiana
11/15 Milwaukee, WI @ The Eagles Ballroom
11/16 Cincinnati, OH @ The Andrew J Brady Music Center
11/18 Indianapolis, IN @ The Egyptian Room at Old National Centre
11/19 Waukee, IA @ Vibrant Music Hall
11/20 Minneapolis, MN @ Uptown Theater
11/22 Winnipeg, MB @ Burton Cummings Theatre
11/24 Edmonton, AB @ Midway Music Hall
11/25 Calgary, AB @ Grey Eagle Events Centre
11/26 Missoula, MT @ The Wilma
11/28 Spokane, WA @ The Podium
11/29 Garden City, ID @ Revolution Concert House
12/01 Salt Lake City, UT @ The Union Event Center
12/03 Riverside, CA @ Riverside Municipal Auditorium
12/05 Albuquerque, NM @ Revel
12/06 Oklahoma City, OK @ The Criterion
12/07 Fayetteville, AR @ JJ’s Live 
12/09 Springfield, MO  @ Shrine Mosque
12/10 Kansas City, MO @ Uptown Theater
12/12 New Orleans, LA @ The Fillmore New Orleans
12/13 Dothan, AL @ The Plant 
12/14 Orlando, FL @ Hard Rock Live

 

 

 

 

 

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A post shared by Alex Bent (@alexbentdrums)

 

Feature Image Photo Credit: @blackcardfilms