Trivium's first trips to the UK were fairly momentous. Ascendancy had barely been out two months when the band embarked on their first UK headline tour in May 2005, but already they were on the cover of magazines and being heralded as leaders of a new generation of metal bands.
A month later, they cemented that status when they played to 40,000 people at Download Festival, opening the Main Stage on Saturday 11 June. They were a Big Deal and barely had time to dry off before being whisked to another part of the planet to win fans over in their thousands all over again.
When Hammer caught up with the band for a cover feature (ultimately printed in November 2005), they were understandably run ragged. To make matters worse, the weather was (typically) miserable in London, writer Ian Winwood describing it as "the kind of day that gives London, that gives England, a bad reputation".
It was Wednesday 24 August and Trivium had been flown over amidst a run of US dates for their third press trip to the UK in less than six months. "I am almost unbelievably tired right now. If I'm being honest, I feel like shit," Heafy told Winwood.
Two days before, Trivium had been playing in Phoenix, Arizona. Unable to sleep in Phoenix's stifling 115-degree heat, the frontman had watched the road pass by as the band were driven to another show, this time in Albuquerque, New Mexico. There, the band played a 9am slot on the second stage of Ozzfest, playing the first slot of the day so they could later board a plane and fly over to the UK.
All of this and the band were only staying in the UK for 48 hours before they would again be blown back across the sea, meeting back up with Ozzfest in Texas. No shit they were tired.
Still, the mood of the interview seemed to be one of excitement and quiet confidence, a band no longer marching to anyone else's beat. They put the record straight about their attitude towards sex, drugs and rock'n'roll ("I didn't want to be one of those people," Heafy said), talked about their roots (everything from Heafy's birthplace to how his parents had supported the band and he had fallen in love with metal thanks to Metallica's Live Shit: Binge And Purge) and laid out their plans for the future.
And then they played another show, this time at London's Barfly. And, as often happened when you gave Trivium a stage and an enthusiastic crowd in 2005, it set the stage for their future legend.
Sold to its full 250 person capacity, Trivium blasted through their setlist with an enthusiasm that showed nothing of their tiredness and capped it off with a special guest appearance from Robb Flynn.
Roadrunner United may have gone on to become a legendary collaboration, but the seeds for such greatness were laid in a sweaty, packed London bar. The Machine Head frontman jumped on-stage for a thundering covers medley, blasting out Sepultura's Roots, Metallica's Creeping Death, Pantera's Walk and Iron Maiden's The Trooper.
So that's 2005 Trivium - a band of metal kids done good who literally had the world at their feet - and metal icon Robb Flynn playing some of the most legendary metal songs ever created to an audience of 250 people. Quite literally the stuff dreams are made of and Trivium were living theirs to the fullest.
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