Both albums lit a fire under your respective careers. Did you know you had made something special?
Matt Tuck: “I felt that and I was feeling as it was going along. There were moments of doubt and uncertainty and anxiety because we’d worked so hard to get this opportunity, and it was real – we were in the studio with Colin Richardson (Machine Head, Napalm Death, Funeral For A Friend) making a record. We were buzzing. I remember doing a demo of Tears Don't Fall and All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me) in the same session in Newport, and just hearing it back like, ‘Oh shiiit, this is cooool!” I knew those two songs were the tickets for Bullet to explode.”
Matt Heafy: “We had such a weird experience in the U.S., we were the first of four bands that was Dillinger Escape Plan, Read Yellow, The End and Trivium opening. I remember the entire crowd standing on the sides and turning their backs to us. When it was Children Of Bodom, Trivium and Amon Amarth, opening in the U.S. and playing Slim's in San Francisco, we got booed at and spit on the entire show. We played a 30-minute set just getting spat at. So I didn’t know what the UK was going to be like, but we were taken in.
“There’s a lot of very confident quotes of an 18-year-old me in your magazine non-stop like, ‘This is what we mean, this is what we said we’re gonna do,’ but now I think it’s great! If I see teenagers coming out now saying, ‘We’re going to be the sickest band’ or, ‘We’re gonna be your new favourite band’, seeing that kind of confidence nowadays is really praised. I always tell people to set your goals high but put the work in like you’re gonna do it. But the fact that this has done what our childhood goals were is fantastic and I think that’s what this tour is testament to, it’s a celebration of all the work our two bands did way back then and being able to truly enjoy the moment. It’s not that we didn’t enjoy it, but it was such a rollercoaster, both bands were just in this flow of this river and the waves were moving.”
Matt Tuck: “For Bullet it just exploded and were on this ride that didn’t really stop, and still hasn’t! You’re not taking it in, you’re just like, ‘Aaah!’ And then it’s the next show, and you’re getting calls about Guns N’ Roses, Maiden, Metallica, and all these things on the first album. Selling out Brixton was like, ‘What the fuck is going on?!’ All that was great, but then it’s gone, and then you’re on to the next one. To actually experience and enjoy that moment now is going to be a really nice feeling.”
You also get to experience something you’ve never done before, which is headline The O2 Arena. How does it feel to still be taking those next steps, some 20-plus years into your career?
Matt Heafy: “I see people talking about ‘young bands’, but we’re still the same age as a lot of these bands coming out now, who’re considered younger bands, and we’ve put 20-plus years of work in each. And this tour’s going to set our bands to this level, then we can both pave the way and do our thing, and maybe we’ll come back in 30 or 40 years together to do it again and make it bigger and bigger.”
Matt Tuck: “The best is yet to come from both bands, creatively and as live musicians. We’re by no means over any hill! (laughs) Thankfully our careers started when we were very young, and 20 years later we’re still fucking ready to do this!”
The Poisoned Ascendancy tour kicks off in January 2025 – get your tickets now
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