Longtime Trivium frontman Matt Heafy has revealed that he nearly quit the band last year.

Speaking to Metal Hammer in a new interview, the guitarist – who has led the Orlando metal outfit since 1999, when he was just 13 – explains how tensions led to a boiling point following a tracking session last year, likely for their upcoming album Crown in the Grave, which arrives next month.

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“[Our] chemistry starts falling apart a little bit,” Heafy says. “Not from one person, not from me, but it’s just the sum of its parts. Things aren’t going right. Quiet explosion.

“I’m tracking guitars. I stand up. I leave. I call [my wife] Ashley. I’m like, ‘I’m done with this fucking band. I can’t do this shit anymore. It’s 26, 27 years of this shit that just keeps happening.”

He continues: “[I was] at [our rehearsal space] the Hangar. I just start driving home, get home, turn my phone off. Like, ‘I’m not going [back] in.’ And then Ashley lets the dust settle, and she’s like, ‘You’re not quitting the band. You can’t quit the band. You’re part of this band. You’ve got to figure this out. Go back to the studio.’”

Thankfully Heafy decided to stay in the band, but personnel changes did take place shortly after, with drummer Alex Bent leaving Trivium in October 2025.

“Sometimes, when there’s a change, when your favourite married couple gets divorced, you break up with your girlfriend, you get fired from your job, you fire someone from your company, sometimes things have to happen for the survival of the ‘whole’, or the ‘whole’ will not survive any more,” Heafy continues.

Trivium are set to release their 11th studio album Crown in the Grave next month, the followup to 2021’s In the Court of the Dragon.

Matt Heafy says all the recent changes have Trivium feeling like a band reborn. “I stopped trying to be safe and perfect at every show,” he says. “Instead, I was actually enjoying the experience and living. If I messed up, it was okay because I’m human. With all of the changes Trivium went through, it’s like a brand new band.”

Check out the album’s lead single Dead Inside of Me below:

Sam is the Associate News Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Thoroughly immersed in music culture for the majority of his life, Sam has played guitar for 20 years, studied music technology and production at university, and also written for the likes of Guitar World, Total Guitar, Metal Hammer and MusicRadar.