Metal Anarchy

During a recent interview with 107.7 The Bone, Trivium bassist Paolo Gregoletto commented on the recent departure of drummer Alex Bent. According to him, everything “ended on great terms.”

Gregoletto said the following:

“We’ve had a great nine years together. I feel like it’s kind of a weird thing because, obviously, being in a band together, but I feel like because we’ve all had families and stuff, there’s a tighter connection there that even just what people see. So I think it’s one of those things, we all were kind of sad, but at the same time, we said, ‘Alex, we want you to kind of make the statement. You kind of lead how you’d like to handle all this stuff.’ And I didn’t wanna put words in his mouth or say whatever. He made the statement. I feel like we ended on great terms. And that’s really kind of it. I mean, there’s no juicier CRADLE OF FILTH [-style] drama [with former hired musicians sharing their grievances online]. And, again, it’s one of those things where we wanted him to make a statement.

In the past we’ve always been very, like — we don’t really like to get into any behind-the-scenes stuff with that. And, of course, we’ve had changes before, but we felt like in this instance, rather than just saying ‘we’re parting’ or whatever, we [told Alex], like, ‘Well, you’ve been around for so long, our fans would wanna hear from you.’ And so that made it more important to us to be, like, ‘Okay, you are gonna say whatever you’d like to say.’ We didn’t [tell Alex], ‘You can’t say this or that.’ And then just give it 24 hours. And then as we hit the stage [at the Aftershock festival] today, be, like, ‘Okay, this is the guy playing with us for today, for the tour,’ and then that’s kind of it.”

He also said the following about recruiting fill-in drummer Greyson Nekrutman (Sepultura):

“It’s been a crazy whirlwind. He was on a tour in Canada, a drum-clinic tour. And he said, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it.’ And he got home. He spent two 12-hour days, just in there, working on it, and then we flew him down. We jammed for two days, flew out here, and we’re gonna go jam in our little room here in a bit. But everything’s good. I feel like there’s good vibes. Of course, it’s one chapter ending, but I feel like the music that we made [with Alex] for the last nine years was great. And especially for the EP [‘Struck Dead’] coming [in late October], if that’s kind of the end cap on this era of TRIVIUM [with Alex], I’m very happy with everything we did.”

He also added the following about the band’s current plans:

“We’re gonna be out, I think, in Europe next summer. The first couple months [of 2026] is gonna be kind of, like, of course, [working on the next full-length] record and stuff. And then we’re gonna probably take a little bit of time and maybe jam with some people, just kind of see what we’re feeling for the next step.

This is still kind of new, so we’re not totally sure [what we’re gonna do about a new drummer], but we’ve never really taken a moment to kind of just step back. Because Greyson is incredible, but he is with SEPULTURA. And they have commitments, and we’re very lucky that there’s no clashes at the moment. He can get us through the end of the year, and [we] feel like the songs are in good hands. But … once we get off the road, once we get to holidays, everyone’s got clear heads — we know a lot of great people, and we don’t know if there’s someone that might be interested in that. So we’re, like, well, let’s just take a moment. And next year we’ll get into that. And then, of course, the record is gonna be the big thing for us. And, of course, you know what follows that — more touring, coming back around.”

[via Blabbermouth]