Trivium has gained immense popularity over the last few years, so it came as no surprise to see that they had been picked as the headlining act for Metal Hammer’s Golden Gods award-show. Hell, I think even the decor and theme for the night was especially picked to suit the style of this band.

Neither was it a big surprise to see the people around me go amok as soon as the foursome took the stage for their 25 minutes long set (ten more than any of the other bands had).
Trivium also used their usual stage setup with several microphones to suit Matt Heafy’s mobility, although it was a bit more cramped than I’m used to as the stage wasn’t all that big compared to the other stages I’ve seen them play. I also had to wonder why Corey Beaulieu, who as far as I know plays Dean guitars exclusively, was wearing a Jackson guitars t-shirt…

Remembering that Trivium had just gotten here from playing the Download Festival the day before (Heafy commented that this had been the best day of his life!), it was impressive to see how much energy they had left, and especially bassist Paolo Gregoletto impressed me with a very vital and energetic performance.
The energy was so contagious a big circlepit was formed on the floor already in the second song, and it kept going for quite a while.
Trivium also had a guest appearance in the form of Machine Head vocalist/guitarist Robb Flynn, who provided backing vocals for the last song of the set. Actually, they had one more doing backing vocals, however I don't think this was as planned as the other; one of the crowd-surfers of the night ended up on stage, and refused to leave again for a long time! The band didn't seem to mind though…

I have not been too impressed with Trivium’s music in the past, and this show didn’t change that. I don’t think it is bad, it just doesn’t catch me…
Still, I must say that they did a very good job of the show, and this was definitely the best Trivium concert I have seen to date.