Bullet For My Valentine - Profile

 

Matthew “Matt” Tuck – vocals, guitars

Michael “Padge” Paget – guitars

Michael “Moose” Thomas – drums

Jason “Jay” James - bass

"The best British metal band to emerge in years." - Q Magazine

The Welsh metal-core band Bullet For My Valentine has spent most of the past two years taking over the world with massive U.K., European, U.S. and worldwide tours, sharing the stage with Guns N Roses, Metallica and Iron Maiden, playing the Main Stage at just about every rock festival on the planet, and seeing their 2006 debut album The Poison - an album London's daily The Sun called "One of the finest debut albums in rock history" - sell more than one-million copies worldwide – 350,000 in the U.S. alone – a very rare achievement for an emerging band.

Back home, Bullet For My Valentine has graced the covers of the UK's Kerrang!, Rock Sound, and Metal Hammer. They won Metal Hammer's 2006 “Golden God Award” for Best British Band, and the 2006 Kerrang! Award for “Best UK Single” for their track “Tears Don't Fall.” Here in America, Revolver magazine heralded the band “British Import of the Year,” and The Poison generated the hit singles “Tears Don't Fall” and “All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me),” with the video for “All These Things I Hate” going to the 1 spot on MTV2. The band has toured North America three times, and in early 2007, they sold out their first headline trek.




On January 29, 2008, Bullet For My Valentine is set to return with Scream Aim Fire (20-20/Jive/SonyBMG), the band's highly anticipated sophomore release. The 11-track assault was produced by Colin Richardson (Machine Head, Funeral For A Friend) and recorded at Sonic Ranch just outside of El Paso, TX in early 2007, and is, according to front man Matthew “Matt” Tuck, “really melodic heavy metal…catchy, hooky choruses and full-on vocals with the music being very in-your-face and heavy…it's a lot more up-tempo than The Poison, a lot more aggressive.”

Scream Aim Fire, featuring the distinctive and powerful six-string dexterity of Michael “Padge” Padget, the unwavering instrumental groove of bassist Jason “Jay” James and the relentless thundering rhythms of Michael “Moose” Thomas, the musical backbone of Bullet is an intimidating force. With a lifetime of classic metal inspiration behind him, vocalist/guitarist Tuck is a formidable and powerful voice for the ever energetic, young metal generation.

“We have stepped it up a gear,” says the front-man. “This album is chock full of classic Bullet ingredients. Metal riffs, pounding rhythms, shredding solos and great melodies. We took everything that we learnt from ‘The Poison,' and took up tenfold. Better, fresher, harder, sadder and more real.”

Opening with the aural assault of the title track and first single -“Scream Aim Fire” – to the hard-hitting riff slammer of “Waking The Demon,” and the arena-ballad epic “Hearts Burst Into Fire,” this album will definitely catapult Bullet into a world-wide spotlight.

“(The track) ‘Scream Aim Fire' set the benchmark for the rest of the album,” says Tuck. “It was the moment we realized the direction of where we wanted the record to go. Lyrically, it's not a saying that anyone can relate anything else to. It's ours and the meaning is ours alone. Kill or be killed – that's what this game is like. You're either on top of the game, or you are out, and we are very much still in. Our quality of song writing, our structures, our timing – the songs are intense and accessible, whilst still keeping our metal roots.”

Tuck believes that the band's unique accessibility lies in the fact that fans – regardless of age, gender or nationality – can relate to the subjects and issues tackled within their tracks.

“It's important to us that fans can make a connection with our songs,” says the front-man. “For example, ‘Waking The Demon' is about being bullied at school – which is something that me and most of the boys went though. The track is about one day, just turning round, and deciding to not take it anymore. I'd hope that our fans can relate to that.”

And despite the fact that these four musicians are now considered prominent players in the UK/European metal world, as well as serious up-and-comers here in the U.S. – the lads remain grounded (all still living in their native Welsh homeland) – and eternally grateful for the position that they now find themselves in.

“If it wasn't for the fans, we would never even have been able to make this second album,” says Tuck. “We are so thankful to them, and we will always try to deliver the goods. I know we had to cancel a load of shows last year (Tuck was hospitalized in the winter of 2006 and forced to undergo surgery on his tonsils), but it hurt us so much to do so. We really hated to let anyone down, but it was an unavoidable evil, and now I am confident that this record – and this band – are stronger than ever.”

To support the release of Scream Aim Fire, Bullet for My Valentine will set off on what will be more than two years of solid, worldwide touring, starting in the UK and Europe in January, 2008, and then coming to America beginning in late February.

“We are still so hungry for this,” states Tuck. “We are motivated and ambitious. We know where we want to be. We have played with legends and if we get to that level, it would be amazing. But you know what? If it ended tomorrow, we would still be happy. We are amazingly proud of what we have achieved and what we have done. We are having the time of our lives. The world is our oyster…”

2005 has been the year of Bullet For My Valentine. In the past twelve months, the Welsh four piece have exploded into worldwide prominence. Combining darkly crooned rock with earth shattering metal execution, the arena sized sound has taken over, radio, TV and live performances. Releasing their debut full-length “The Poison” in the UK, the album immediately shot to number one at rock radio. Known for their live vigor the group sold out a headlining tour through the UK, as well as high profile tours through Japan and a recent U.S. debut opening for Trustkill Records label-mates, It Dies Today.

Speaking on their recent streak of success, Matt Tuck, lithe and intense eyed vocalist and guitarist, is more matter of fact than arrogant when he says: “What separates us from most other bands is keeping our metal roots; keeping all of the aggressiveness and brutality that we’ve grown up on, but at the same time writing good songs.” Then his tongue slips firmly into his cheek as he adds: And when you put it all together in one good looking, young, 21st Century rock band, you can’t fail!”


To give you an idea of the band’s standing in their homeland, the group is currently gearing up for a headlining spot on an upcoming Kerrang Magazine sponsored tour with Hawthorne Heights supporting them! Of couse all of this momentum is not gathered without hard work and working so hard comes with a price. 24 hours before turning in a foundation rattling gig at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods, Tuck had been hospitalized for exhaustion.

“We’d just been doing too much”, says Matt. “My body just said ‘No more’ and packed in.” But the same protestant work ethic has taken its toll on the rest of the band as well. During a hectic and insanely well received tour of Japan, affable drummer, Michael ‘Moose’ Thomas contracted a potentially fatal strain of flu! “It was horrible”, says Moose “I was on a drip for a fortnight. I reckon I picked it up in those caves.”

“Those caves” were the Postojna Caves in Slovenia where they filmed the epic video to their last top 40 single “Suffocating Under The Words Of Sorrow (What Can I Do).” “It was the most heavy metal place you can imagine, underground with all these stalactites. But I thought they were going to snap off and spear me while I was playing”, adds the drummer. “It had Enter Traveller In To This Immensity carved in big letters in Latin over the entrance, it was mad”, adds laidback guitar man Michael ‘Padge’ Padget. While in the U.S. in November the band found time to film a video for the song “All These Things” from the Poison album. Look for the video on these shores in early 06.

The band composed of Tuck, Michael 'Padge' Padget (guitar), Michael 'Moose' Thomas (drums) or Jason 'Jay' James (bass) are childhood mates from the area of Bridgeend. This small area has also been home turf for such artists as LostProphets and Funeral For A Friend. Growing up on a steady diet of Metallica, Iron Maiden, Machine Head and rock like Guns N Roses the friends without James started a group in their pre-teen years called Jeff Killed John. That band struggled through musical growth and the hiccups that go along with starting a musical career for close to seven years. In that time the band played shitty gigs, pay for play affairs with little or no local support and sleeping in vans and floors. A little over two years ago, that group was about to enter the recording studio, when their bassist walked out on them. Rather than contuining on, the members recruited James and started a new band as Bullet For My Valentine, re-working their sound and musical ideas into a new beast. This group was signed at their second gig and quickly steam-rolled through the musical landscape.

Recently scoring covers for Metal Hammer and Kerrang in their homeland and upcoming profiles in Revolver, Penthouse Magazine and beyond. The band recently released their self-titled EP in the U.S. on Trustkill Records (it has sold over 20,000 copies so far!). The video for “Hand Of Blood” has just been added to MTV2. The band are prepping the U.S. release of The Poison for Valentine’s Day 2006. Let the massacre begin.