In a new interview with Portugal’s Look magazine, TRIVIUM’s Paolo Gregoletto spoke about a possible follow-up to the band’s 2021 album “In The Court Of The Dragon”. The bassist, whose band is currently taking part in “The Poisoned Ascendancy” tour during which TRIVIUM and BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE are celebrating the 20th anniversary of “Ascendancy” and “The Poison” albums, respectively, by playing them in full, said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “New music, I think, [is] sort of the lifeblood of any band. It’s, like, what are you doing next? And we’re very excited because we have our hangar studio built. It’s really cool. I would say it’s probably a dream come true, I think, for any musician. To me, having a studio at our disposal like this, at this level, this quality is like — I guess maybe to go back to the VAN HALEN references, like 5150. They made that studio because they weren’t fully happy with what they were doing in the studio at the time. They wanted full control, full control of the surroundings, the gear, everything. And that is what we’ve done with our hangar. It’s, to a tee, made to our specs and our liking. And I think when people hear what we’re doing there, they’ll be happy, but we’re just getting started. I think 2026 is the new music year. This is like the transition year. We’re out here celebrating with BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE. We’re playing two records that are very special for both our bands and for fans. But new music is on the horizon. We are thinking about it. We have been working on it. So don’t think we’re not thinking about the future while we’re looking in the past at the moment.”Referencing the fact that TRIVIUM is performing the “Ascendancy” album in full on the current tour, Paolo said: “It’s new for us, because we’ve never done this before. We’ve never done the full-album playthrough. And it’s kind of nice, it’s kind of freeing because I’m, like, we don’t have to think about the setlist. It’s, like, those are the songs; that’s the order. And there’s challenges to that because the last two songs of our album on ‘Ascendancy’, they’re probably the least known, of course, ’cause they’re at the end, but there’s a lot more going on to it. ‘Declaration’ is like a really intense song. I know for BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, I think their last song [on ‘The Poison’] is kind of a ballady, longer song. So it’s not what you would ever put at the end of your set. So we have to work around the limitations of a setlist and stuff. Now, of course, we play something after it. But we had some ways around it to where it wasn’t gonna end on a song that’s purely just, like, ‘Okay, that’s probably the least known song in the setlist.’ But there’s a lot of energy in ‘Ascendancy’, so I have no doubt that even if you didn’t know every song well, you’re gonna know what it’s about and you’re gonna have fun.”Earlier in the month, TRIVIUM’s Corey Beaulieu told Jorge Botas of Portugal’s Metal Global about a possible follow-up to “In The Court Of The Dragon”: “We spent last year building our recording studio at our hangar. So we got that all up and running and stuff. And we’re always working on some new stuff. And since it’s been — 2021, I guess, was [when] the last record came out, or something like that, so it’s definitely our longest gap in records and everything. So, definitely new music will be on the horizon. We’ve been working on some stuff.”He continued: “So, yeah, doing the ‘Ascendancy’ anniversary thing, and the next thing on our plate is preparing for a new record. And then, obviously, 2026 will be new record, touring, festivals and stuff like that. So, it’ll be another busy year, just like this year, but it’ll be kind of flipping the page to kind of the next chapter, new music and moving forward and go from nostalgia to new stuff. So, we’re looking forward to it.”Corey added: “When we were on break rehearsing for the ‘Ascendancy’ stuff, we kind of used playing ‘Ascendancy’ as our mojo to kind of inspire us to write new music and stuff like that, kind of take that vibe and energy and kind of use it to make new stuff. So, we’ve got some stuff cooking, kind of marinating, and with the new studio, we can kind of go in and start tracking whenever we’ve got stuff ready to go. So, hopefully — I don’t know — sometime mid-next year, I don’t know exactly, we have no like timetable, but definitely at some some point next year there’ll be a record announcement or something coming out. Yeah, we’re looking forward to it. By that time, it’ll be five or six years since we had a new record out. So it’s definitely time.”Regarding the fact that TRIVIUM released two albums, 2020’s “What The Dead Men Say” and 2021’s “In The Court Of The Dragon”, within a year and a half of each other, Corey said: “Yeah, we did basically put out two records in a year, which is a lot, I guess, nowadays. So, doing that, we felt like we needed a little bit more of a breather space to kind of let everyone get excited and anticipation built up for new music. Since we did two records so quick, it felt like when we put out ‘In The Court Of The Dragon’, it was so quick, it seemed like maybe there wasn’t as much like hype or anticipation ’cause it was so soon after putting out a record. So it feels like having a little bit more space will get people a little more pumped up.””The Poisoned Ascendancy” launched in the U.K. in late January 2025 for six shows, before the two bands, along with support act ORBIT CULTURE, head over to mainland Europe for 18 more concerts.Released in March of 2005, TRIVIUM crafted a classic in the form of “Ascendancy”. It concluded 2005 as Kerrang!’s “Album Of The Year,” went gold in the U.K., and has since surpassed global sales of 500,000 copies. Opening the main stage of Download festival that year, the Floridian four piece — barely out of their teens — delivered a set that left all who witnessed it in no doubt that they were looking at future legends, with Kerrang! readers later voting it as the tenth best gig of all time.”In The Court Of The Dragon” came out in October 2021 via TRIVIUM’s longtime label Roadrunner Records. The record was produced and mixed by Josh Wilbur and recorded in the fall of 2020 at Full Sail University in Orlando. The album cover is an original oil painting by French artist Mathieu Nozieres.TRIVIUM supported MEGADETH and LAMB OF GOD on the 2022 leg of “The Metal Tour Of The Year”.Last month, Beaulieu was asked by Jorge Fretes of Spain’s GoetiaMedia if there are plans for TRIVIUM to celebrate the upcoming 20th anniversaries of any other albums, such as 2008’s “Shogun”. Corey said: “We’ve seen over the years that a lot of bands, doing anniversary tours has been kind of like, I guess, a popular thing to do. Some bands have done it 10 years after a record came out or whatever, and we always just kind of thought that, ‘Hey, if people still care after 20 years, that’ll be like the time to think about doing something’ and whatever. So, especially ‘Ascendancy’ our first big thing that kind of people heard of us, so that kind of made a big impact, so we figured ‘Ascendancy’ was a good record to do it on. Some of our records probably we wouldn’t.”He continued: “We did a little thing on our last U.K. tour. It was the ‘Shogun’ 15th anniversary and we played a couple of extra songs from it. But ‘Shogun’, I’m sure there’d be a lot of fans that would love for us to play that record from start to finish, but that record is so musically demanding that I don’t know if I could manage wanting to do a whole tour of playing just that record. I’d probably just be mentally exhausted. But, no, it’s cool to do this record ’cause it was so special of a record for us and the fans. We have a lot of records that’ll be turning 20 — ‘The Crusade’ turns 20 the year after, and then ‘Shogun’ and stuff like that — but we’ll be probably back into focusing on new music. But there’ll be some cool stuff for anniversary stuff coming out that people can collect and buy, but probably spending a year of touring for another record is not gonna be something that’s gonna be popping up anytime soon. So this is a kind of our one-time thing for now. I know BULLET, talking to them, I know they’re in the same boat, like, once we get done doing this anniversary run together, they’ve been in the studio. [The plan is to get] some new tunes and stuff out and kind of moving on to the next record. But it’s gonna be exciting. I think playing a record like ‘Ascendancy’ on tour and the energy of the crowd, we’re definitely looking forward to kind of channeling that, playing those songs and getting that energy from the fans and kind of channeling that into new music and hopefully capture some of that intensity from the tour and project that back into a new record that people will be pumped on.”Last September, BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE and TRIVIUM announced the North American dates for “The Poisoned Ascendancy” tour. Support on the trek will come from AUGUST BURNS RED, with SYLOSIS and BLEED FROM WITHIN appearing on select shows.Produced by Live Nation, the 26-city tour kicks off on March 30 at PNE Forum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, making stops across North America in Las Vegas, Chicago, New York and more before wrapping up in Raleigh, North Carolina at Red Hat Amphitheater on May 18.[embedded content]