Trivium and Bullet For My Valentine Celebrate Classic Albums at Manchester Co-Op Live [Photos]

Take yourselves back twenty years to 2005 when the metal scene saw two huge albums drop on either side of the Atlantic. On the one side, Welsh metallers Bullet For My Valentine introduced themselves with their full-length debut The Poison going toe-to-toe with Florida shredders Trivium who were unleashing their neck-snapping Roadrunner Records debut, Ascendancy. What a time to be a metal fan!

Wind the clock forward twenty years and both bands have gone on to have impressive careers following the release of those albums so the idea of the pair going out on the road together under the banner of ‘The Poisoned Ascendancy Tourz’ to celebrate the anniversary of both game-changing albums seems like a no-brainer and, for your average metal fan, a great night out.

As Bullet For My Valentine’s video intro whirrs into life, taking fans on a journey through their career from slogging away on the UK club circuit to fully-fledged arena headliners, a huge roar goes up around this packed arena, many of whom look like they were there first time around. Careering through “4 Words (to Choke Upon)” and “Tears Don’t Fall”, the first thing you realise is how huge these songs still sound in 2025 and, secondly, how effortlessly they fill the cavenous Co-Op Live Arena.

Their intro follows the journey of The Poison-era line-up earning their stripes on the club circuit through to festival headliners and watching Matt Tuck, Padge and Jamie Mathias using every inch of the stage, gargantuan efforts like “Waking The Demon” show how it was just a matter of time before venues like this became their rightful home.

As for co-headliners Trivium, those of us who were around for the original release will recall their legendary slot at Download Festival when the band kicked off the mainstage at 11am to one of the biggest crowds an opener at the festival had ever seen. Since then, the band have gone from strength to strength yet Ascendancy, to most, is still the benchmark for their career. Blending European and US metal riffery together, the likes of “Rain” and “Pull Harder on the Strings of your Martyr” have easily stood the test of the time, with the Florida metal crew sounding as colossal as ever in 2025.

Tearing through the album, frontman Matthew Heafy gurns and sticks his tongue out at every given opportunity while longtime bandmates, guitarist Corey Beaulieu and bassist Paolo Gregoletto shred away alongside the frontman as the band roar through “A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation and “Dying In Your Arms”. Dwarfed by a huge production, Trivium pull out all the stops for this one as, even twenty years later, the mammoth grooves the band whip out are as utterly wonderful as ever.

Next up for Bullet, they return to Download Festival in June while, for Trivium, the band return to the UK in August to headline Bloodstock Festival. For now though, thousands of fans of joining in one to celebrate these two mammoth albums. What a time to be a metal fan!

Check out Graham Finney Photography’s Photo Gallery from the show here.

Trivium (w/ Bullet For My Valentine) @ Co-Op Live (Manchester, UK) on January 30th, 2025

38 photos