Bullet For My Valentine: 'We are a heavy metal band. We always have been'

Your frontman Matt Tuck has been talking up your new release. He says Venom is the best album you have done to date. What do you feel about it?
We're all super proud of the album. We're super-stoked by it. Off the back of the last album (Temper Temper), we wanted to make a no-holds-barred, heavy-metal record and be the band that we've always been. We wanted to write songs not with radio or anything like that in mind. We just wanted it to be heavy metal.

In the past some fans have said that you're not quite heavy metal enough. Tuck has said before that you were a rock band first and not necessarily a heavy metal band. Was he right?
I think that was probably the wrong thing to say really. I do believe that we are a heavy metal band. I believe that we always have been. We've always had heavy metal influences.

You have gone out of your way to make this album as hard as possible. Why was that?
We all agreed that we just wanted to focus on something that is true to our roots, something hard, aggressive and dark. We really wanted to smash the ball out of the park on this one. I have to say that, so far, I think this is our best album. It's exciting times.

You are on tour with Slipknot and Lamb of God at the moment. How is that going?
We're playing to some really big crowds. It is ideal for us to be on this tour in the lead-up to the record. We're going down better than expected here. The crowds have been great. We're playing new songs off the album which means the reaction has been really good.

Lamb of God are really cool guys, really chatty and talkative which is great. Corey (Taylor from Slipknot) is such a cool character, always talks and says hello. We’ve known him without the  mask from (Taylor's old band) Stone Sour. He’s always been nice to us. There’s no egos in the camps and that’s rare these days. All the crew are great to us. Everybody is friendly which makes the tour easier for all of us.

You've released a couple of songs off the album. You Want a Battle? (Here's A War) sounds like the making of a Bullet for my Valentine anthem.
We're hoping that every song on the album is going to be a breakthrough for us. From start to finish, we're so chuffed with every song. Every song is potentially a single which is rare on an album these days.

This is your fifth album. You’ve been around since 1998. Have you honed your craft to a level that you feel you can take your seccess to the next level?

Sometimes you put a little foot wrong. Music is a learning curve for everyone. We want to be up there with the best. We want to make famous albums and we want a long career. It’s very important. With the music industry the way it is at the moment, it is difficult for any band. There is no cash objective. The most important thing is the music. So going back into the album, this is the most important album of our career.

You are touring in the UK and Ireland in the autumn. How would you assess the state of British heavy metal at present?
I think it is doing pretty well at this time. One of the biggest metal bands in the world is Iron Maiden and they have a new album coming out. We're up there as well which is very fortunate for us. You've got new up and coming bands such as Bring Me The Horizon who are doing very well. There's a new wave of rock and metal coming through.

Venom by Bullet for My Valentine is out on August 14^th.
Bullet for My Valentine play the Ulster Hall, Belfast, on Sept 28th, and the Olympia, Dublin, on Sept 29^th.