The team behind metal band Bullet for My Valentine has a major resolution for 2008: Break the metal quintet in the United States with its new album, “Scream Aim Fire,” due this week on 20/20 Entertainment/Jive/Zomba.
Bullet for My Valentine is a hero in the United Kingdom, having garnered the support of Kerrang and Q magazines, and sharing festival main stages with Metallica, Guns N’ Roses and Iron Maiden. Now, the chance to break in the United States is sweetened by frontman Matt Tuck’s months-long recuperation from a tonsillectomy. He suggested hiring another singer, drummer Michael “Moose” Thomas recalls, saying, “We were like, ‘No way.’ … We just stuck through it, and he wanted to get another singer, but we wouldn’t let him.”
Overcoming the setback helps explain the vigor permeating “Scream Aim Fire.” The band also had to contend with naysayers griping about its success. “I think this is more of a metal record,” Thomas says, comparing this album to 2006’s “The Poison.” “We were fed up with people putting us in different categories, because we always thought we were a metal band. So we just wrote this album to shut up a lot of people.
“It’s a lot more upbeat,” he continues. “The tempos are quicker, the songs are more aggressive. We didn’t want to do another album that sounded like ‘The Poison,’ but then we didn’t want to go too far. We just wanted to beat what we’ve done before.”
