Bullet for My Valentine's Matt Tuck recently lost his voice to muscle spasms following the 2005 tour, just as his band seemed
by: MATT ELLIOTT World Scene Writer
4/6/2007
 Bullet for my Valentine |
Bullet for My Valentine singer strains to regain heavy metal volume
Bullet for My Valentine's Matt Tuck recently lost his voice to muscle spasms following the 2005 tour, just as his band seemed on the verge of rare mass appeal status for a metal act.
Tuck's dreams of fronting a raging metal band seemed about to melt away when his throat began seizing up every time he sang. Nevertheless the singer, whose Welsh metal band performs Wednesday at Tulsa's Cain's Ballroom, said he has turned it around thanks to twice-daily vocal lessons, a personal inhaler and a strict diet. He also gave up smoking last year.
"It's on the mend. It's still not perfect," said Tuck, in a recent interview from Wales. "I think I've nailed it. For some reason, it's just really, really weak, and I've been doing everything in my power to get it back."
The band was taking a break from recording its new album in El Paso, Texas, at the time he was interviewed. This stint back home (he's from the Welsh capital of Cardiff) has been a welcome chance to reacquaint himself with home cooking.
"In El Paso, eating Mexican food every day for seven weeks really took its toll in the end ... I was losing my mind," he said, laughing.
Following the "faster-is-better" trend set by the band's melodic metal predecessors Iron Maiden and Metallica, the band's 2005 debut album "The Poison" has gone gold in the United Kingdom.
Tuck's Welsh thrash metal-quartet opened for Metallica during last summer's European tour, at one point playing for 100,000 people in Estonia.
Getting to meet and tour with Metallica has been a gas, Tuck said, and the band recently landed a spot on the Bay Area metal band's summer European tour this year.
"It was everything you kind of hoped it would be," said the singer. Gowing up, he was especially influenced by Metallica's James Hetfield, the rhythm-guitarist frontman with a looming stage presence, tuneful guitar playing and a voice that sounded like an angry Old Testament-God.
"They came into our dressing room and introduced themselves to us. And just like that, they welcomed us to the tour," said Tuck. He spoke with drummer Lars Ulrich lately, who complimented him on the band's cover of the "Master of Puppets" classic "Sanitarium."
"I remember his exact words before he left were, 'If there's anything we can do to make your Metallica experience more comfortable, just let me know.' "
The band has since been trying to break the album stateside and tour the U.S., which presents its own set of logistical difficulties compared with touring Europe.
Take Texas for example. Other states you might be able to drive across in a few hours, while the Lonestar State seems to go on forever. Texas is as big as some of the largest European countries.
"I think the longest drive you have to do from a UK show from one night to the other is probably about a six to seven-hour drive," Tuck said. "Anything in the states, it can be between eight- and 16-hour drives a night to get to the next show. So we spend a lot of time actually traveling on the bus."
BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE
When:
7 p.m. Wednesday, with openers Escape the Fate and the Confession
Where:
Cain's Ballroom, 423 N. Main St.
Tickets:
$20.75 in advance, $25 day of show, available at Starship Records & Tapes, Reasor's, www.Gettix.net, Cain's box office, 584-2306
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