Trivium - Live in İstanbul

I’m diving straight in, folks. I’m usually used to this kind of marathon, but I must’ve started running out of steam because my battery was already down to around 30% on the morning of the concert. As you know, just a week earlier there was Death To All, then a full Sunday with Perse’s, Carno’s and Incan’s sets, on top of that my dear brother from Antalya, my brother-in-arms from Efes Deniz Yıldız’s concert, and then on Tuesday, July 1st, 2026, the Trivium concert at Uniq Maximum, of all places, far removed from all of these shows…

What a marathon, man! What a marathon!!! When the concert started, I’d somehow pushed the battery back up to around 50%, but Trivium took all of that and ran away with it… Battery at 10%, Hüs, haha, like a 1% biker calculation :)… Anyway, Trivium, as you know, is not really my kind of thing, to be honest, but everyone kept telling me “bro, you absolutely have to see their live shows,” over and over until you all drove me crazy—bless you for it. Good thing I went :). Now I’m rewinding a bit and jumping into what happened during entry to the venue. My brother Şafak, who was working with us on the photo side of things, had been at the Stagepass Faun concert. I already had a bit of an idea about what was going to happen from the organization side.

When I arrived at the venue, there was, unfortunately, a bit of disorder. But Ayşe and Ms. Ayşegül, whose efforts I will never fail to acknowledge, worked tirelessly with all their support to find solutions. No words are enough to thank them. Trivium had two support acts on this bill: Lunarsea and Chontaraz. Some of you might remember Chontaraz from the 2019 Sepultura concert in Turkey. To be honest, I had some concerns because this show clashed with the Three Days Grace Istanbul concert on June 30, 2026. As I had heard from the guys, many young fans had gone to Atlantis and Akmar to pick up Three Days Grace shirts. While I was wondering whether Uniq would be packed or not, seeing that turnout I just said to myself: respect, Istanbul.

Lunarsea took the stage first. After a short intro, they kicked off the show with “Subspace Transition” from their 2008 album Route Code Selector. I really liked their energy. Their communication with the crowd was solid. At one point, vocalist Alessandro even threw himself into the crowd, creating a strong connection with the audience. Not a bad choice at all for an opening band. After performing a total of seven songs, they thanked the crowd and made way for the Norwegian post-apocalyptic heavy metal band Chontaraz.

Like I said earlier, we had already seen them back in 2019. They also delivered a strong performance at If Beşiktaş back then. I can say their stage outfits and makeup drew a lot of attention. They opened with a track called “Ra Fa El” and played a total of 11 songs. But what stood out to me the most was their song called “İstanbul.” I always like it when a band builds this kind of connection with Turkey. As you may remember, the band Kaira covered “Uzun ince bir yoldayım” at their Antalya concert. The fact that visiting bands show this level of admiration for our country is, in my opinion, something really proud-worthy.

Of course, when the final song turned out to be “İstanbul,” things really started to heat up, and the already hyped crowd that had come for the main act Trivium had long since filled the front of the stage. The moment Matt and the rest of the band sprinted on stage with “The End of Everything” intro and kicked into “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr,” they literally set the place on fire.

To be honest, I’m not familiar with their discography at all, I don’t really know any of their songs. But what I saw was that Trivium is a proper live band. Whenever Matt had the chance, he kept talking about Turkish food and the people, which was brilliant. The crowd clearly knew how to respond, giving great reactions after his speeches. At one point he jumped on stage wearing a Turkish national team jersey and everyone erupted in cheers.

They absolutely tore through 14 songs from start to finish. I honestly couldn’t even tell when the show began or ended. At one point the mosh pit got so intense that, thanks to Ayşe Hanım, who had reserved a spot in the lounge, I had to escape there. You really shouldn’t underestimate a Trivium crowd. It was great to see a crowd that sang along to almost every song. Matt clearly noticed this too, repeatedly saying they want to come back.

Matt Heafy is an incredible frontman, folks. He knows exactly how to hype people up. Long story short, I can say I left behind an amazing experience. Even though we had a few minor issues, the Stagepass team and security, especially Turgay Abi, provided full support throughout. It was a real pleasure and honor to meet and work with them.

My battery was at 10%, basically about to die, folks. I’ve got a flight tomorrow and work right after that. See you at the next shows. Stay heavy, don’t compromise. We love you all, and a huge thank you to everyone who never leaves us alone at gigs and comes up to say hi. Much love to all of you. Follow us…

HÜS