BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE BIOGRAPHY

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE
Biography

Overview

Bullet for My Valentine are a British metal band formed in 1998 in Bridgend, south Wales. Their 2005 debut The Poison is generally credited with defining what British metalcore sounded like, and for twenty years since they have stayed at the centre of metal in their own country.

What decides their sound is the coexistence of screaming and singing. Matt Tuck tears his throat open in one line and sings the next one wide and clear; over that, his guitar and Michael "Padge" Paget's lay down harmonies learned from Iron Maiden and Metallica. A metalcore chug and a classically British melody, side by side in the same song without fighting each other — that is why they reached a wider audience than anyone else of their generation.

The artist text Creativeman published for their 2023 Japanese tour sums up where they stand: more than a billion streams in the United States, three albums certified gold, three consecutive Best British Band awards at the Kerrang! Awards, plus Best Single, Best Live Band and Best British Newcomer. And the bands who shaped them — Iron Maiden, Metallica — became the bands who invited them on tour.

Seven studio albums are carried on this site, which is the number that same text uses. The eighth does not exist yet.

1998 to 2004 — four men from Bridgend

They formed in 1998 in Bridgend, in south Wales: Matt Tuck on vocals and guitar, Michael "Padge" Paget on guitar, Nick Crandle on bass and Michael "Moose" Thomas on drums, playing Nirvana and Metallica covers while studying music at the local college. Tuck said in a 2018 interview that he first picked up a guitar at fourteen and that the first song he learned was Nirvana's "Smells Like Teen Spirit" — those tracks, he explained, are great for their simplicity.

The band's early name is recorded as Jeff Killed John, and it needs handling carefully. In that same 2018 interview, asked to confirm or deny what had been written about him, Tuck called the account that they changed their name from Jeff Killed John "complete fiction" — and in the next breath said that Jeff Killed John was something they came up with when they were about fifteen, after a stupid incident at school. The fact that the name existed and his rejection of the word "changed" sit inside one answer by one person. This site sets both down as they were said.

On 15 November 2004 they made their British debut with the EP Bullet for My Valentine. On the strength of that one record, as Sony Music's own profile puts it, they won a place at Download. Nick Crandle gave way to Jason 'Jay' James on bass around this point, and the line-up that would hold for twelve years was set.

2005 — The Poison, and British metalcore

Going into 2005 the band had two releases to their name: the debut EP and the single "4 Words (To Choke Upon)". On that they took a second consecutive Download, their first Reading and Leeds, and Summer Sonic in Japan, and won Best British Newcomer at the Kerrang! Awards.

The Poison was released by Visible Noise on 30 September on the continent and 3 October in Britain. When Sony Music's profile says September, it means the European date. The Japanese edition followed on 26 October from BMG Japan as BVCQ-24021, with two live recordings added for fifteen tracks.

Four of its songs became singles, and every one has an official film: "4 Words (To Choke Upon)", "Suffocating Under Words of Sorrow (What Can I Do)", "All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)" and, fourth on the record, "Tears Don't Fall". That last one is still the band's signature song twenty years later. A twentieth-anniversary edition arrived in 2024, and in the same year a 4K version of "Tears Don't Fall" went up on the band's channel.

2006 to 2008 — Scream Aim Fire and a global reach

Sony Music's profile keeps a close record of 2006. January brought their first headline tour of Japan, through the Club Quattro venues in Tokyo, Nagoya and Osaka. At home the 5,000-capacity Brixton Academy sold out, and at Download and Reading and Leeds they finally reached the main stage. Tours with Guns N' Roses and Metallica were booked, and they were nominated in five categories at the Kerrang! Awards and three at the Metal Hammer Awards.

There was a setback in the middle of it. In June 2007 the band announced a run of cancellations: Matt Tuck had been due to have a tonsillectomy in mid-July, but complications meant his doctor brought the operation forward at the last minute, and afterwards he was told not to sing for at least four weeks. Several shows went, among them a Metallica support at Wembley in London on 8 July. The band said at the same time that they would go back into the studio to finish the follow-up to The Poison as soon as Tuck's voice allowed.

That follow-up, Scream Aim Fire, arrived in January 2008 — Japan first on the 23rd from BMG Japan, Britain on the 28th, the United States on the 29th. It was recorded at Sonic Ranch in Texas with Colin Richardson producing again. It entered the Billboard 200 at number four, and in Japan it went to number one on Oricon's international chart.

The touring grew to match. Taste of Chaos took them through thirty-one American cities co-headlining with Avenged Sevenfold; May brought a third and larger Japanese tour; and in October they played Loud Park for the first time, as second headliner.

2009 to 2015 — Fever, Temper Temper, Venom

Early in 2009 the band began recording with Don Gilmore, whose credits include Linkin Park. The third album, Fever, came out in April 2010 — Japan on the 21st, Europe on the 23rd, North America on the 27th — and entered the US album chart at number three. Its eleven songs favour room to stretch over speed, and there is no ballad on it.

In October 2011 RCA Music Group folded Jive, Arista and J Records, and the band moved to RCA. In the same period Matt Tuck started Axewound, a side project he described by pointing at Pantera and Slipknot. Its drummer was Jason Bowld, who would later become Bullet for My Valentine's own.

Temper Temper, the fourth album, came in February 2013, once again with Japan first on the 6th. It is their widest-reaching record: short, squared-off riffs and large choruses. During work on the fifth, on 9 February 2015, the band announced that Jason 'Jay' James had left after more than twelve years on bass. Jamie Mathias, previously of the Welsh band Revoker, took the chair, and a four-piece from Wales is what they remained.

That fifth album, Venom, was released on 14 August 2015. Colin Richardson, who had made The Poison and Scream Aim Fire, returned as producer, and Matt Tuck had said beforehand that it would be their heaviest record. The Japanese edition followed on 19 August with seven bonus tracks, for eighteen.

2016 to 2021 — the line-up settles, and two opposite records

After Michael "Moose" Thomas stepped away for family reasons, Jason Bowld played every show from November 2015. On 4 December 2017 the band announced him as their permanent drummer, saying in the same statement that they had been working on new music since April and that the sixth album was ninety-nine per cent finished, and thanking Thomas for everything he had given the band. They had signed a new deal with Spinefarm in April 2016.

The sixth album, Gravity (29 June 2018), is the furthest this band has ever stepped from itself: synthesisers and programming build the frames of the songs and the guitar riff gives up the lead. Opinion divided.

The seventh was made in reaction to it. Speaking in May 2020, Matt Tuck described what they were writing as very heavy and very technical, roughly sixty per cent aggressive vocals to forty per cent clean. The self-titled album had been set for 22 October 2021 and moved to 5 November when the pandemic slowed manufacturing. In June of that same year the band headlined the main stage at Download for the first time, after close to two decades of playing the festival.

2022 onwards — an anniversary, and an eighth album

August 2022 brought a deluxe edition of the self-titled album with "Omen", "Stitches" and "No More Tears to Cry" added. In December 2023 Creativeman brought them back to Japan for two nights: Toyosu PIT on the 6th and Gorilla Hall Osaka on the 7th, with the Japanese band Sable Hills supporting in Tokyo.

On 29 November 2024 a twentieth-anniversary edition of The Poison appeared, a large set carrying unreleased material and the Brixton concert. In the same year an HD version of "Hand of Blood" and a 4K version of "Tears Don't Fall" were re-posted to the band's own channel.

The eighth studio album is not finished as of 2026. In an interview reported in December 2025 Matt Tuck said they would return on 5 January to complete the writing and had set aside time from around 1 February to track the record properly, and described what they had as a cross between the last album, Fever and The Poison — a mash-up, as he put it, of all the big moments this band has had. Then, on 16 September 2026, the band replaced their website with a single line, "The end was always the plan", and began teasing it on social media.

Japan

This band's history meshes closely with the Japanese record. Summer Sonic in 2005 was the first visit; January 2006 brought the first headline tour, August 2007 the second, May 2008 the third, and October of that year a return to the festival stage at Loud Park.

The releases tell the same story. All seven Japanese editions are thicker than the international ones, carrying between two and seven bonus tracks apiece. The limited first pressing of Fever added a DVD, and the limited edition of the self-titled album goes further still: a whole second disc of five songs recorded at Summer Sonic in 2018. Music made on a Japanese stage became the thing that only the Japanese edition holds.

The Japanese titles are settled too — 『ザ・ポイズン』, 『スクリーム・エイム・ファイア』, 『フィーヴァー』, 『テンパー・テンパー』, 『ヴェノム』, 『グラヴィティ』. Each is a transliteration of the original, and each is how the record has been shelved in Japanese shops. The album pages on this site use the original titles so that both languages point at one record; that is not a judgement on the Japanese ones.

Members (as of 2026)

The line-up Creativeman published for the 2023 Japanese tour is the current band: Matt Tuck on vocals and guitar, Michael "Padge" Paget on guitar, Jamie Mathias on bass and Jason Bowld on drums. Tuck and Paget have been there since 1998.

Three people have left: Nick Crandle on bass, from the beginning to 2003; Jason 'Jay' James on bass, 2003 to 2015; and Michael "Moose" Thomas on drums, from the beginning to 2017.

A note on sources

This article was written from Sony Music Japan's official artist page (its profile text, which runs to 2010); Creativeman Productions' event page for the 2023 Japanese tour (band text, show details, support act); Blabbermouth.net's 2007 report of the cancelled dates and its 2025 report on the eighth album; Loudwire's piece of 4 December 2017 on the change of drummer and its interview with Matt Tuck of 25 July 2018; Dave Everley's feature for Metal Hammer and Louder of 9 December 2021; the release data MusicBrainz holds for artist d530dbf9-69b1-404f-98f2-0431104f5a1e; the Spotify and Apple Music Japan catalogues; and the band's own site, bulletformyvalentine.com. Release dates, labels and catalogue numbers are taken from the MusicBrainz release rows, and running orders from those rows checked against what Spotify displays. Every video was verified by its uploading channel, and no fan re-upload is included.