Trivium - Ascendancy
"Ascendancy" official album cover.
Ascendancy, which was released on March 15th of 2005, is a sixteen-track album created by the metal/core band Trivium. The album's official producer was Jason Seucof, but the band's vocalist/guitarist Matthew K. Heafy played a big role in its production as well. All lyrics on the album are accredited to Heafy (lead vocalist), but the band often states in interviews that they "all play an equal part in making the music".
The album's cover features an aged-looking, dark angelic figure. The angel is bound in mummy-like bandages, had flaming red wings, and wears a tortured expression as he grasps at the air in front of him. The cover seems to play on the title-track, Ascendancy, which features the lyrics "ascend above the ashes of the world I once knew" and "ascendancy is the only thing this will prove".
The album spawned four singles, "Like Light To The Flies" "Pull Harder On The Strings Of Your Martyr" "A Gunshot To The Head Of Trepidation" and "Dying In Your Arms". Videos were filmed and released for all four songs, alongside a 'demo video' for the song "Rain". The original album only held twelve tracks; when the sixteen-track special edition was released later, the version of "Dying In Your Arms" used in the music video, which features a beginning-sequence and less screaming, was released as a bonus-track. The extended sixteen-track edition of the CD comes with a bonus DVD containing all four music videos, as well as the demo-video for Rain, and a thirty-minute (roughly) concert performed at the Astoria in London, England.
"Ascendancy" was a much-anticipated follow-up to the band's first full-length album, Ember to Inferno. Though the styles of music, especially vocally, on the two album were considerably different, fans seemed to accept the new album graciously. While "Ember to Inferno" features brutal screaming mixed with melodic vocals (very similar to the band's third album, The Crusade), Ascendancy focused more on the instruments, leaving the melodic vocals behind in order to take on a more 90's Metal sound. The band has often said that Metallica was one of their huge influences, and you can hear the dedication on the covered track "Master of Puppets", which is almost identical to the original.
Moreover, Trivium has said that their new album, Shogun (set to release on September 30), will return to the sound they used on Ascendancy. The album was a great success for the band, and in my opinion, returning to its sound is the best idea they've had in a while.
