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Trivium - Ascendency

 

	RELEASED: May 15, 2005 PRODUCER: Jason Suecof LABEL:Roadrunner Records BAND: Matt Heafy Corey Beaulieu Paulo Gregoletto Travis Smith
+ Shred-a-licious guitar, mix of vocal styles, huge production - Occasionally stupid lyrics, one blatant radio song	TRACKS: 1.The End of Everything 2.Rain 3.Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr 4. Drowned and Torn Asunder 5. Ascendancy 6. A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation 7. Like Light to the Flies 8. Dying in Your Arms 9. The Decieved 10. Suffocating Sight 11. Departure 12. Declaration

OVERVIEW

Since I’m writing this review 2 years after the record came out, there isn’t much I can really say about Trivium that hasn’t been said already.  This record shot Trivium from local celebrities to international metal poster boys, and with good reason – it’s probably one of the best representations of the mid-2000’s US metal scene, and arguably holds up much better than their 2006 follow-up, The Crusade.

            For those of you that’ve been living in a bomb shelter for the past couple years, Trivium play a style of metal that’s equal parts Metallica, Arch Enemy, and Pantera, and more often than not execute it with absolutely devastating results.  Of course, the biggest deal with Trivium is that all of their members (at the time of this recording) were barely legal to buy cigarettes at a gas station, nevermind cut a metal record that would eventually sell over 100,000 copies in the US and the UK.

SONGS

Trivium starts off “Ascendancy” with the piano-laced intro track “The End of Everything” that almost immediately disappears into the face-smashing “Rain”, a double-bass-laced thrash track that recalls the breakneck assault of songs like “Battery” and “Damage Incorporated”.  “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr” was born for circle pits, and “Drowned and Torn Asunder” starts off slow (probably a wise pacing decision) but quickly launches back into kick-driven, Arch-Enemy-esque riffing that uses contrasting tempos to an almost frighteningly devastating effect.  Things start to go a bit sour with the title track – “Ascendancy” is painfully mediocre, but that’s quickly forgotten with the pummeling rhythms of “A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation”, another choice cut and wise single choice.  “Like Light to Flies” features some seriously throat-shredding screaming and ferocious down-picking, and then we have the love-it-or-hate-it, signed-sealed-and-delivered-for-radio “Dying In Your Arms” – not a bad tune, but it sticks out like a Dimmu Borgir fan at a Van Morrison show.  “The Decieved” is another great display of Smith’s prodigious kick skills and some seriously catchy melodic guitar, and unfortunately, at this point the record seems to start recycling some of the same ingredients – none of the last three tracks are bad, but “Suffocating Sight” recalls a lot of the same tricks that make “Drowned and Torn Asunder” work so well, and “Departure” is a bit like “Dying In Your Arms” at first, although Heafy’s lethal growl gives this one a much-needed shot of testosterone.  This leaves the closer “Declaration”, and while it’s nothing new at this point in the record, it’s still a 7-minute facepeeler that’ll remind anyone listening that Trivium is, first and foremost, here to thrash.

CONCLUSION

Like I said, I obviously have an advantage reviewing this record a year or 2 after it came out, but as a standard for modern US metal, it’s hard to beat.  By the end of this one, it’s more than obvious how Trivium earned their spot at the top of the heap, and even though this band has more than it’s fair share of haters, I’ll still maintain that this record will probably go down the same way CD’s like Cowboys From Hell and Burn My Eyes did in the 90’s.  Seriously.

 

Review by Matt Rewinski

 

 

 

 

 

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