Ascendancy
Trivium are the latest offering from Road Runner records and they're everything that you'd expect for their showcase case. Packed in to 55 minutes is a selection of heavy-riffing, throat-ripping, stomach-churning metal that doesn't cease to relent.
After the atmospheric introduction of 'The End of Everything', 'Ascendancy' gets off to a weak start with 'Rain'. The guitars sound great, the drumming is intense and each part seems to work the problem is that as a song it doesn't quite seem to fit together as you'd hope.
'Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr' is where the album really starts to kick off. Opening to the pounding drums that signify Trivium's arrival the song leads well in to the slower-paced 'Drowned and Torn Asunder' whose melodic and slow-paced introduction swiftly moves the band along to one of the best tracks on their album. Unlike a lot of metal that gets put out there these days the track actually combines melodies, thrashing and vocals - a rarity for any metal band these days.
Moving on to the title track, 'Ascendancy' and 'A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation' - Trivium don't give up here. There is one thing clear about the band - they manage to include musical aspects that many bands just don’t. Trivium's drumming is second to none. Somehow you expect that any metal band will simply have drumming there as a slightly head-banging back track but for Trivium it features at the forefront of their material.
The current single 'Like Light to the Flies' is a good introduction to the band, but certainly not their strongest material. It combines all of the best aspects of the band - just doesn't really give any of the parts a chance to shine as much as 'Drowned and Torn Asunder' or 'Ascendancy'.
'Dying in Your Arms' is totally unexpected and almost seems to be from a different artist. This is a song that seems more like it could (almost) fit in to the Nu-Metal box that was being passed around a couple of years ago - just with far superior guitar work. You get the feel that this is a song that really suits the band. It's the kind of song that could become a live anthem and a club classic.
Back on track, 'The Deceived' returns with the screams of vocalist Matt and Travis' immense drumming followed by 'Suffocating Sight'. It's then that another gem from the album, 'Departure' hits us. Quite why this has been saved for so long in the album is a mystery. As a track by itself 'Departure' is one of the best mainstream-metal songs written in a long time - revealing a band that have really discovered their own sound.
As the album comes to a close with seven minutes of 'Declaration' there's no doubt that you'll be seeing Trivium all over the place this year - and quite rightly so. This is Trivium's second album and it's not as good as it could have been. There are some absolutely fantastic elements to it - not least 'Departure', 'Dying in Your Arms' and 'Drowned and Torn Asunder'. There are, however, many times that the vocals just seem to not fit in with the rest of the sound and times when you feel the band are still very much trying to find their feet.
If Trivium stick to combining all the best elements of their music - the body-shaking bass, pummelling drums and searing guitars along with vocal melodies then they will be something special in the future. For now - they're just a bloody good band that you should check out live.