Overview
Today I am looking forward to listening and reviewing Trivium’s second studio album “Ascendancy”! This album was released March 15, 2005. It features their singles “Like Light to the Flies”, “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr”, “A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation” and also “Dying in Your Arms”. Another cool thing is that the rerelease of this album includes their cover of “Master of Puppets” by Metallica.
Song Analysis
The album “Ascendancy” starts off the song “The End of Everything” which is a nice piano and acoustic guitar instrumental track. This transitions into the song “Rain” which has crushing riffs and a lot of angsty lyrics. It is pretty evident that the production quality improved dramatically from the first album. Really, everything improved dramatically. Toward the end of “Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr” there is some gnarly shredding, and that same pattern also happens on “Drowned and Torn Asunder” as well.
One of the songs that gets stuck in my head the most from this album is the title track: “Ascendancy”. The lyrics are absolutely beautiful, and the screaming really just heightens the emotions behind the words. “You only held me down from what I was supposed to be / Ascend above the ashes of the world I once knew / Ascendancy is the only thing this will prove”. I really love these words and I feel like it’s this raw release of pain in such a positive way, that whatever is holding the writer back, will be overcome soon in a powerful way. And the guitar solos and pounding drums make it sound even cooler too.
“A Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation” has some cool shredding half way through, and so does “Like Light to the Flies” as well. I do love the song “Dying in Your Arms”. It is extremely catchy and will probably be stuck in my head until I see this concert. It feels like a peak emo kind of song except with more advanced instrumental skills.
The lyrics from “Departure” are super emo. “This weight is so unbearable, caving my lungs”, “Run away from all the pain, all the pain of life”, “Bring my end to an end”, “Razors kiss the vein overdose for pain”, and “Fuck the people, fuck the world, fuck it all / Open my arms / Bleed out the flood / In crimson I begin to drown”, these are just some of the emo lyrics that I thought I would like to display. It is all a very specific mood. One thing I am really happy about seeing on the rerelease of this album is the “Master of Puppets” cover by Metallica. It is so well executed and sounds insanely clean. It is a really fun listen and I wouldn’t mind hearing it on repeat.
Final Thoughts
Trivium is a really great band and “Ascendancy” is a really solid album. They do have a very raw emotional sound with deep lyrics, and they are also very skilled instrumentally and vocally as well. What do you think of this album?