Trivium: Ranking All 9 Albums From Worst To Best

2. Ascendancy

Remember what I said about splitting hairs?

There's something so damn pure and purposeful about Ascendancy, its array of songs showing a band needing the world such raw talent and ambition. The title track, Gunshot to the Head of Trepidation, Like Light to Flies, The Deceived, Pull Harder on the Strings of your Martyr - even album-closer Declaration goes off with a pyrotechnic bang.

Thankfully for the band, considering how overlooked Ember to Inferno was, once the metal scene got a taste of Trivium they wanted more and more. Ascendancy's sales and general critical reception catapulted the band onto the mainstage of 2005's Download Festival within months of release - a phenomenal live performance that would garner Trivium some lifetime fans.

Name a single song on Ascendancy and it'll take you months of practice to replicate or even comprehend. Trivium were doing this in their early 20s, night after night, with songs that had more twists and turns than a season of Game of Thrones.

All this energy was perfectly captured, and it allows the album to remain an immortal career highpoint.