Ascendancy is the second studio album by American heavy metal band Trivium. It was released on March 15, 2005, through Roadrunner Records and was produced by Jason Suecof and Matt Heafy.
Background
This marks the first Trivium album to feature guitarist Corey Beaulieu and bassist Paolo Gregoletto. The album was produced by Jason Suecof and frontman Matt Heafy. 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". Music videos for each of the songs were shot; a promotional video was filmed for the song "Rain". An earlier version of the video for "Dying in Your Arms" was also filmed (inspired by The Phantom of the Opera), but was scrapped because the band disliked the final product. This version of the video was made available to the public on April 18, 2025.
The music video for "Like Light to the Flies" debuted at MTV2's Headbangers Ball on September 25, 2004 Likewise, demos of songs "The Deceived" and "Blinding Tears Will Break the Skies" were included on the re-release of Trivium's debut album Ember to Inferno, nearly a year before Ascendancy was released.
Speaking to Kerrang! about the songs' lyrics, Matt Heafy said: "Definitely, some of the lyrics are about my personal insecurities and my social issues and disorders, and there's a thing about quietness in the music industry – people assume you're a dickhead if you don't want to talk, and that was definitely said about me. Being in a band forced me to have to get over my awkwardness around people and you can really see what I was going through in there."