If anyone's been paying attention lately, the metal scene is starting to go into some sort of weird "retro" phase. Bands that were popular WAY back in the day (Priest, Maiden), bands that sound like they came from way back in the day (3 Inches of Blood, The Darkness) or bands that have that good old fashioned Bay Area thrash sound to them (God Forbid, Biomechanical) are big phat hits right now. I figure this is because folks realized that most metalcore/euro-death bands all kind of bleed together (note I said MOST and not ALL, mutherfsckers), punk and hardcore turned into what it once railed against, rapcore/nu-metal has sucked for a few years now and Nintendocore has yet to hit (Horse the Band will dominate the near future).

    In the damned thick of things is Orlando's Trivium, a four-piece that puts together the epic feel of old Metallica, the current crunch of computer-driven production with the infectious cheez of Night Ranger. The band photo even shows the guys sporting shirts depicting Kill 'Em All-era Metallica, Guns 'n' Roses and Over Kill. Fscking OVER KILL, ferchristsakes!  What, they didn't have any more Armored Saint tees in stock? To get to the point, Ascendancy is an awesome album, though one might also say, "bitchin'," "tubular" or even "righteous." I'll even go ahead and coin the new term "retrocore," as anything with -core attached to it is in vogue. It's just GG doing his part to add to the lexicon.

    You'll have to forgive my TICH (tongue-in-cheek humour; acronyms are also trendy), since I really *do* like Trivium. Matt Heafy, lead singer, songwriter and guitarist, has all the tools in his arsenal to make a great metal record. His screamed/shouted vocals are perfect for those of us who like to look tough in the mirror, while the melodic parts are great for late-night drives when no one can see you sing in the car. Bass player Paolo Gregoletto (who I don't think recorded on the album) and second guitarist Corey Beaulieu also lend in their throats, which provides for some nice harmonies, as well as covering for Heafy when he runs out of breath. And leave us not forget drummer Travis Smith, putting forth an outSTANDING effort...if it didn't seem like all of his double-bass was triggered. I've heard their first full-length Ember to Inferno, and he performs the same kind of stuff, but I'm going to stick to my guns here. If he can pull this off live, I'll retract my words, but his timing and stop-starts are way, way too precise. Yes, I'm nitpicking.

    The songs even run the typical '80s thrash length; opener "The End of Everything" is shorter (81 seconds), while closer "Declaration" is longer (seven minutes), but they all hover around 4:30. The good thing is that they don't really feel too long, the one exception being "Pull Harder on the Strings of Your Martyr," which starts to feel played out by the end. Each song has its fill of verses (both sung and shouted), choruses (mostly sung), sweeping bridges and heroic guitar solos. There's even the ballad-esque "Dying In Your Arms" and "Departure" which both rock plenty hard, but still reek of beer-soaked, acid-washed denim jackets and hair spray. Every song has at least one riff or break that you'll absolutely love, so if you're skipping tracks it's not because they suck.

    If there's a downfall here, it's that the lyrics are mostly obtuse and incomprehensible. Then again, that got Kurt Cobain his own church, so I guess it takes all kinds. It's like Heafy just grabbed a dictionary and wrote down a bunch of angry and/or important-sounding words, wrote a Spandex-shreddin' song and called it a day. Thing is, music of this style deserves a bit more storytelling behind its songs, and so in that aspect, Ascendancy (and especially lead-radio-single "Like Light to Flies") falls short, but it's a small bone to pick with a band that does so many things right.

Rating: IROC-in' out of 10