TRIVIUM released their fourth album, "Shogun," beginning on September 23rd, 2008, with the worldwide rollout running through to October 1st, through Roadrunner Records. Nick Raskulinecz produced it at Sound Kitchen in Nashville, the band having deliberately stepped away from Jason Suecof to chase new ideas after the divisive "The Crusade." It is their most ambitious record: longer songs, more thrash and progressive metal in the arrangements, Matt Heafy returning to screamed vocals, and a closing eleven-minute title track built on the myth of Susanoo and the Orochi. It was the last TRIVIUM album with original drummer Travis Smith. AllMusic called it the band's most challenging and ambitious work, and reviewers who had spent three albums dismissing the Florida group as derivative largely came round. In 2025 Loudwire's Bryan Rolli named it their best album outright, and the band still play the title track in full.
