Shogun (将軍) is the fourth studio album by American metal band Trivium. The album was released worldwide on various dates between September 23 and October 1, 2008 through Roadrunner Records. It is their last release to feature founding drummer Travis Smith. Work on the album is noted to have begun with producer Nick Raskulinecz in October 2007, with the band stating that they chose not to work with Jason Suecof again as they wanted to explore new ideas. Shogun largely features a continuation of the thrash metal style featured on The Crusade, however, it also marks the return of Matt Heafy's screaming vocals and is also the band's first album produced by Nick Raskulinecz. In an interview for About.com, Heafy described the album's musical direction as a combination of various aspects including: "the past, present, and future of Trivium, all on one CD" and that is the "next evolutionary step". When asked about the change in his singing style, he said: "It’s the kind of thing that happened naturally." Shogun heavily features 7-string guitars and 5-string bass guitars, which had been used sparingly on The Crusade. Shogun sold 24,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release, and debut at number 23 on the Billboard 200 chart, and the top 100 in 18 other countries, including #6 on the Japanese international charts, #4 on the Canadian Hard Rock Charts, #1 on the UK rock charts and #4 on the Australian charts. As of March 2009, the album has sold around 70,000 copies i