The Ascension is the debut studio album by American no wave musician Glenn Branca, released in November 1981 by 99 Records.

Branca wanted to explore the resonances generated when guitar strings tuned to the same note were played at high volumes.

The group included guitarist Lee Ranaldo, who later joined alternative rock band Sonic Youth.

The climax occurs nine minutes into the track, as one guitar plays high open chords and the other two act as accompaniment.

[19] Kristine McKenna wrote in the Los Angeles Times that the album "does a surprisingly good job of conveying the awesome power of his live performance…[it] lacks the glorious dimension of Branca's live show, but is good enough to serve as an introduction to a major new talent.

"[20] Village Voice writer Robert Christgau described the album as "great sonically" but continued that "the beat's overstated and the sense of structure (i.e. climax) mired in nineteenth-century corn.

"[16] In the 1981 Pazz & Jop list, compiled by Christgau based on a survey of several hundred critics, The Ascension placed 51st.

"[22] AllMusic called it "one of the greatest rock albums ever made", adding that its "sonic experimentation" was more in the tradition of avant-garde musicians La Monte Young and Phill Niblock.

[7] Tiny Mix Tapes said that the album diverges from punk and classical traditions "as simply essential 20th-century music.

[30] In 2003, David Bowie included it in a list of 25 of his favourite albums, "Confessions of a Vinyl Junkie", saying that "over the years, Branca got even louder and more complex than this, but here on the title track his manifesto is already complete.