Imperial Triumphant “Goldstar”
Goldstar comes out March 21st on Century Media Records
Very few bands truly live up to the term “experimental” in extreme metal. With some bands being hard to pin down into one genre or style. New York act Imperial Triumphant are a great example of that. Incorporating jazz, black metal, death metal, barbershop, ragtime and all-encompassing avant-garde, they truly are a mystery that matches their golden-covered faces. Since the band’s 2012 debut Abominamentvm, they have caught the attention of critics and admirers of fans as well as fellow musicians. Now, with the band about to release their new album Goldstar, what do they have entailed for the listener? What should fans expect from the band? That’s the best part of this band, you never know until you hear it.
The album opens with “Eye of Mars”. With vinyl feedback and ominous, almost backmasking vocals, eerie piano and thundering drums bombard the listener with bombastic orchestration behind it. Zachary Ezrin’s deep guttural growls get deep emphasis by brass and strings, before blast beat drumming by Kenny Grohowski hit that black metal aesthetic right out of the gate. With wah-pedal emphasis bends, combined with hostile symphonic strikes, the song is just a cacophony of madness in orchestral form. Steve Blanco’s gurgles and sliding up and down the fretboard add a deep, pulse amongst the manic chaos of the song. A distorted balance of beauty, devastation, and sadness; combined with distorted samples and atmosphere near its closing moments, envelopes the listener with the complexity of the musical arrangement of the track throughout the just over five minute runtime. Sounding almost Behemoth-esque near the end of the song, but WAY heavier, brutal and more foreboding and darker with the orchestration beneath it.
We open with a street-performance percussion like rhythm on the next track “Gomorrah Nouveaux”. The guitars come in kicking and going for the jugular. Delivering technicality, progressiveness and brutality throughout the deep vocals of Ezrin. Bass leads a lot throughout the descension of the musical break, before continuing the blitzkrieg of double bass and palm-muted chugging. The synth addition amongst the bass leads and drumming adds an otherworldly uneasiness to the track at the halfway mark. Booming brass adds a deep, harmonious and yet booming presence to the piece. An onslaught of proficient bass, drumming and cinematic atmosphere wraps the package up in a nice, heavy bow as the song concludes.
Heavy, reverb and delay heavy guitar opens “Lexington Delirium”. Featuring the first appearance of Meshuggah drummer Tomas Haake on the album. Metropolis-like soundscapes of New York City echo in the ether of the melancholic guitar and thumping bass. When the band hits full stride after the audio sample, the song morphs into a progressive/doom hybrid of a piece. Leaning heavily on the thumping bass of Blanco. With his high note playing adds a finger-sprinting thunder to the pacing. Accented by Grohowski. Jazz, progressive, doom, post-black metal, the song encapsulates what Imperial Triumphant does so well. Breaking out of the genre-mold and truly letting the musical spectrum be its sandbox. Haake’s distorted spoken vocals come in, before a true sonic punch of drums, guitars and guttural vocals by Ezrin. With the addition of saxophone and brass, amongst the already musical overload of sounds, it truly was a classic and my favorite track off the album.
“Hotel Sphinx” opens right off the bat with Grohowski flying at 100 mph all over his kit. With Blanco adding a deep, underlying groove as distorted, effect heavy vocals come into the picture. As the piece progresses, the creativity and homage to the roots of the band’s early material and new influences begins to become unmasked. Drumming begins to become more Neil Peart and Buddy Rich in the all over the kit playing and complex rhythms. Synths add a dynamic and diverse element to the sheer sonic attack of the band. Similar to how Blood Incantation does with their material. Sheer, downtempo chugging with djent-esque drumming and polyrhythms amongst the samples add a slow-headbang, pit-raging piece. Before switching back into progressive, extreme versions of Yes or Rush, with the addition of 80’s keys, ringing guitars and child-chanting samples. Before the band ends this whirlwind of a track with a barrage of everything so far, soaked in ambient and heavy atmospheric pads and effects.
“NEWYORKCITY” features Yoshiko Ohara and to be blunt, is straight up grindcore any Napalm Death fan would be happy with. Haunting screams and chanting, interspersed with high-octane guitars and breakneck speed drumming, truly just hits the listener over the head until their unconscious for the whole forty-seven second runtime. The album’s title track opens with ragtime, barbershop quartet vocals with plunking piano soaked in vinyl feedback. Creating an homage to classic radio-ads, before the audio becomes so distorted in its closing moments, adding a haunting prelude to the album’s next track.
“Rot Moderne” opens with a wall of distortion and warping effects and orchestration as snare hits begin to amplify and speed up. Bass and drums deliver a heavy, pulsing, monster-like aesthetic to the music as Ezrin’s vocals become drowned in distortion, feedback and reverb throughout the drums and bass. Grohowski again is a beast on the kit throughout this track. Dynamic drum fills, time-signature changes, and just sheer speed truly makes him a dark horse in modern extreme metal drumming. Dabbling in dissonance, it adds that otherworldly, inhuman feeling to the music and the band’s golden deity imagery. The breakdown at the three-thirty mark hits like a brick wall and just continues to overload the listener in the true sense of a “breakdown”. Before ending on the tribute to the band’s New York roots with sirens and traffic concluding the track.
“Pleasuredome” is the second song to feature Haake on spoken vocals and the first to feature Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo on drums. Opening with haunting, doom-laden bells and the continued noises of normal New York, thudding guitars and rising drums begin to emerge from the depths of the mix. A slow, tension filled opening, creating an ominous build with a satisfying payoff of chugging guitar as the bells ring amongst the chugging. Blasting snares and double bass, combined with mathcore guitar playing and thumping bass, continues the band’s proficiency in their instruments. Vocals are almost tribal, with the chanting adding that ritualistic and uneasy unknown. Blanco’s bass leads adds a nice musical break, before Grohowski and Lombardo add a unique, Latin American percussion piece. Seguing into a jazz-fusion breakdown with walking and dynamic bass lines, combined with Haake’s foreboding, evil and cult-like spoken word pieces. Before the whole band returns to the sonic barrage of extreme drumming and chugging guitars.
The album closes with the track “Industry of Misery”. Blanco’s ringing bass opens with an eerie, Twin Peaks vibe with reverb and chorus heavy piano beneath it. Twinkling keys, amongst with warping and distorted effects drop out as heavy, death metal guitars and bass break the door down. Vocals are cavernous, adding that dissonant death metal vibe you’d get from acts like Ulcerate. Trippy in nature, complex in pacing, and over-the-top at some parts, it closes the album in a heavy, otherworldly, creepy, haunting and creative pageantry as the curtain falls on the album.
Goldstar is another example of just how Imperial Triumphant is just getting better with each album. Breaking the mold and pushing the envelope on what “extreme metal” can be. Moments of barbershop quartet vocals, avant-garde brass and string arrangements, cult-sounding samples and epic production truly showcases the band’s creativity at a grander scale with each release. I am always amazed at how this band is pushing their sound further and further with each release, and I can’t imagine what they will do next. All I know is that I will be waiting to hear it.
SCORE: 5 / 5
You can check out the new album Goldstar when it comes out March 21st on Century Media Records. You can purchase the album on the band’s Bandcamp or pre-save on the band’s Spotify. You can support the band by seeing them on the Decibel Magazine tour by getting tickets here to check out tour dates.
