Experimental metal group Imperial Triumphant release a visualiser video for the track, ‘Metrovertigo’ which appears on their newest album Spirit Of Ecstasy, which we recently reviewed.
"Plutocratic myths exist in the shadows of the divine. Placed upon the middle sector as shackles of the unknown. A giant wave pool claims the livelihoods of many, while still many wilfully hand it to the Plutocratic gods as unrealised gains. Bow down and eat dirt. Welcome to a new era. Welcome home"; says Imperial Triumphant about ‘Metrovertiogo’.
New York’s enigmatic Imperial Triumphant are described as ‘avant-garde metal’. They’re certainly that. I mean, they’re overtly metal, with guttural, growling vocals, barrelling riffs, thunderous drums and booming bass – but Spirit of Ecstasy is a brain-lowling, bewildering affair that lumbers, lurches, and leaps between other genres within those solid metal parameters.
The tracks are all past the six-minute mark, and pack in a lot of action and a lot of range, to the extent that six minutes in, it’ll feel like the first three minutes were another song entirely. At least, that’s my experience – of an album that’s so expansive and diverse that it completely takes over. You stop following, and find yourself simply being transported on a journey with no clear trajectory, thrown this way and that, tossed about as if by turbulence, or something more.
Following the blistering percussive battering and jolting, sliding sonic deluge of the album’s opener, ‘Chump Change’, ‘Metrovertigo’ is exemplary: it slides into angular industrial discord, and there’s a lot going on – mostly jazz-leaning, but then there’s the megalithic bombast of the song’s climax which is more neoclassical, and ‘Tower of Glory, City of Shame’ also incorporates bold neoclassical elements along with samples and jarring, skewed guitar along with the demonic snarling.
When they go all-out on the riffage, the density is eye-popping, rib-cracking, skull-crushing. When they go the other way, into orchestral territories, as in during the into on ‘Merkurius Gilded’, it’s sweet, sublime. Of course, those delicate segments are obliterated in the blink of an eye in swathes of immolating black metal. And then, there’s the all-out experimental jazz / noise no-wave racket of ‘In the Pleasure of their Company’ that really does drill And lurch, showcasing the duo’s capacity to explore different sound and textures.
It’s not exactly technical in its musicality – although there’s no shortage of technical ability on display here – but compositionally, Spirit Of Ecstasy is something else. Each song condenses so many ideas, so many segments into a single piece that it’s utterly bewildering at times.
The most remarkable achievement is that it doesn’t sound forced or false or corny, when by rights, none of this should work and it should be awful. But it isn’t. It is, however, intense, and draining so. You’re tossed this way and that, samples crackle in the distance, and quiet passages are disrupted by detonating drums and squalls of noise.
Everything spews from the satanic caverns of hell, and leaves you feeling worn out, battered, beaten. And buzzing.
Experimental metal group Imperial Triumphant release their new track and music video for ‘Tower of Glory, City of Shame.’ The music video was directed and edited by the band’s very own Steve Blanco.
“Monolithic events engineered throughout the ages compel great shifts in consciousness. Seemingly coincidental and synchronous points forever alter the landscape. Pigeons gather one by one. Civilization moves through the gateways and in hindsight the obscured vision becomes clearer. Still unknown, however is the truth as all is an illusion with much loss of life and zero accountability. At a certain point there are too many pigeons for the control’s infantile stories to be what they claim,” states Imperial Triumphant about ‘Tower of Glory, City of Shame’.
Watch the video here:
AA
Imperial Triumphant is gearing up to release their forthcoming full-length album, Spirit of Ecstasy, on July 22nd via Century Media Records. The band have already released two singles off the upcoming album, ‘Merkurius Gilded’ (ft. Kenny G and Max Gorelick) and ‘Maximalist Scream’ (feat. Snake/Voivod).
Spirit of Ecstasy follows the band’s previous LPs 2020’s Alphaville, 2018’s Vile Luxury and most recently their 2021 live record, An Evening With Imperial Triumphant, which was recorded at the infamous Slipper Room in New York City. Just like its predecessors, the album features a handful of special guests including Kenny G on soprano saxophone, Max Gorelick on lead guitar, Snake on vocals, Alex Skolnick on lead guitar, Trey Spruance on lead guitar, Andromeda Anarchia with choirs, Sarai Woods with choirs, Yoshiko Ohara on vocals, J. Walter Hawkes on the trombone, Ben Hankle on the trumpet, Percy Jones on bass, SEVEN)SUNS on strings, Colin Marston on Simmons drums and Youtube, and Jonas Rolef on vocals. Stay tuned for more details about the highly anticipated release by following the band on socials.
Imperial Triumphant is Zachary Ilya Ezrin (vocals, guitars), Steve Blanco (bass, vocals, keys, theremin) and Kenny Grohowski (drums).
Recently, Imperial Triumphant announced that they will be joining Zeal & Ardor for their North American tour 2022. The band will be hitting the road starting September 11th in Brooklyn and wrapping on October 7th in Berkeley. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit Imperial Triumphant’s website.
IMPERIAL TRUMPHANT Tour Dates:
U.S. Headline Shows
July 29 – Baltimore, MD – Ottobar
July 30 – Youngstown, OH – Into the Darkness Fest
July 31 – Rochester, NY – Montage Music Hall
European Headline Dates/Festivals
August 10 – Jaroměř, Czechia – Brutal Assault
August 12 – Oxfordshire, England – SUPERNORMAL FEST
August 13 – Manchester, England – The White Hotel
August 14 – Glasgow, Scotland – Stereo
August 15 – Belfast, England – Voodoo
August 16 – Dublin, Ireland – The Grand Social
August 18 – Somerset, England – ArcTanGent Festival
August 19 – London, England – The Dome
August 20 – Méan, Belgium – MÉTAL MÉAN
August 21 – Brittany, France – MOTOCULTER
August 23 – Madrid, Spain – Moby Dick
August 24 – Barcelona, Spain – Sala Upload
August 25 – Toulon, France – L’Hélice
August 26 – Mantova, Italy – The Academy
August 27 – Winterthur, Switzerland – Gaswerk
August 28 – Strasbourg, France – La Maison Bleue
August 29 – Nijmegen, Netherlands – Merleyn
August 30 – Hamburg, Germany – Hafenklang
August 31 – Aalborg, Denmark – 1000 Fryd
September 1 – Oslo, Norway – Bla
September 2 – Goteborg, Sweden – Fangelset
September 3 – Copenhagen, Denmark – Hotel Cecil
September 8 – Leipzig, Germany – Bandhaus
September 9 – Tel Aviv, Israel – Gagarin
Zeal & Ardor North American Tour
September 11 – Brooklyn, NY – Warsaw
September 12 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
Aural Aggravation 