Album review: Imperial Triumphant – Goldstar

From The Velvet Underground to the Ramones, from hardcore to hip-hop, the music most readily associated with New York tends to come wrapped in sidewalk self-mythology. Imperial Triumphant, the golden-masked trio disrupting extreme metal with opulent visions and avant-garde approaches, have little in common with such street-level perspectives – their technicality alone makes them more Juilliard music school than CBGBs. However, the influence of the city, from the traffic to skyscrapers and its aspirational past to the chaotic present, leaves just as much mark on this band’s identity and sound as on their predecessors.

It’s less than three minutes into grandiose opener Eye Of Mars before Steve Blanco throws in a bass fill that reminds us that the Big Apple’s jazz scene is a key influence on Imperial Triumphant. Sirens and car horns impinge on the intros to Lexington Delirium and Pleasuredome, while NEWYORKCITY is 47 seconds of improv grindcore that attempts to capture the pressure of living in the titular hometown. Songs called Gomorrah Nouveaux and Rot Moderne suggest a critical view of their surroundings, although Lexington Delirium is a tribute to the Chrysler Building – a love of architecture and Art Deco just one way this lot stand apart in the metal world.

Not that they’re stand-offish, mind: Tomas Haake from Meshuggah guests on two tracks, with Dave Lombardo joining in on Pleasuredome, contributing Brazilian-inspired percussion rather than Slayer beats. There is plenty of blasting elsewhere on Goldstar – this is still very much an extreme metal album, albeit one that allows many other influences to prosper in its tangled urban jungle. The bravest of explorers will find much to discover in this forbidding but fruitful metropolis.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: Fantomas, Portal, Oranssi Pazuzu

Goldstar is released on March 21 via Century Media