When last I returned to the review writing foray I was perhaps a bit over-zealous in awarding a 4.5 to The Haunted’s Exit Wounds.1 Almost seven years to the day since my last review shat the bed here at AMG, the question lingers in my now over half-a-century older brain… will I make the same mistakes again now as an equally-excited antiquarian? There is no better band to test this theory than the very of-the-times Imperial Triumphant, the talented and divisive trio out of New York City that split opinions as drastically as if congestion pricing makes a visit to Wo Hop worthwhile. This triumvirate have taken us on quite a journey in their 20-year tenure, as my brethren Grymm and sistren Madam X have previously covered. I find myself poised to attempt to address if their sixth full-length, Goldstar, lives up to the accolades of the title and tagline “Nine Class ‘A’ Songs.” The answer to both of these questions?
“TBD,” as the kids like to abbreviate everything these days. My kids can’t answer any questions directly, they always want to “LMK.” Why the rush? IDK, but rather than jabber on like a monkey in a tree I’ll try to cut through the treacle. As if to parse things back for those with a short attention span, Goldstar finds our protagonists more palatable than past outings but no less adventurous. The already initiated may bristle at what one might consider more “accessible” material, but that, in and of itself, is what I feel IT has always set out to do – challenge the listeners, even those of the most dedicated who think they know what to expect. Rather than dumb things down, like the cruelest of Cenobites, these maniacs have reinforced their craft with the sharpest of hooks, not pulling the listener in a baker’s dozen directions like Frank Cotton’s flesh, but rather giving us even more meat to chew on.
Goldstar (24-bit HD audio) by Imperial Triumphant
Moments like the quirky, waltz-like drum intro to “Gomorrah Nouveaux” that turns on a dime into a foul, menacing, nefarious groove, live rent controlled in my head. No, not rent free… RENT CONTROLLED. These guys being from NYC know that free rent is not a thing there, nor in my brain with what little vacancy I have at my advanced age. The lulling interlude title track comes after one of the most frenetic bursts of their career, the 47 seconds of “NEWYORKCITY” showcasing the frantic shrieks of constant special guest Yoshiko Ohara. Rather than feeling like an abrupt turn in the back of a Yellow cab careening down Avenue A at 50 miles an hour, it serves as an oasis amidst an ocean of mayhem with its big band 1920s-era vocals and tobacco giant jingle. As lulling and gorgeous as that melody is, IT also manages to bring moments like that into their most monstrous. Bass, guitar, vocals, and drums drenched in reverb and echo unified as a glorious and horrifying chorus seamlessly transitions from “Lexington Delirium” into “Hotel Sphinx.” Like watching a tornado devastate a small town, there is beauty in the terror that these mages conjure. While there are nods to their progenitors like Gorguts, Voivod, Mr. Bungle, Zappa, and Zorn, there are no lifts, besides the four-minute meditation on the first real metal riff ever recorded from The Beatles’ 1969 “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” that closes out the album.
Many modern metal bands push the envelope with new levels of technicality and ferocity. As modernists, IT are writing an entirely new novel where the story isn’t how fast a blast beat, how great a guitar riff, how fluid a bass run or how guttural a vocal is. The confluence of all these things is what’s at the heart of Imperial Triumphant’s distinct sound . As the quotes from Marshall McLuhan declare in the opening track “Eye of Mars,” the medium is the message. Are you going to call Zappa’s The Yellow Shark or Zorn’s Angelus Novus “jazz-influenced classical” because they don’t sound how you expect classical music to? At this stage it would be a disservice and disrespectful to call Imperial Triumphant “jazz-influenced metal” of black or death or any kind. They have transcended all those genres to forge a new medium, and over the sleek 38 minutes and 15 seconds that comprise Goldstar, they massage the listener to accept it. As with any new medium, just as many will find it irritating as will embrace it.2
Rating: 4.5/5.0
DR: 6 | Format Reviewed: 320 kb/s mp3
Label: Century Media
Websites: imperialtriumphant.bandcamp.com | imperial-triumphant.com | facebook.com/imperialtriumphant
Releases Worldwide: March 21st, 2025
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