There are very, very few things in life that get me as excited as the prospect of a new Imperial Triumphant album. With our appetites piqued by their series of covers rolled out slowly last year, it seemed like it was only a matter of time before Goldstar, the newest offering from New York City’s finest, was announced. But how, dear reader, is a band like Imperial Triumphant supposed to top themselves once again when every release they have put out has been better and better and better? The answer, it would seem, is to employ a little addition by subtraction.
As it has been for quite some time now, Imperial Triumphant is made up of four key members: Zachary Ezrin on guitar and vocals, Steve Blanco on bass and keyboards, Kenny Grohowski on drums, and New York City as the muse and inspiration for the band’s highly experimental, avant garde and just plain weird style of black metal they have all but perfected at this point in their career. 2022’s Spirit of Ecstasy continued a stretch of high water marks in their discography going all the way back to the newly remastered Vile Luxury. This album not only raised the bar for every other extreme metal act going, it also made the trio a highly sought after live act. It’s here that we see the beginnings of the paradigm shift that is at the center of Goldstar. When thinking of how to push themselves further on their next release, Ezrin, Blanco and Grohowski also had to tackle the logistics of improving their live show. One way they did this is with revamped and updated costuming, but the other is by putting creative constraints on their songwriting. “We did a covers EP last year, where we took songs from bands like Rush and Metallica as well as artists like Miles Davis and made them our own,” Zachary recounts. “That informed us of the potential of classic songwriting. Also, touring as hard as we did, we found ourselves with a lot of opening and support slots that are 30-35 minutes and it was a drag to only be able to play three or four songs because they were eight or nine minutes long…In the end, I believe that putting creative restrictions on ourselves makes for better choices and better art.” That’s right, folks: Goldstar is the least experimental and most accessible Imperial Triumphant album yet.
But of course, just because it is the least experimental album they’ve made doesn’t mean it’s not experimental. The nine tracks that make up Goldstar are still highly progressive, avant garde, experimental, whatever you want to call it. They still have that Imperial Triumphant je ne sais quois, it’s just that they get in and get out in under 6 minutes on average, and they are much more focused on conventional riffing and song structures. A perfect example of what this looks like is lead single and opening track “Eye of Mars.” Built around a crunchy and downright nasty riff from Ezrin, the band rips and tears through that repeating motif, interspersed by orchestral blasts, Blanco’s funky bass breaks, and a subtle and slightly restrained performance from Grohowski. I’ve gone on record as saying he is one of my favorite drummers ever, and I think how he holds back more than ever shows even more just how mighty his chops are. Similarly, “Hotel Sphinx” opens with a Gojira-like tapping riff that is somehow both easier to digest and perfectly Imperial Triumphant at the same time. And if you didn’t catch the Rush influences from their actual Rush cover, check out the break in the middle of the track and tell me that’s not giving Geddy Lee vibes to a tee. Plus, if you find yourself missing out on the surreal, fear not: there’s a grindcore homage followed immediately by a cigarette commercial in the middle of the album.
It should also be noted that Goldstar is the last album to be produced at Menegroth before its untimely (but hopefully not eternal) demise. So you know the production is also at the level it’s always been, which when coupled with the more streamlined song structures, makes each individual member of the band shine more than ever. Goldstar might polarize the fanbase, but I think that this is an incredibly smart way for a band that never stops pushing themselves to continue to both unleash their full creativity and to unabashedly make the music they want to make.
— Ian
Goldstar will be available March 21 on Century Media. For more information on Imperial Triumphant, visit their official website.
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