- Country: USA
- Style: Avant-garde metal
- Label: Century Media
- Release date: 31 July 2020
The New York trio’s fourth album is the record where Imperial Triumphant stopped sounding like a black metal band with jazz habits and started sounding like nothing else at all. Trey Spruance of Mr. Bungle produced it, Colin Marston co-produced it, and the guest list runs from Meshuggah’s Tomas Haake, who plays taiko drums on “City Swine”, to a barbershop quartet.
None of that would matter if the songs did not hold up, and they do. “Rotted Futures” opens with dissonant chords stacked like scaffolding before Kenny Grohowski’s drumming knocks the whole structure sideways. “Atomic Age” is the long, unhinged centrepiece, and the title track lurches between free-jazz chaos and something close to a groove. Steve Blanco’s bass is high in the mix and often carries the actual melody.
It is a hard listen. That is the point. Few metal records from 2020 sound this much like their city – noisy, crowded, gorgeous in places and hostile in most others.
Best tracks:
Rotted Futures
City Swine
Atomic Age
Alphaville
Author’s rating: 9.0/10
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