Imperial Triumphant is an American

experimental metal Avant-garde metal (also known as avant-metal, experimental metal, and experimental) is a subgenre of heavy metal music loosely defined by use of experimentation and innovative, avant-garde elements, including non-standard and unconventional soun ...

band formed in 2005 in New York City.

History

Imperial Triumphant was formed in 2005 by Zachary Ilya Ezrin in New York City. Their first album, ''Abominamentvm'', was released in 2012. Imperial Triumphant's second album, ''Abyssal Gods'', was released in 2015. Described by No Clean Singing's Austin Weber, "''Abyssal Gods'', is overall a thoroughly vicious act of blasphemy packed with more memorable moments than many bands accumulate in a lifetime of albums". Commenting on the band's effort to date as a whole, Weber stated "Imperial Triumphant are not only one of the most important U.S. black metal acts currently active, truly carving their own stylistic path, but they are also important to the future of black metal." Following the second album, in March 2016, Imperial Triumphant released ''Inceste''. A review in ''Decibel'' magazine commented that "Imperial Triumphant obviously have no use for the genre game... ''Inceste'' continues to warp expectations". Following the release of the studio album ''Vile Luxury'', Imperial Triumphant embarked on their first European tour in April 2019, including a show at

Roadburn Festival Roadburn Festival is an international music festival held in Tilburg, Netherlands every April since 1999. It was set up as a spin-off from the Roadburn music blog founded by Jurgen van den Brand and Walter Hoeijmakers. Originally focused on stone ...

. This was followed by further European dates in November 2019, including headlining the 'Cult Never Dies Stage' at

Damnation Festival Damnation Festival is a one-day heavy metal music festival currently held annually at Bowlers Exhibition Centre. Manchester. It was held at held at Jilly's Rockworld in Manchester from 2005 to 2006 and then University of Leeds, Leeds, England ...

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

, UK. In October 2019, it was announced that Imperial Triumphant had signed to

Century Media Records Century Media Records is a heavy metal record label with offices in the United States, Germany and London. In August 2015, Century Media was acquired by Sony Music for US$17 million. Background Century Media was founded by Robert Kampf and Oli ...

and plan to release new material in 2020. Subsequent Instagram posts from the band confirmed they had begun tracking at

Colin Marston Colin Marston (born September 13, 1982) is an American multi-instrumentalist musician and record producer residing in New York City. He graduated from New York University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in music technology in 2004, and runs Meneg ...

's Menegroth Studios in New York on December 10, 2019. Imperial Triumphant were one of the many bands whose touring plans were affected by the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, postponing the 'Devastation on the Nation' tour until 2021. In April 2020, Imperial Triumphant announced via Instagram that the new album would be entitled ''Alphaville'' and would be released July 21, 2020. Alongside this announcement a documentary video was released via Metal Injection detailing behind-the-scenes work on ''Alphaville'' and guest musicians who had collaborated, amongst them

Tomas Haake Tomas Haake (born 13 July 1971) is a Swedish musician and the drummer of the extreme metal band Meshuggah. Known for his polymeters and technical ability, Haake was named the fifth best "Modern Metal" drummer by MetalSucks.net in 2012. In the Ju ...

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, longtime collaborator

, and

Trey Spruance Preston Lea "Trey" Spruance III (born August 14, 1969) is an American composer, producer, and musician who co-founded the experimental rock band Mr. Bungle. He is also leader of the multi-genre outfit Secret Chiefs 3. Originally a guitarist and ...

Mr. Bungle Mr. Bungle is an American experimental rock band formed in Eureka, California in 1985. Having gone through many incarnations throughout their career, the band is best known for music created during their most experimental era. During this time, ...

. ''

Metal Hammer ''Metal Hammer'' is a heavy metal music magazine and website founded in 1983, published in the United Kingdom by Future, with other language editions available in numerous other countries. ''Metal Hammer'' features news, reviews and long-form ...

'' named ''Alphaville'' as the 10th best metal album of 2020. In May 2022, Imperial Triumphant announced their album 'Spirit of Ecstasy' with the release of the music video for the track 'Maximalist Scream'. This was followed up with a release of the song 'Merkurius Gilded' with accompanying music video in June, featuring guest guitars from former bandmate Max Gorelick, and

Kenny G Kenneth Bruce Gorelick (born June 5, 1956), known professionally as Kenny G, is an American smooth jazz saxophonist, composer, and producer. His 1986 album ''Duotones'' brought him commercial success. Kenny G is one of the best-selling artis ...

on soprano saxophone. 'Spirit of Ecstasy' was released on 22nd of July 2022.

Musical style

Imperial Triumphant's musical style has changed since formation in 2005 to encompass musical and lyrical influence from their home city of New York. Commenting on the release of ''Vile Luxury'' in 2018, Ezrin described the record as "our most refined and metropolitan release to date", commenting further that the band had taken "the New York City influence that shaped the world, embraced the aspect of our sonic pyramid that at its core comes from

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

, and applied it to

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

Band members

Current members * Zachary Ilya Ezrin – vocals, guitars (2005–present) * Kenny Grohowski – drums (2012–present) * Steve Blanco – bass, vocals, keyboards (2014–present) Previous members * Naargryl Fjellkrieger – bass, backing vocals (2005–2012) * Amarok Myrvandr – cello, guitars, violin (2005–2012) * Maelström – drums (2005–2008) * Alex Cohen – drums (2008) * Erik Malave – bass (2012–2015) * Max Gorelick – guitars (2016)

Discography

Studio Albums * ''Abominamentvm'' (2012) * ''Abyssal Gods'' (2015) * ''Vile Luxury'' (2018) * ''Alphaville'' (2020) * ''Spirit of Ecstasy'' (2022) EPs * ''Obeisance'' (2010) * ''Goliath'' (2013) * ''Inceste'' (2016) Singles * ''Manifesto'' (2012) Compilations * ''Shrine to the Trident Throne'' (2014)

References

External links

Official WebsiteImperial Triumphant
at

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online audio distribution platform founded in 2007 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with headquarters in Oakland, California, US. On March 2, 2022, Bandcamp ...

Imperial Triumphant
at Facebook
Imperial Triumphant
at

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

{{Authority control Musical groups from New York City Musical groups established in 2005 American avant-garde metal musical groups American black metal musical groups Century Media Records artists