Imperial Vengeance are an English heavy metal band, from

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in Essex, in the East of England. It had a population of 122,000 in 2011. The demonym is Colcestrian. Colchester occupies the site of Camulodunum, the first major city in Roman Britain and its first capital. Colch ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and Grea ...

, England, formed in 2007 by former Cradle of Filth guitarist C. Edward Alexander (b. Charles Edward Alexander Hedger, 18 September 1980, Colchester, Essex/ Guitars, Vocals, Orchestration), and David Bryan (Bass, Lyrics). The band's musical style embraces aspects of symphonic black metal and other extreme metal genres, with lyrical themes and imagery largely influenced by the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

period. After issuing a self-released four-track EP in early 2008 entitled "Death: August and Royal" the band signed a deal with Candlelight Records, and released their debut album "At The Going Down Of The Sun" in July 2009. The album's title track was also to feature spoken word from

Harry Patch Henry John Patch (17 June 1898 – 25 July 2009), dubbed in his later years "the Last Fighting Tommy", was an English supercentenarian, briefly the oldest man in Europe, and the last surviving trench combat soldier of the First World War from ...

, providing extracts from Laurence Binyon's ''

For the Fallen "For the Fallen" is a poem written by Laurence Binyon. It was first published in ''The Times'' in September 1914. Over time, the third and fourth stanzas of the poem (usually now just the fourth) have been claimed as a tribute to all casualties ...

''. During the following September, the band issued a video of the track "6th Airborne Division" which revealed a live line up of additional members consisting of Elle Torry- guitar, James Murray- Guitar, and James Last- Drums. Gigs followed, a notable appearance being at the Hellfire Festival at Birmingham's NEC. The band followed this with an EP that featured a cover of Madness 1979 song Night Boat to Cairo with a suitably eccentric video to accompany the release, inked a management deal with Rob Ferguson of Transcend Management, and moved labels from Candlelight in favour of the Transcend Music Group. 2010 saw the band begin outlining ideas for a second album, and in July issued a DVD that not only featured videos for both "6th Airborne Division" and "Night Boat to Cairo", but also included the filmed footage of the recording session with

It was also announced that the title for this next work would be "Black Heart Of Empire" and would feature an appearance from the soprano Lori Lewis ( Therion). A

Penny dreadful Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular serial literature produced during the nineteenth century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typically referred to ...

style publication was issued in conjunction with the album. The band released ''Black Heart of Empire'' on 28 September 2011. Other artists that make appearances on the album include Therion soprano Lori Lewis, Vulture Industries vocalist, Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen, and

Dave Courtney David John Courtney (born 17 February 1959) is an English self-proclaimed former gangster who has become both an author and celebrity. Author Bernard O'Mahoney and Frankie Fraser (the former member of the Richardson gang) have accused Court ...

providing "the Voice of Old London." The album was recorded and engineered by C. Edward Alexander and mastered by

Russ Russell Russ Russell is a British record producer, sound engineer, mixer, mastering engineer, musician and writer. He has worked all over the world and now is mostly based at Parlour Studios in the UK. He was also the guitarist in the psychedelic band ...

Discography

EPs

* ''Death: August and Royal'' (2008)

Studio albums

* ''At The Going Down of The Sun'' (2009) * ''Black Heart of Empire'' (2011)

Current members

* C. Edward Alexander - guitar, vocals, orchestration * David Bryan – bass, lyrics

Live members

* James Last - drums, percussion * James Murray - guitar

Other contributors

* William Drury - drums, percussion * Elle Torry - live guitars, violin, cello *

- spoken word * Dave Courtney - spoken word * Lori Lewis - sung parts on Black Heart of Empire * Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen - sung parts of Black Heart of Empire

References

External links

official band pageTranscend Records official siteCandlelight Records
{{Authority control English heavy metal musical groups Musical groups established in 2007