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Hello there unbeaten apocalyptic city dwellers! This week we bring to you chatter regarding Imperial Triumphant’s new album Alphaville. This release is an absolutely stunning and dynamic piece of tumultuous avant-garde metal. I’d describe it as metropolis-toppling black metal jazz with atmospheric technical death crushing experimentation. The album is also filled with interesting audio clips and neoclassical movements. Ryan and I imagined various scenarios of post-apocalyptic futures and the inhabitants within, such as a bustling undercity of scavengers or an inner sanctum of cannibalistic sewer mutants.
The combination of grooving bass lines, insane vocals, noisy instrumentals, and faint city ambiance captures the filth and beauty of large municipalities, particularly New York. This inspired thoughts of modern-day corporate CEOs abusing their employees to gain endless amounts of wealth; the lyrical content within the track “City Swine” furthered these notions. We then reach the “Atomic Age”, and the bombs are dropped in the title track. The bloodied screams stand out in my memory whenever thinking back to this album (seriously, check that track out).
The skillful composition within every track creates something to be remembered. I also must mention the absolutely nightmarish cover of The Residents’ “Happy Home“. For some screwed-up reason, I pictured all of my favorite childhood cartoon characters swarming me in Central Park with Tommy Pickles gorging himself on my intestines.
Imperial Triumphant allegedly arrived on the scene in 2005, yet did not debut in full form until their 2012 release Abominamentvm. Several EPs and albums later, we reach Alphaville. Speaking of genre, the band initially established themselves more as an experimental black metal project, but over time have transformed into the diverse avant-garde craziness that they are today. The overarching theme of the trio’s music in recent years has been to capture the auditory essence of New York City. From high-rise ivory towers of elites to seedy alleyways, they somehow encapsulate this sonic theme through their eccentric, cerebrum-liquefying metal. They also embody a mysterious aura that I can’t fully describe in my utterances. Do yourself a favor and ride the innumerable floor elevator that is Imperial Triumphant.
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If you enjoy what you hear, head over to Imperial Triumphant’s website or Century Media Records to purchase their goods. Give the band some support on Instagram, Facebook, and Bandcamp.
If you’d like to support us beyond listening to our podcast, you can do so by becoming a patron on our Patreon page. There you can read all of our notes for each album review episode we publish, gain early access to every episode before its official release, and acquire an embroidered From Corners Unknown patch, a button, and stickers if that’s your thing.
Next up in the pocket of From Corners Unknown podcast is Insanity Check’s Unrecoverable Reality—hands down the episode with the most video game references thus far by Ryan and I. We attempt to digest the unfamiliar territory of black metal-inspired electronic industrial vaporwave synth music. Hell, I barely even know what I even just typed out.
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