Imperial Triumphant – Goldstar

Written by on 20-03-2025 at 09:00.

Everyone knows that feeling. You are standing in a museum or gallery somewhere looking at a bizarre work of art of grand proportions. The quality and craftsmanship are undeniably present, but somehow you don’t understand it at all. I’ve always had exactly the same feeling about Imperial Triumphant. Having the feeling that something special is happening here, but not having the slightest idea what to do with it. The three-man formation from New York simply does not make art for untrained ears and explores the edges of musical experiment. Words such as progressive, intriguing and chaotic fit in here, which do not conform to current conventions in any way. To be on the safe side, should I also drop the words free jazz, dissonant technical death metal and avant-garde black? Does this Goldstar fit in the same tradition or can we expect a different interpretation?

The accompanying material tells us that the new album is the band’s most dedicated, authentic and accessible work to date. We hear those first two nouns often, but it’s not often that an upcoming release is touted as the most accessible work ever from a band. The fans may have already seen this path coming. The band was incorporated by Century Media during the corona period and subsequently released Alphaville, but the first step towards slightly more accessibility was only taken on Spirit Of Ecstacy from 2022. This was mainly heard in a somewhat less alienating production, but also with more stability in the compositions. Now the production on this Goldstar has been further removed from the dissonance, allowing the individual instruments to stand out better in the heavy mass of sound desperation (listen to that playful bass picking on the thrashy Gomorrah Nouveaux). The songs also regularly bloom to provide some form of relief. For example, on the last two minutes of the otherwise devastating Eye Of Mars and during the jazz-laced Industry Of Misery we can even enjoy a swampy rock passage – including a solo.

Furthermore, on Goldstar there is more playing with a prominent light melody, something we can hear in the euphoric tremolos towards the end of Lexington Delirium, but also the leading melodies in Hotel Sphinx (what an addictively good song that is!). In addition to the openness of the music, the compositions also take on a less bold character, but are characterized by compelling efficiency. This translates into more stability, recurring structures and a set of deafeningly hard riffs. Yes, of course it’s not all pie in the sky. For example, Rot Moderne is a chaotic and purely crazy death metal basher (holy cow, those riffs towards the end) and we also find a very tasty set of greasy guitars on Pleasuredome (because we do have fun!). On the latter, Dave Lombardo (Slayer) and Tomas Haake (Meshuggah) drum along for another round with the Brazilian drum band and the circus of curiosities is complete again. Fortunately, the urge to experiment has not disappeared on Goldstar either.

An easy conclusion is that Century Media’s promotion employee listened carefully. We will definitely hear a more accessible version of Imperial Triumphant on Goldstar. In addition to all the previously mentioned elements, the fact that the whole thing is much more compact also plays a role (for example, the yet unnamed NEWYORKCITY and the title track are both two short intermezzos). While the two previous albums clocked in towards the hour, thus causing sonic wear and tear, we can now press the stopwatch after thirty-eight minutes. The songs have also been stripped of some of the alienation and chaos, or perhaps better said: the chaos is now used in a more targeted manner. More accessible than ever? That’s for sure, but still don’t expect a simple sandwich here. A gold star and a nice final score!

Score:

84/100

Label:

Century Media Records, 2025

Tracklisting:

  1. Eye Of Mars
  2. Gomorrah Nouveaux
  3. Lexington Delirium
  4. Hotel Sphinx
  5. NEWYORKCITY
  6. Goldstar
  7. Rot Moderne
  8. Pleasuredome
  9. Industry Of Misery

Line-up:

  • Zachary Ezrin – Vocals, guitar
  • Steve Blanco – Bass guitar
  • Kenny Grohowski – Drums

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