There’s a murmuring amidst the monoliths of New York City as the sounds of the megalopolis churn below. The city becomes the sound of a human engine that throbs like an atrophying heartbeat; the decaying city of the future in Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. That’s the grandiosity that New Yorkers, IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT have found equal amounts of beauty and horror within. With their latest release, Goldstar, the masked triumvirate continues their exploration of the urban and arcane. The band has found inspiration in the sound of metal pushed to its darkest extremes, gilded, art deco temples, and looming cityscapes.     

     Goldstar is IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT’s most instant and evocative works to date. It bridges the avant-garde and the present in a way they’ve never done before. It’s also the band’s most ambitious album to date, swerving into North African Gnawa music on “Gomorrah Nouveaux”, Brazilian Maracatu on “Pleasuredome”, and an ode to classic NYC architecture on “Lexington Delirium” – “It’s our love letter to the Chrysler Building,” says Zach. “We shot a video there and the last person to shoot there was Francis Ford Coppola for Megalopolis!” – and forays into the unmerciful and extreme with the likes of “Hotel Sphinx”. “That one’s got heavy nods to Stanley Kubrick,” says Zach. “That’s something we’ve never been shy about. The album was recorded by Colin Marston (Gorguts, Krallice), mastered by Arthur Rizk (Blood Incantation, Powertrip, Ghostemane),  and features guest artists Thomas Haake (Meshuggah) and Dave Lombardo (Slayer). 

Expect a gilded mask-lift when IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT returns to the stage. For all their rich, musical indulgence and masterfully honed musicianship, onstage theatricality has always been a key factor to the three New Yorkers’ live showings. New masks and an upgraded stage show will be part of their live experience with Goldstar and beyond. “When you look at bands like Slipknot and Ghost, there always is a new show to keep fans engaged and continue to translate the music in the sickest way possible. This isn’t a recital, it’s heavy metal to the core!” Down to Zbigniew M. Bielak’s signature, highly detailed future-noir artwork, which once again adorns that album’s cover in classic cigarette packaging, IMPERIAL’s world building continues, on gilded girders. 

     “We want people to remember IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT as a band that pushed metal music forward,” says Zachary, summing up the New York trio’s stamp on the scene. “A band that created records that had not existed previously. And hopefully inspiring others to look beyond just metal into other places: film, classical music, world music, architecture, to find a new kind of approach to metal itself.”  Goldstar is a long cool drag and as intense an urban fever dream as only IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT can deliver.