Imperial Triumphant / The Dome / London
So Friday was a mad day. I’ve been listening to Imperial Triumphant for a while and I knew I just had to experience them live, so I was over the moon to see they were heading to Europe this summer with their “Mother Of Greed” tour. A couple of festival appearances, and only three venue shows in Manchester, Glasgow & London. Train strike Thursday, Tube strike on Friday itself and another rail strike on the Saturday, and last train home Friday night…… What could go wrong eh ?! But this was a show I couldn’t miss so 16:12 train to London 2 mile walk to the venue, show, walk back to St Pancras and 22:35 train back. Would it be worth the risk ?
I’d not been to the Dome in Tufnell Park before, and what a great venue it is. The main room upstairs holds around 900 - 1,000 with a large high stage. A great sound system and friendly security and staff.
First up black metal band Voices hit the stage. I’d not seen Voices before but this was a really enjoyable set. Unlike many black metal bands, there is no gothic horror, satanic rites and the like, just incredibly intense and ferocious metal under pinning the harsh vocals of Peter Benjamin which are real dark and guttural.
Having said that though, it’s not just ‘noise’ the guitars are clear and you can really hear the detail in the riffs. I’ve seen some great talented British metal bands recently, such as Mairu (Definately check them out!) and Antre, and Voices are right up there with the best. The early crowd were really into it, and I really enjoyed it to. A great set up for NY’s finest.
Imperial Triumphant were formed in 2005 by Zachary Ilya Ezrin (vocals & guitars) and the current line up is completed with Kenny Grohowski (drums) and Steve Blanco (bass, vocals & keyboards). The band really does have a style all of their own, both musically and visually. Heavily influenced by their home town of New York, which shapes their music which at it’s core is avant-garde and draws on fusion jazz, and applies it to a black metal palette. The music is intrinsically linked to their visuals, which have a very art nouveau feel, with black hooded capes encasing bronzed masks, that remind me of the Maschinenmensch (Machine-Person) from Fritz Lang’s Metropolis. Music and visuals as one, you can almost feel what they are performing. Simply stunning.
Earlier this year Imperial Triumphant released two new singles, first with Maximalist Scream followed up with a release of the song Merkurius Gilded (ft. Kenny G and Max Gorelick). The tour is to promote their latest album “Spirit of Ecstasy” which was released on 22nd of July 2022.
One by one, Kenny, Steve and then Zachary took to the stage for the intro section As you might expect, the lighting was low to emphasize the visual effect of the band. With their jazz roots as you’d expect the show has a more organic feel to it, with songs merging from one to another through the set, with the whole style and appearance being very theatrical and their movements felt almost theatrical, as the capes swirled gracefully. The masks creating a god-like aura. Many of their songs have limited vocals, and the ‘silent’ performance has a mystical feel to it.
The musical ability is second to none delivering some complex avant-garde jazz infused death metal with aplomb. In particular, the drumming skills of Kenny Grohowski are a delight to watch. Feet pounding out the relentless fast metal beats, his hands almost glide across the drum skins and cymbals effortlessly as if no effort at all is exerted. Check out the video link to Merkurius Gold above to see what I mean. At times I just couldn’t take my eyes off it ! Overall, It’s a genre cross-over you’d think wouldn’t work, but with the visual styling they have developed, alongside their undoubted musical skills, brings it to life.
One of the highlights of the show for me was the performance of one of their greatest tracks Chernobyl Blues, which had a rawness to it, and it almost felt improvised. As always later in the set Zachary ceremonially took up a bottle of Champagne, shook it and anointed the crowd, in a ritual like taking mass. The set ends with the outstanding Rotted Futures from my favourite album “Alphaville”. The track is brooding and sinister and has a really ominous feel to it, building and building until it crashes into life really flexing the jazz bass lines.
The show delivered in every way, with an intensity from the outset, exceptional showmanship and exquisite musicianship. Having waited for so long for the chance to see Imperial Triumphant, it seemed to be over in a flash. But what a night ! I love experiencing new bands but this is a band I’ll be back to see over and over again.
And what about the travel issues ? Well, somehow, just to make the day perfect (if not long and tiring)….. no delays at all. It’s as if the metal gods were watching down on us.
Set List
Intro, straight into Tower of Glory, City of Shame
Merkurius Gilded
VO 1
Atomic Age
Transmission to Mercury
Bass Solo
Chernobyl Blues
Vo 2
Maximalist Scream
encore
Swarming Opulence
Rotted Futures
