Imperial Triumphant

Imperial Triumphant is an American experimental metal band formed in 2005 in New York City.

History
Imperial Triumphant was formed in 2005 by Zachary Ezrin in New York City. Their first album, Abominamentvm, was released in 2012. Imperial Triumphant's second album, Abyssal Gods, was released in 2015. Described by No Clean Singing's Austin Weber, "Abyssal Gods, is overall a thoroughly vicious act of blasphemy packed with more memorable moments than many bands accumulate in a lifetime of albums". Commenting on the band's effort to date as a whole, Weber stated "Imperial Triumphant are not only one of the most important U.S. black metal acts currently active, truly carving their own stylistic path, but they are also important to the future of black metal."

Following the second album, in March 2016, Imperial Triumphant released Inceste. A review in Decibel magazine commented that "Imperial Triumphant obviously have no use for the genre game... Inceste continues to warp expectations".

Following the release of the studio album Vile Luxury, Imperial Triumphant embarked on their first European tour in April 2019, including a show at Roadburn Festival. This was followed by further European dates in November 2019, including headlining the 'Cult Never Dies Stage' at Damnation Festival in Leeds, UK.

In October 2019, it was announced that Imperial Triumphant had signed to Century Media Records and plan to release new material in 2020. Subsequent Instagram posts from the band confirmed they had begun tracking at Colin Marston's Menegroth Studios in New York on December 10, 2019.

Imperial Triumphant were one of the many bands whose touring plans were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, postponing the 'Devastation on the Nation' tour until 2021.

In April 2020, Imperial Triumphant announced via Instagram that the new album would be entitled Alphaville and would be released July 21, 2020. Alongside this announcement a documentary video was released via Metal Injection detailing behind-the-scenes work on Alphaville and guest musicians who had collaborated, amongst them Tomas Haake of Meshuggah, longtime collaborator Colin Marston, and Trey Spruance of Mr. Bungle. Metal Hammer named Alphaville as the 10th best metal album of 2020.

In May 2022, Imperial Triumphant announced their album 'Spirit of Ecstasy' with the release of the music video for the track 'Maximalist Scream'. This was followed up with a release of the song 'Merkurius Gilded' with accompanying music video in June, featuring guest guitars from former bandmate Max Gorelick, and Kenny G on soprano saxophone. 'Spirit of Ecstasy' was released on 22nd of July 2022.

Throughout 2023, Imperial Triumphant released a number of cover versions of songs as singles, spanning a wide range of genres. The series began with a cover of Radiohead's "Paranoid Android" in June, followed a month later by their version of Dizzy Gillespie's jazz standard "A Night In Tunisia". In September, they released their cover of Rush's "Jacob's Ladder", followed in October by a cover of Metallica's "Motorbreath". The final single release of 2023 was a cover of Wayne Shorter's "Nefertiti".

In May 2024, Imperial Triumphant released Vile Luxury (Redux 1924), a remastered version of the 2018 album.

Musical style
Imperial Triumphant's musical style has changed since formation in 2005 to encompass musical and lyrical influence from their home city of New York. Commenting on the release of Vile Luxury in 2018, Ezrin described the record as "our most refined and metropolitan release to date", commenting further that the band had taken "the New York City influence that shaped the world, embraced the aspect of our sonic pyramid that at its core comes from jazz, and applied it to black metal".

Band members
Current members
 * Zachary Ezrin – vocals, guitars (2005–present)
 * Kenny Grohowski – drums (2012–present)
 * Steve Blanco – bass, vocals, keyboards (2014–present)

Previous members
 * Naargryl Fjellkrieger – bass, backing vocals (2005–2012)
 * Amarok Myrvandr – cello, guitars, violin (2005–2012)
 * Maelström – drums (2005–2008)
 * Alex Cohen – drums (2008)
 * Erik Malave – bass (2012–2015)
 * Max Gorelick – guitars (2016)

Discography
Studio Albums
 * Abominamentvm (2012)
 * Abyssal Gods (2015)
 * Vile Luxury (2018)
 * Alphaville (2020)
 * Spirit of Ecstasy (2022)
 * Vile Luxury (Redux 1924) (2024)

EPs
 * Obeisance (2010)
 * Goliath (2013)
 * Inceste (2016)

Singles
 * "Manifesto" (2012)
 * "Paranoid Android" (2023)
 * "A Night In Tunisia" (2023)
 * "Jacob's Ladder" (2023)
 * "Motorbreath" (2023)
 * "Nefertiti" (2023)

Compilations
 * Shrine to the Trident Throne (2014)