New York-based Avantgarde Death Metal trio Imperial Triumphant are releasing their sixth full-length album, Gold Star, on March 21st, via Century Media Records. The album’s cover, logo, and the iconography of their live show are all tied to a “new era” of the band, but also build on their art deco-inspired identity. Fans can expect new masks and a ramping up of their live show on their immanent North American tour with Decibel Magazine and other touring on the books for 2025.
The album’s new music also speaks to a classic feel for the band, recorded in less than a week between tours, but focusing in on shorter song lengths so they can deliver more tracks to fans live and deliver their energy in punchy doses. Their latest music videos also speak to a kind of tightening of the screws on the band’s identity as they managed to record “Lexington Delirium” from the top of the Chrysler building in New York, an icon of art deco architecture, and their stop-motion animation on “Hotel Sphinx” weaves more lore around their origins and trajectory. I spoke with vocalist and guitarist Zachary Ezrin about all these developments as the band geared up for a busy touring schedule this Spring and beyond.
On this current tour with Decibel Magazine, will you be unveiling the changes in your live show, or have you already started doing that?
That will be the beginning of the new show, and it’ll be different with every country we play. As I’ve been working to develop the live show, we’ve run into some issues with restrictions in the United States. Mexico and Europe will probably get something a little crazier!
Is that regarding pyrotechnics and things like that?
Yes, like with pyrotechnics and related stuff, it’s much stricter in the USA. It’s also a thirty-minute show, so it may not be worth getting a permit for every state. But when I hear, “No”, I think, “Okay, well how can I achieve my goals?” So I think of the next best thing to do. I’m never going to stop pushing, so that’s pushed me into new worlds. I’m working on some new stuff that will be US-based that I’m really, really proud of, and I think it’s going to be awesome.
Were your goals for stage performance on the previous album different than what they are now, or is it just about increasing your ability to express the vision for the band?
It has to increase, and it has to change. Obviously, you want to wow people who have never seen you before, but you also want to give people who have seen you a reason to come back. That’s a creative exercise and it’s fun to be thinking about this sort of thing. Some people call what we do with our masks a “gimmick”, and to that I say, “One-Hundred Percent True! For sure!” But you know what? It’s a gimmick that works because we can play. The idea is that the masks pull you in, and open your mind up to music that is extremely challenging and difficult. Maybe you’re getting into it now because it’s easier to absorb with a visual aspect to it.
Yes, absolutely. I think that’s part of the role of music videos. I think people will sometimes approach music that they might not have otherwise approached and then realize that they are interested to know more.
Precisely, you get it.
I think even DIY videos make the music more accessible.
That’s a huge thing. It’s not just about how much money you can spend to make a great video. It’s about how creative you can be and how hard you are willing to push.
I saw that for this album, you have also tried to make these songs a bit shorter. Is that for a similar reason to revamping your stage act, to create outreach to fans? In terms of a live performance, you’ll be able to play more songs in a set, for instance.
That was the main catalyst behind this idea, to be able to play more songs in a 30-minute set. I think it’s also a good creative challenge. In order to think outside the box, sometimes you have to create a box. A lot of great art comes out of a pressure regarding time and money. The opposite is also true! Chinese Democracy is a great example of having too much time and too much money leads to tinkering and over-thinking stuff. It’s detrimental to the art.
I think that we’re now making songs under five minutes, rather than twice that length, and we recorded the whole album in five days, so it’s really a snapshot of where the band’s at! We didn’t have much time to over-think stuff, so it’s Rock ‘n Roll. We just put everything into overdrive, rolled the tape, and killed it.
That can be clarifying. Do you think this helped you see what the essential elements of the band are right now due to those self-imposed limitations?
Limitations definitely help you push, so I think there’s something to that.
The visual elements for this album are really strong and specific. We’ve not only got the album cover, and the way that you’ve used videos to support that, but you’ve also got things like the “Wings of Mercury” pin that you’re selling and the new band logo. Does all that help bring people into the world of the album?
Yes, for sure. Everything has to be new. New logo, new symbols, new music, new masks. This is a new era of Imperial Triumphant that we’re ringing in, and this is also the first time that we’ve been able to go on tour right when an album comes out, and that’s been really great to time it that way. We’re very excited about that.
How far back did you start thinking about the new era? I know the album was recorded quickly, but you’ve been busy. Spirit of Ecstasy was only released in 2023, and since then, you’ve had a covers EP, too, and the Vile Luxury Redux.
I think we had set a record date of May, and after we got back from Europe in 2023, we started putting stuff together. Some of us had written songs already. Our style of writing has no rules. Some things are just jammed out in the studio, and some things are literally written out on sheet music and handed out to the band.
Everyone in the band writes, so it’s pretty easy for each of us to come up with one third of the material, versus one person writing the entire album. I think for the redux and the covers, those were creative exercises that helped us get into the right headspace to actually go out and record a new record. Sometimes you need to get yourself into the right head game to do something new. We have to push ourselves out of our comfort zones to get ourselves to grow.
It occurs to me that doing the covers EP was a way in which you were working with shorter songs, too. That may have helped you out when it came to conceiving of shorter compositions.
Yes! We were working with songs that were way outside of our normal Metal world, and we were trying to make them sound like Imperial. It was a weird task to challenge ourselves to do something like that.
What was the response to that album? Would you play any of those songs live?
We could, I guess! We never thought about it. People online loved it. The New York Jazz scene really liked our cover of “Night in Tunisia” since it’s definitely cool and not cheesy. People were very surprised that we pulled off a Radiohead cover, and the Rush fans were very divided. Some people thought it was awesome, and some people thought it was the worst. That’s to be expected. Some people really liked the Metallica cover, and some didn’t. That’s kind of our thing, though. We’re kind of a divisive musical band. I don’t know of anyone who thinks we’re just “okay.” That’s kind of where I want to be. [Laughs]
I’m so glad that you were working with Colin Marston again to record the new album. When you went into record with this shorter schedule, does that mean that there were fewer takes?
We did a good job of laying it down, but there was less time to over-analyze stuff and spend extra time putting in weird shit. On Spirit of Ecstasy, we might have spent two hours sampling and putting in a Back harpsichord piece and flipping it backward or something like that. We didn’t have that time this time, so the record is more stripped down, with less fat, and more lean meat.
It’s still a big sound. Did you have talks with Colin about the ways in which this collection of songs was going to progress or lean in comparison to your previous work?
I changed the guitar, and amps, and stuff like that, but it’s pretty much classic Imperial record, and that’s why we were able to do it in five days. Before I can even ask Colin about something, he’s already doing it. He gets it, he knows what we’re trying to do. He’s such a vital member of the team and the world of Imperial.
How did “Gold Star” become the album title? I know there’s a title track.
It was actually vice-versa. I just loved the name. We wanted to call the album Gold Star. I decided, “This is the name of a defunct 1950s cigarette brand that is sponsoring the album, and this is the beginning of the b-side advertising jingle that we’re going to put in.”
That’s fun and it’s a cool phrase. It works for you as a band, I think, because it has a mysterious feeling to it.
Thank you. It just made sense. Sometimes you just hear something, and it’s like, “Yep, that’s it!”
