Live Review: Imperial Triumphant and Abduction | The Asylum, Birmingham | 19/04/2023
New York abyssal gods Imperial Triumphant bless the U.K. with their presence for a short run of dates, making their Birmingham debut with a headline show. Opting to choose local supports for each show, tonight the hotly tipped, enigmatic UKBM frontrunners Abduction open the show.
Abduction
There is a decent, if a little thin, crowd scattered throughout The Asylum’s 600-capacity main room for highly regarded Derby based enigmatic black metal project Abduction. Continuing to support 2022’s breakthrough album Black Blood, Abduction bring their atypical approach to black metal to a receptive crowd and make for a very fitting opening band for tonight’s avant-garde headliners. The stage is shrouded in fog as the band walk out, appearing as just silhouettes as their dominant walls of noise permeate the room. With all the instrumentalists donning simple face coverings, secretive frontman, only known as A|V, has a much more elaborate look, donning a hooded cloak, unnerving homemade mask and a necklace of animal bones. Whilst retaining the core familiarity and aesthetics of classic, raw black metal, Abduction weave nauseating psychedelic atmospheres and post-metal textures throughout their oppressive layered soundscapes.
Considering Abduction tend to craft fairly lengthy songs, A|V spends little time between songs addressing the crowd, opting for simple gratitudes to a vocally supportive crowd and maximising the time spent playing, beckoning the crowd into their hypnotic void. Particular highlights include the dizzying eleven-minute epic ‘Plutonian Gate’ and expansive, atmospheric post-metal infused set closer ‘Lightness At The Grand Conjunction’. It is easy to see how Abduction are at the forefront of the modern UK black metal movement with tonight’s opening set, the only thing they left the crowd wanting was more as the final notes rang out. Here’s hoping they make it back to the home of metal as soon as possible in a headline capacity so they can deliver exactly what this crowd was wanting from them.
Photo Credit: Taya Llewellyn (@synthesizephoto)
Score: 8/10
Imperial Triumphant
The scattered crowd has gathered towards the front of the room in anticipation of the abyssal gods arrival as the discordant lo-fi strings and haunting voiceover herald the start of ‘Tower Of Glory, City Of Shame’. The room is around half full, a mild shame as avant-garde, jazz influenced black metal masters Imperial Triumphant are one of, if not the most engaging, hard working and musically talented live acts in the scene today. Rapturous applause erupts from the crowd as guitarist and vocalist Zach Ezrin makes his way to the stage. Extending the intro somewhat and continuing to play the opening dissonant chords as he’s joined by bassist Steve Blanco and drummer Kenny Grohowski, both immediately engaging in a freeform flurry on their instruments before the disjointed rhythmic flux of ‘Tower Of Glory, City Of Shame’ fully encapsulates the crowd.
Garbed in black cloaks, art-deco and pagan influenced golden death masks, unique to each member of the band, Imperial Triumphant look just as incomparable as they sound and are somehow more unnerving performing in the flesh as they are in still images. The first half of the set is almost a test of endurance, moving swiftly into the abyssal ‘Metrovertigo’, Imperial Triumphant start with a double helping of latest album Spirit Of Ecstasy, managing to constantly maintain a dual atmosphere of unease and reverence. This is helped in part by the band’s refusal to vocally address the crowd, opting to use harrowing pre-recorded speeches instead. The crowd get a brief reprieve from the intensity as the static-laden and unnerving barbershop quartet introduction for ‘Atomic Age’ plays, but it truly is a brief moment as the staccato, dissonant chords from the guitar and bass play in time, the powerful drum fills stir up further feelings of urgency and Ezrin’s monolithic growls echo throughout the room.
Whilst the main focus of tonight’s set is 2022’s album Spirit Of Ecstasy, their other two most recent releases, 2018’s Vile Luxury and 2020’s Alphaville feature prominently throughout as well. Imperial Triumphant have managed to craft a master setlist, although the material has been released years apart, they seamlessly fit with one another, smoothly transitioning between unbridled intensity and loftier atmospheres. They also manage to sneak in the uncompromising ‘Devs est Machina’ from 2012’s debut album Abominamentvm, a slab of neoclassical black metal and for their standards, about as traditionally ‘black metal’ as Imperial Triumphant get.
At this point, it would be remiss not to mention the technical ability of all band members, complex as the compositions may be, all members of Imperial Triumphant play their songs note for note, beat for beat, making their mind melting technicality, nauseating dynamic and rhythmic shifts all the more impressive when pulled off perfectly live. Grohowski’s drumming in particular is extraordinary, blending jazz drumming techniques with traditional black metal precision, lending a slight swing to his fills and effortless style.
The sound tonight is also phenomenal, mix perfectly balancing the finer details of Imperial Triumphant’s mesmerising soundscapes, ensuring every aspect of complex sound is audible and highlighted at the appropriate times. Though there is a minor amount of feedback in the vocal mics, most likely due to the space left in the venue, it is brief and almost unnoticeable even at its worst.
Ezrin takes a moment as the soft jazz introduction of ‘Transmission To Mercury’ plays over the PA to celebrate in traditional Imperial Triumphant fashion, shaking up a bottle of champagne and bursting it over the crowd, decadently showering them before sharing the bottle amongst the front row of attendees. The rest of the band are sat waiting to burst into the furious blast beats and dissonant walking bass line of the track proper. Said champagne bottle was placed in front of Blanco’s Bass amp for use later in the set, lending to the dizzying atmosphere as the glass slides across his strings.
Speaking of which, at one point Blanco is left on stage alone to indulge in an extended, technically impressive and chaotic bass solo. Dramatically kicking the photo pit barrier aside about halfway through, emulating the bull like mask he wears as he storms around the venue floor, getting in the face of audience members in a nightmarish fashion. Blanco makes his way back to the stage as his bandmates join him for Spirit Of Ecstasy’s ‘Death On A Highway’, an affirmation of the groups aforementioned technical prowess, at times sounding like a methodical training exercise with its dissonant polyrhythms, swaying tempos and fluctuating pacing. ‘Rotted Futures’ works to the same degree on the opposing end of the spectrum, showing the bands talent for cultivating rich, fervent atmospheres and ferocious black metal technicality.
The band close tonight’s main set with the sequential two hitter of ‘Chernobyl Blues’ and ‘Cosmopolis’ from Vile Luxury. They work incredibly well being played back to back, following each other just as well live as they do on album, letting the final discordant guitar strums of ‘Cosmopolis’ stop dead in their tracks. Opting to once again use a pre-recorded speech, Imperial Triumphant walk out to their encore of ‘Swarming Opulence’, also of Vile Luxury, the dramatic layered horn introduction acting as a call for the final round of vertiginous insanity.
Imperial Triumphant are unmatched in their propensity for the most engaging and merciless live shows, the New Yorkers push the audiences capacity for intensity and challenge them to push their own boundaries of musical acceptance by bringing the overwhelming aura of their metropolis’ with them. Even when the venue was part filled, you walk away once the dust has settled as an audience member in an otherworldly haze. The members of Imperial Triumphant may just be mere mortals off stage, but under the golden death masks and black robes they truly embody the vile luxury of the abyssal gods they invoke through their music.
Photo Credit: Taya Llewellyn (@synthesizephoto)
Score: 9/10