IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT – Gotham Luxe / Chernobyl Blues (2018)

Born in the metropolis: Imperial Triumphant embodies the sounds of New York. The chaos, the menagerie, the perils and majesty of the greatest city on earth. We portray this great juxtaposition between high society luxury coexisting with absolute filth and urban decay. Our city is like the corpse of a giant. What was once so bright, grand and spectacular, is now filled with greedy maggots writhing towards their share of ‘success’. We don’t support it nor are we against. We only play the sounds of the New York City as we hear them.

“Beyond the archaic forms, luxury has actually retained the functional value of potlatch, creative of rank. Luxury still determines the rank of the one who displays it, and there is no exalted rank that does not require a display. But the petty calculations of those who enjoy luxury are surpassed in every way. In wealth, what shines through the defects extends the brilliance of the sun and provokes passion. It is not what is imagined by those who have reduced it to their poverty; it is the return of life’s immensity to the truth of exuberance. This truth destroys those who have taken it for what it is not; the least that one can say is that the present forms of wealth make a shambles and a human mockery of those who think they own it. In this respect, present-day society is a huge counterfeit, where this truth of wealth has underhandedly slipped into extreme poverty. The true luxury and the real potlatch of our times falls to the poverty-stricken, that is, to the individual who lies down and scoffs. A genuine luxury requires the complete contempt for riches, the somber indifference of the individual who refuses work and makes his life on the one hand an infinitely ruined splendor, and on the other, a silent insult to the laborious lie of the rich.”

Georges Bataille, The Accursed Share

Golden peaks of timeless vision From the pedigree of lies Builds the murky sea of giants Top floor, the Kings crown

Grand illusional desperation Accommodates the masses While keeping forward motion Lift up, the queens crown

Demographic shifts building them higher Worshipping excess altars to resplendence Gotham Luxe! Syphoning lifeblood Beholden silver eye production never stops Gotham Luxe! Proletarian servitude Ancient gold supremacy society envisioned

Demographic shifts building them higher Worshipping excess altars to resplendence

Lieber biegen, als brechen Lieber biegen, als brechen Lieber biegen, als brechen Lieber biegen, als brechen

Слезает кожа как лохмотья И пепел медленно осел Над нашей обожжённой плотью Наш дом, наш город, опустел Мы дети мертвенного Бога Отцы мы ядерного сна И волки воют песни смерти О том, как эта госпожа Явилась непослушным детям Свои секреты сторожа Мы дети мертвенного Бога Наши забыли имена

The skin peels off like rags And the ashes slowly settle Above our burnt flesh Our home, our city, is empty We are the children of the dead God We are the fathers of nuclear sleep And the wolves howl songs of death About how this lady Appeared to disobedient children Her secrets of the guard We are the children of the dead God Our names have been forgotten

Imperial Triumphant is an American experimental metal band formed in 2005 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.”