Following on from their art deco/jazz metal/avant-garde monster Alphaville, the sort of album that demanded you hold an opinion on it be it pro- or anti-, New York's finest post-black anticapitalists Imperial Triumphant made something of a misstep with the bloated Spirit of Ecstasy in 2022. It was a paean to excess that fell into the same trap by being rather annoying to listen to, the band long since leaving their black metal roots in favour of embracing their avant-garde sound. Style over substance, you could even say, were you feeling particularly harsh! So the recent rave reviews for their latest, sixth full-length along with noting that it was under forty minutes felt like a suitable time to give Imperial Triumphant another chance to impress.

And impress they do... mostly. Opener Eye of Mars is something of a mess, something between avant-garde metal with horn backing and dips into death metal with neither satisfying. The following Gomorrah Nouveaux is much better, opening with rhythmic handclaps before opening into a churning death metal cruncher, Voivod-gone-avant-garde riffing keeping things propulsive, with a turn for the epic with backing synths around the mid point. The guitars of Zachary Ezrin are especially impressive here, cranking out all sorts of twisted riffing (matched by the bass of Steve Blanco) and ably backed as ever by Kenny Grohowski's beyond capable drumming. You can't deny the quality of the musicianship throughout, present on even the poorer pieces here and helping make whirring oddity Hotel Sphinx extra-impactful with its groovy King Crimson-esque flourishes.

Dave Lombardo himself pops up to provide extra percussion on Pleasuredome, a wonderfully crushing experience for drum fanatics to enjoy from the opening technicality to something of an African beat drum-off. Alas, not all of the album is this good but it shows the heights that the band are capable of. Generally they seem to prefer the moodier, atmospheric gloom shown in the likes of Lexington Delirium, switching tempos yet doing little to keep you interested beyond the typically wonderful drumming - even a guest spot from Meshuggah's Tomas Haake seeming wasted as he does nothing beyond provide narration. Only closing piece Industry of Misery really seems to perform the atmosphere effectively with lazily droning riffs and a doomier pace that allows for the industrial misery to take hold.

Elsewhere we have moments that feel downright gimmicky, such as the two sub-minute pieces next to each other in the middle of the tracklisting. NEWYORKCITY is fifty or so seconds of pure chaos fronted by frequent past guest Bloody Panda's Yoshiko Ohara's screams, and the following title track is an old-fashioned advertising jingle; both interesting enough choices but not really making for a cohesive listen beyond acting as an interlude from the heavier surroundings. You can tell what kind of mood the band wanted for this sort-of conceptual album, however generally tracks such as Rot Moderne do a far better job from a metal perspective, allowing the riffs and instrumentation to be the focus. And although they will always be more than skilful musicians, Imperial Triumphant sometimes struggle to be coherent songwriters and to make their albums anything other than acquired tastes, or for those that enjoy the deliberately difficult. It's a step up from Spirit of Ecstasy however, doing more in shorter pieces, which has to be applauded.