Immolation, Imperial Triumphant

Immolation and Imperial Triumphant

1720, Los Angeles, CA., March 1, 2022

Review and Immolation Photos by Tony F. Corpse

The hellish soundtrack for the evening was beset by Film Noir/Jazz/Avant Garde/Black Metal marauders Imperial Triumphant. This dangerously desolate arena was just perfect for such a bizarre oddity to showcase their mindbending aura. Resplendent in sepulchral robes and symmetrically jagged metallic masks, no doubt forged from a sanguinary nightmare, Imperial Triumphant awed and finagled the crowd into submission. This is futuristic yet retro. The soundtrack for a subterranean metropolis gone stark raving mad.

New York juggarnaught Immolation aimed to pummel our craniums. Ross Dolan (Bass, Vocals) was all brutish business, manhandling his instrument like a serial killer weilds a power drill. His vokills lay just beneath the aggressive frequencies, rumbling and gurgling. Demonically enhanced, no doubt. Leading the ever dissonant riff cavalcade into further, unchartered waters, Bob Vigna (Guitar) pummeled our timid ears with an arsenal of twistedly arcane chords, forced out vigorously loud and spiteful. His trademark robotic arm manuevers were on display. Of course inhumanly mysterious they are. Perhaps he’s an automaton?

Drummer Steve Shalaty punctuated the dire din with the gusto of a galeforce wind. His tribal enunciations and off kilter meters unlike any other in the field. Guitarist Alex Bouks handled stage right admirably, churning out chugging rythms of epic proportion. Some of the savagely violent classics offered spanned their entire career. Much to the delight of the assembled throng they even threw in “Into Everlasting Fire” from their eponymous debut album. And so, a night of essentially brutal Death Metal comes to a Glorious Epoch. Empowering and strengthening all malcontents once again.

Acts Of God by Immolation out now via Nuclear Blast Records. An Evening With Imperial Triumphant is now out via Century Media Records.