Genre fusion is a tricky business. On paper, an album best described as ‘avant-garde extreme metal with notes of experimental jazz and New York big-band’ sounds positively dreadful, promising a combination of sounds that smashes vastly different worlds of music together. Tell that to Imperial Triumphant, however, and you’ll get nothing more than a polite nod from behind their imposing masks. The American three-piece have long been known to push the envelope as far as extreme metal is concerned— just take the progressive leanings of a record like ‘Alphaville,’ for instance— and new record ‘Goldstar’ is yet another impressive leap forward for the group. Though the album may be Imperial Triumphant’s shortest yet, its boundless ambition, sweeping political commentary and bold musical ideas feel more unrestrained and daring than ever before.

‘Goldstar’ is defined, first and foremost, by its theatrical appearance: if the striking artwork hadn't given the game away already, the album makes its bold, overpowering presence immediately known. Opener ‘Eye of Mars,’ between its unstoppable momentum and staggering horn inclusions, sounds like the marching theme of a comically evil empire, and Imperial Triumphant’s style remains as definitive and impressive throughout the remainder of the record. For as disgustingly abrasive as many cuts can be— a note we’ll return to in due time— it’s the grandiosity of the project that sticks with the listener: the opening soundscape of ‘Pleasuredome,’ for instance, combines mundanity and frightfulness in a truly dystopian manner, setting up the rest of the track to pull no punches. Ezrin, Grohowski and Blanco are hardly just paying lip service to their anti-capitalist, anti-authoritarian themes— every aspect of ‘Goldstar’ amps itself up into a furious statement of revulsion and disgust, dragging the listener along kicking and screaming.

The sheer scale of the ideas presented is both a blessing and a curse: though the overall impression ‘Goldstar’ leaves is one of opulence and lofty ambitions, it can suffer in its finer details as it buckles under its own weight. The record’s larger-than-life antics can, at times, come at the detriment of its otherwise vicious political commentary. For as charming of a number as it is, the title track is a fairly cliché addition to an otherwise endlessly inventive array of songs— not every piece of media critiquing capitalism needs a pastiche of commercial jingles, and the inclusion feels particularly garish when surrounded by the nightmarish wailing of ‘NEWYORKCITY’ and the grim rumblings of ‘Rot Moderne.’ There’s also the album’s grim, brooding production to consider, which consolidates Imperial Triumphant’s varied sounds into a dark, sludge-fuelled arrangement: it’s a mix that fits the record’s black metal offerings better than some its more experimental moments, at times curtailing the trio’s ability to push past the confines of their genre.

Of course, Imperial Triumphant manage to break out of any and all moulds, even despite that complaint: really, the triumph of many of these tracks lies in the imposing nature of their riffs and compositions, and the overwhelming feeling each cut evokes. ‘Gomorrah Nouveaux’ thunders its way forward with all the momentum of a tank rolling downhill, powering through mind-bending jazz-tinged riffs before erupting into one of the most overpowering hooks on the entire record— it’s the closest the record gets to accessible, and yet still feels completely alien. We’re equally enthralled with the unique riffs of ‘Hotel Sphinx,’ which bounces between sounds from frenetic progressive metal and ambient synth wave in a manner only Imperial Triumphant could successfully pull off.

There are, undoubtedly, less exciting moments in the track list: a record this daring and off-kilter could scarcely avoid them. While the collaboration with Messuggah’s Tomas Haake is a well-earned opportunity for the three-piece, ‘Lexington Delirium’ nonetheless feel like a disappointingly sluggish track, only managing to find its footing with an eerily boisterous melody in its final stretch. Conversely, ‘Rot Moderne’ comes out swinging, though the cut’s increasing dissonant and abstract melodic choices aren’t assembled quite as neatly or cleverly as those of its contemporaries. Even still, these tracks fit into the overall experience of ‘Goldstar’ neatly, adding to a record as bizarre as it is impactful: as the harrowing riffs of closer ‘Industry of Misery’ grind themselves into dust across the seven-minute epic, there’s no doubt that Imperial Triumphant have really outdone themselves with this one.

‘Goldstar’ is an impossibly massive record, housing musical bombast far exceeding the confines of its runtime. Across these nine tracks, Ezrin, Grohowski and Blanco demonstrate themselves to be not just impressive musicians, but versatile storytellers— the narrative of the record almost supersedes its politically-charged lyrics, instead being delivered via some of the most unique and gargantuan writing that extreme metal has to offer. It’s a record that deserves not just more attention, but more discussion, and we’ll be mulling this one over all year long: “the future, like everything else, is no longer quite what it used to be.”