Review by Ben for Imperial Triumphant - Spirit of Ecstasy (2022)
I try to remain open minded when it comes to my metal. If my recent experience with White Ward proved anything to me, it was that I shouldn't accept my initial response to an album as gospel. I thought I was going to hate that album after a single attempt, but after numerous listens, I now consider it be a great release. To say that my first Imperial Triumphant attempt was disconcerting is understating things. Spirit of Ecstasy is an abrasive and chaotic experience, and an album that truly earns the Avant-Garde Metal genre tag. It's like someone threw dissonant death metal, avant-garde jazz and a whole bunch of effects and noise into a blender and turned it up to the max, or so it seemed on first listen. Given the huge praise the release is getting, I committed myself to coming to grips with it as much as I could before deciding how I really feel about it. What's the result? Well, I definitely now have a large amount of appreciation for what these guys have achieved. Many sections of the album are downright brilliant, and the musicianship to pull something like this off is obviously of the highest order. Tracks like Chump Change and Merkurius Gilded have opened up to me quite a lot, to the point where I like a lot more of their running time than I don't. But therein lies the problem for me. There is so much going here, that every track has parts that are, if not entirely unlistenable, just not very entertaining for me beyond novelty. I don't like jazz at all, and it's not going to make it sound better to me if it's performed in an abrasive fashion, or combined with screams and intense percussion. For every moment on this album that I dig, there's another that is just too much. Perhaps others just have a much greater tolerance for chaos than I do.
2022 RANKING (61 releases so far)
47. Negative Plane - The Pact... - 3 stars
48. Imperial Triumphant - Spirit of Ecstasy - 3 stars
49. Kreator - Hate über Alles - 3 stars
2022 DEATH RANKING (15 releases so far)
13. Undeath - It's Time... to Rise From the Grave - 3.5 stars
14. Imperial Triumphant - Spirit of Ecstasy - 3 stars
15. Needless - The Cosmic Cauldron - 3 stars