New York power trio Imperial Triumphant present a great irony – their gut-wrenching, avant-garde take on experimental extreme metal doesn’t sound as clever as it actually is. In a way, that deception is their calling card.
“I’ve seen reviews that say, ‘These guys are just making noise,’” says guitarist and band leader Zachary Ezrin. “And it's like, ‘Yeah, but let me explain why.’”
Their music will never win over the faint-hearted. But on sixth album Goldstar, they’ve trimmed the fat to make their music more palatable without diluting their trademark weirdisms – at the expense of Ezrin’s guitar hero status.
Was there a specific goal for Goldstar?
“We were thinking, ‘Let’s try to do everything in under five minutes.’ Restrictions force you to be more creative, and we kept only what we thought was absolutely necessary. The result is a very lean, very powerful record.”
You take that concept to the extreme on NEWYORKCITY, which is only 30 seconds long.
“That’s our first attempt at a free improv grindcore song. We played for 30 seconds and had Colin Marston, our producer, cut us off. We even panned all the tracks vertically so it really felt like a monolith of chaos. That’s a great example of using a shorter format and staying true to who we are.”
And there’s a blues solo on Industry of Misery.
“Yeah – it’s completely tonal, it's pentatonic-based, and it's a total ‘fuck you’ from me to me. We put it through an ’80s Russian Muff and it’s disgusting.
“When I take a solo it's more about adding to the music than making a statement in a traditional way. We’re not often playing in tonal keys, so I’ve gotta find a place to exist. The whole essence of my playing is atmosphere and vibe versus content.”
Are we hearing your rare Gibson V90 on the album?
“Not this time. Gibson made a Les Paul Axcess model with a Floyd Rose, which is probably one of the best Gibsons I’ve ever played. The whole album is pretty much that.
“My V90 has been my workhorse since I started with Gibson. Now I’ve been playing more Les Pauls. I just got an M-III, an even rarer model from the ’90s. I’ve just made it all gold, and it shreds hard.”
They all have Floyd Rose bridges.
“When I became a Gibson artist, it was unbelievable for me. But Gibson is not really known for Floyd Rose guitars, so I had to go out and find very particular Gibsons.
“I wanted a Richie Faulkner V, then I found the V90 from the late '80s on Reverb. It’s super-shreddable, with 24 frets and a Floyd Rose. My dream was to have a gold guitar, so I took a stencil, cut out a gold mirror pickguard and put gold hardware on it.”
Have you made any other mods?
“I tried a bunch of Gibson pickups – 498Ts, Burstbuckers, Dirty Fingers – and they're all great, but they just didn't have what I wanted. Then I tried Avedission pickups from Atlanta, Georgia, which I really like. They’re hot but they’ve still got clarity.
“I like to have a pretty hot pickup, but with a lot of mids, into an amp set to the hottest distortion channel. So if it’s a Peavey 5150 I’ll use the lead channel, have the gain at 3 or 4, and crank the mids. I want a really clear but crunchy tone. I can chug with it, but if I play a big minor 7th chord, you’re gonna hear all those notes cleanly.”
What else is crucial to the Imperial Triumphant sound?
“My pedalboard is sparse and I like it like that. I don’t have much peripheral vision wearing this mask anyway – I just have TC Electronic: reverb, delay, chorus.
“Live, I use a Lehle 1023 Mono Volume pedal pretty extensively. I don’t switch channels; I just roll the volume down – I like that tone a little bit more. I can bring it down and get a really clean tone, or bring it back up a little for a bit of dirt.
“I had the MXR one and I used the hell out of it, to the point where the string broke on it. The Lehle has a gear and teeth instead. I’ve been using it for years and it’s given me no issues.”
Your secret weapon is what you do with a whammy bar.
“There’s so much you can do with it. I play all my tremolo picking with it in my hand, so there’s a slight warbling effect – as if you’re hearing a record that’s been in the sun for too long.
I play in an avant-garde death metal band – you should be unsure of what I’m doing
“You can also do interesting sort of contrapuntal dissonances. If I bend a note and play an open string at the same time, the open string is going to detune while the other string is going up. You can get really interesting textures that obviously don’t sound beautiful, but that's not the purpose of my band.”
You’ve said before that it’s not an exact science.
“It would be lame if I was super-particular about it. I play in an avant-garde death metal band – you should be unsure of what I’m doing. You shouldn’t be comfortable.
“It’s a double-edged sword: a lot of people think I’m not a good guitar player; that I’m really sloppy and really shitty, because it sounds really sloppy and really shitty. But it’s all context. My rhythm section is made up of incredibly accomplished musicians from the New York jazz scene. I don’t think they’d be playing with me if I was shit.
“It’s a technically weird way of playing the guitar, but it’s me. I’m not trying to copy any other guitarist.”
Can you pick three riffs by other bands that showcase your DNA?
“If you’re wondering what sort of stuff scares me, listen to the opening riff of PORTAL by Larvae. It’s fucking nuts – it’s savagery.
“Immortal’s Battles in the North main verse riff is very inspiring, not so much melodically but performance-wise. They’re playing just a little too fast for you to handle it, like, ‘Are they gonna fly off the rails?’ That’s way cooler than a band performing perfectly. It’s dangerous.
“And there’s the opening riff of Gore Guts’ Obscura. I’ve seen the tab for it and it still makes no sense – but it doesn’t matter. A great section doesn’t need to be riff-based. These instruments are made for making noise, and when you’re in a band the collective sound matters more than a sweet riff.
“Certain things I’m doing in Imperial might not be that interesting from a guitar standpoint, but when you zoom out and you listen to the whole band performing, you're like, ‘Oh, it sounds great!’”
- Goldstar is out on March 21 via Century Media Records. Head to Imperial Triumphant for details.
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