Many a metalhead I meet has expressed a fascination with history, although at the risk of sounding like an uneducated fool it is one feat I do not share in common with them. Years of somniferous school lessons (which resulted in me doing whatever I could to get out of them) have left an affliction so deep that the H word sends me into a paroxysm of panic. Yet, every now and then a record will come along and spark my interest just enough to make me want to flick on the discovery channel and get myself up to the same page as these bands.
Imperial Vengeance are a duo that take inspiration from the “Glory days of the British Empire,” and while the references are rife you do not have to be a historian to appreciate their music. What’s more, I think what they are trying to put across in their music is so obvious that it can be digested even by someone as simple as I. Certainly as we are introduced to the album there is cause for alarm as ‘The Drop’ opens with a calm and soothing classical piece that is soon broken into by an air raid siren that should send you dashing off to black out the windows and round up your offspring to congregate in the bunker. This follows with a fearsome attack as ‘6th Airborne Division’ invades the territory and lays down a series of harsh, razor-edged guitars and an onslaught of pounding drums.
There is a strong black metal backbone to this album, as you would expect with Charles Alexander, previously a session guitarist for Cradle Of Filth, at the helm. Tracks like ‘Unto The End’ and ‘Cwn Anwwn’ really have me thinking of a Dimmu Borgir style bombast. The keyboards on the latter of the two especially sound intriguingly futuristic; quite ironic given the historical thematic, and at points during the song the guitars carry a real sense of foreboding which picks up, leading us directly into the firing line as the machine gun drumming storms along at a relentless pace.
This album, it must be said, doesn’t quite have me blown away and having listened to it a good ten or so times now it will probably be left on the shelf for some time before I get the urge to hear it again. That’s not to say it’s a bad album; it is certainly a solid enough release and one worth checking out. The album has its moments of intrigue; ‘From Childhood’s Hour’ sits neatly in the middle of it all and sounds out as a dark piano dirge that reeks of the death and sorrow of war. ‘Aristocratic Sex Magik’ is the highlight of the album for me and I can really feel the magik in the mix with the superb keyboard flourishes which add a mystical flavour to the mix which are interjected by some rather pompous vocal lines. This certainly has me intrigued with talk of secret societies (the Ordo Templi Orientis, I suspect), and drinking absinthe and I must confess that a trip to Wikipedia trying to decipher the hidden meanings of such ingenious lines as “Like Mr Crowley flesh obsessed, far better bred more sharply dressed” lead my down a stray path and left me right behind schedule and with a craving for the Green Faerie.
‘Jus Ad Bellum’ has a rather catchy chorus and is one of the stronger tracks of the album with its warnings that “Something wicked this way comes.” I must state that the vocals on the album are a bit of a weak note and while I do like the clean, dramatic vocal lines and the more deathly oriented growls, I find his mid-range rasps a little on the cheesy side for my liking. Still, a solid album and while I think I’ll stay away from the Discovery Channel for now, I really don’t want to stay away from that bottle of Absinthe.
http://www.myspace.com/imperialvengeanceuk
http://www.candlelightrecords.co.uk/
