Imperial Triumphant’s Death Metal Ecstasy at Legends

Mike Ritchie March 7, 2023 Legends Bar, Live Show Reviews, Uncategorized

Due to on site headliner interview, Couch Slvt was not covered.

On Thursday February 2, Legends Bar & Venue in Cincinnati was engulfed and bombarded by death metal legions in the Spirit of loud, brutal Ecstasy. The pit never stopped on the upper level once the riffs and growling began and that night was no exception.

Kentucky’s Darkdruid opened things loud and violent with Couch Slvt taking over the stage and floor for their set. Cloak brought some serious audio and visual circle pit sorcery while the masked trio of New York’s Imperial Triumphant delivered a killer show complete with five records and three EP’s worth of material. Robes, props and very inspired crowd movement were par for the evening.

From the dark, shadowed hills of Kentucky Darkdruid opened the evening with a mix of originals and a little bit of technical difficulty. However they handled it like pros keeping the audience entertained and involved. Their set was a loud, brutal spewing forth of tracks from their Exito Mortem EP, drenched in a moat of crimson red.

Any band that slams an axe into a TV as part of a show promo video can be sure to deliver a killer show. It was dark demented sorcery and chained bleeding torsos torture racked to decorated perfection. It was a straight vicious mauling, straight from the most putrid, pungent cadaverous collection of mosh pit pounders.

With dark ritualistic enchantment Atlanta’s Cloak stormed the stage with spell casting candles glowing and lights looming carrying the black flame burning high.

The Burning Dawn started off immediately with the hard pounding, jangling creepy cultish beginning of “On Poisoned Ground.” Vintage black metal mixed with cult-metal as they played a set drenched in dark, deep murderous red.

“Into the Storm” continued the audio fury with esoteric exploration convening with Venomous Depths on “In the Darkness, The Path.”

They explored the unknown mysteries granting the crowd for unlawful carnal blessings on “The Holy Dark,” It was a show and set hard to follow, even by masked men.

The live voice of a busy but decaying eastern city was loudly driven into the venue walls with sledgehammer force. Strings pounded as drums blasted forth as lyrical buildings loomed slowly cracking from decades of history and use.

The masked men resembling a demented statue of liberty and an iron maiden on guitar and growls (Zachary Ezrin) with a metallic Egyptian god-like face on bass (Steve Blanco) resembling a deity through the Stargate appeared in the darkness. With a Mad Max/ Species-like face (Kenny Grohowski) submerged in the back in smoke and shadow. Three imposing men stood shrouded on stage ready to pummel and gnaw the audience raw with death metal inspired to shake buildings with. Their appearance fascinating and freaky, robed like a bizarre cult from the dark steamy alleys of The Big Apple.

The domed and doomed metropolis began in the true Spirit of Ecstasy introducing Cincinnati to the “Tower of Glory, City of Shame.” Notes wrapped and mangled around the speakers as the trio moved to the audio opener. The screams and groans of a city decaying in its own decadence proclaimed its own grandeur through metallic notes.

The barbershop quartet of classic yesterday sounded off starting the clanking, rattle of “Atomic Age.” Notes and drums twisted, contorting into a slow dance pit of violent reaction. Unnatural cadence and tempo made for a cathartic experience. You gotta have mad confidence and balls to put a barbershop quartet in the death metal genre.

“Metrovertigo” put a mangled spell and speed over the crowd, spellbinding them like smoke from a witch’s cauldron into a twisting, mind-swiveling dance.

The creepy, weird ballroom-like piano keys and artistic spray/drenching of champagne brought forth some bubbly and “Transmission to Mercury.” Blanco turned the bottle into his version of the Page violin solo, eventually taking the show into the tight, pulsating crowd. While long trumpet notes sang the song of gloom clashing suddenly into a loud, brash battle of drums, guitars and growls.

They played with grandiose precession and showmanship rivaling any towering skyscraper. Masked and draped in black body language and movement was key for communication with headbanging antics, almost like you could see their faces and expression under the engraved images.

It was time for Kenny G to shine by proxy with a demented renaissance party that evening via Cincinnati as “Merkurius Gilded” began its slow movement forward.