Imperial's debut EP
The Florida underground scene seems to be in full throttle over the last 5 years, being the home of some of the biggest names of the in the alt music industry; Less Than Jake, Against Me! and Hot Water Music are to name but a few. It would only seem natural for a band like Imperial to gain media attention just through people knowing of their origin. The band began their conquest in 2001 under the name of Red Letter, ripping stages up and down the East Coast with such bands as Evergreen Terrace and Never Remember.
After recording a couple of demos and selling them at their shows, the band received good feedback and decided to create this 6 track EP, Produced and Engineered by Jeremy Staksa (Poison The Well) and mastered by Alan Douches (Converge, Dillinger Escape Plan). 'This Grave is My Poem' is set to be one CD ready to create havoc in the metal-core scene.
The EP opens up with 'In Ashes I Leave', a great song to start off any metal CD. There is nothing more you could ask for than a sharp rhythm section and a smooth minor melody. Although the band claim to create originality in gaining duel-vocals from Brandon Pangle and Dale Dupree, there seems to be nothing that exposes this quality to its full extent unlike other bands such as Arameus. The same problem occurs in the guitar parts. Whilst I was expecting to hear a thousand harmonic riffs in each song, I only managed to hear at most 4 shared between the two guitarists throughout the whole EP.
Nevertheless, 'This Grave is My Poem' has some great mash-out songs. Although some of the bands trademark techniques appear a few too many times on the EP, they achieve some effective breakdowns and crazy voice-overs. One of these awkward voice-overs appear towards the end of my favourite song of the EP, 'Washed Upon a Nameless Shore' where the song breaks into a dialogue between a man and a woman then one of the singers interrupts with a bloody scream. I personally found this hilarious as it seemed to be ripped out of one of those cheesy horror movies.
Obviously this band is nothing unconventional than the current flurry of hardcore/metal bands being nurtured all over the USA and even the UK. Still this CD is fun to listen to and is nothing of a disaster. They are certainly no Dillinger Escape Plan but for a band who have been around for 4 years and only released one EP, it is stupid to say that we won't be hearing the name Imperial again at Room Thirteen.