Bleating is the closest we can get an auditory form of bleeding, and there’s plenty of blood spattered on Imperial Triumphant’s latest release, the punishing, at times playful, Spirit of Ecstasy. Baroque it is, filled with a centripetal force that gives the horror of their horror vacui aesthetic a drive-in slasher feel, without much room to breathe. With all of the elements – riffy guitars, pounding double-bass drums, chanting, growling, sax, and groovy bass lines – the combination absorbs the individual elements into a miasmic chaos that is greater than the sum of its parts. The history of such practices feels vaguely nostalgic, as does most of what hails from Gotham these days, though this is not a reproach. Sonny Sharrock meets Fantomas in a tribute to the internal combustion engine that is New York, beset on every corner with ambition, greed, and the destructive force of capital.

Some tracks manage to pull off this exacerbated miming of money mastery better than others, which is likely a product of the Tower of Babel kind of mix the production must have entailed. Imperial Triumphant (apparently it’s ok to don masks again) are most compelling when their riffs take the lead, like on the magnificent and terrifying “Death on a Highway”, and the album’s closing track, “Maximalist Scream.” In these songs, the intentionally parodic pastiche of styles has moments to introduce the frenzy that follows, whereas on the opener, “Chump Change”, the intensity builds through jumps and skips as opposed to devolving progression.

For fans of left-field metal and those free jazz folks who are ready for a good uppercut, there’s plenty of grist for the mill, and Spirit of Ecstasy is sure to please. In the final seconds of this audacious experiment, things winnow from high-pitched screams and guitars into what sounds like a siren. A warning, or just the penetrating ambience of the police state in all its sonic terror? Highly recommended!