January 10th, 2026 - A Dark & Vile Luxury

 

Hello and happy Saturday my headbangin' and beer lovin' friends!  The Meister here today pairing "Vile Luxury (Redux 1924)", the bold, compelling, and totally unique 4th album by Imperial Triumphant and a roasty and toasty Tmavè Dark Czech Style Lager from the fine folks at the Ogden Beer Company!  Oh, hell yeah!! 

Album Info:

• Artist: Imperial Triumphant 
• Title: "Vile Luxury (Redux 1924)"
• Recorded: live, engineered, mixed, and mastered at Menegroth, The Thousand Caves in New York City, New York
• Release date: July 13th, 2018 / May 3rd, 2024 (4th full-length studio album by Imperial Triumphant)
• Record company: Century Media Records
• Production: Colin Marston and Imperial Triumphant 
• Album cover art: Noah Cutter Meihoff 
• Personnel: Steve Blanco (bass, keyboards, piano, and vocals), Zachary Ezrin (guitars and vocals), and Kenny Grohowski (drums)
• Additional and guest musicians: Andromeda Anarchia (vocals on "The Filth"), Joe Beaty (trombone), Sarai Chrzanowski (vocals on "Lower World"), Ben Hankle (trumpet), J. Walter Hawkes (trombone), Yoshiko Ohara (vocals on "Gotham Luxe", "The Filth", and "Luxury In Death"), Dan Peck (tuba), Jonathan Powell (trumpet), and Will Smith (vocals on "Gotham Luxe")
• Musical style: Avant-garde extreme metal, technical black metal, technical and progressive death metal with elements of Avant-garde jazz
• Sound: Not for the faint at heart, "Vile Luxury (Redux 1924)" is a compelling, bold, thoughtful, dissonant, noisy, musically verbose, and unapologetically profound artistic statement! I'm not even exactly sure how to describe what I hear when I listen to this album.  It is hauntingly beautiful in all of its controlled chaos, perfectly blending almost competing musical styles and to reflect the opulence and poverty of 1920s New York... most definitely an all-encompassing and engrossing sonic experience. 
• Major themes: New York City, greed, decadence, corruption, futurism, decay, degradation, death, etc.
• Notes: I was fortunate enough to see Imperial Triumphant open for Immolation a few years ago... astounding!!
• Tracks: 
1. "Swarming Opulence"
2. "Lower World"
3. "Gotham Luxe"
4. "Chernobyl Blues"
5. "Cosmopolis"
6. "Mother Machine"
7. "The Filth"
8. "Luxury In Death"

Brew Info:

• Brewery: Ogden Beer Company (Ogden, Utah)
• Website: http://www.ogdenbeercompany.com/ 
• Brew: Tmavè Dark Czech Style Lager 
• Style: Czech-style Dark Lager
• Serving: 12 ounce can
• ABV: 5.0%
• Ingredients: Saaz hops
• Pour: The Tmavè pours a with a 1+ finger, off-white, light and frothy head with great retention and soapy, sudsy lacing.
• Nose: The nose is a characterized by malty, roasty, grainy, floral hops, and lightly herbal aromas.  There are aromas of roasted malts, toasted bread, light cocoa, a hint of coffee, herbal hops, and burnt toffee.
• Taste: Well-balanced, the Tmavè a nice blend of bready, grainy, malty, and herbal flavors.  There are notes of toasted bread, bread crust, roasted barley, crackery biscuit, a hint of chocolate, soft caramel, and herbal hops.
• Mouthfeel: Medium in body and well-carbonated, the mouthfeel is crisp and smooth with a dry, clean finish. 

Overall pairing: The Ogden Beer Company Tmavè Dark Czech Style Lager is a very roasty, delicious, and crushable brew... a great companion to the utterly oppressive, unique, and powerfully bleak sound of Imperial Triumphant on their amazing "Vile Luxury (Redux 1924)" album!  I like the look of the album artwork juxtaposed with the beer can label art as well.

Cheers!!  Hails!!