Initial Impressions: Imperial Vengeance: At the Going Down of the Sun

Imperial Vengeance is a U.K. band that refers to their music as "dark aristocratic metal". The band plays a combination of black and death metal with some gothic and symphonic elements thrown in. There are the occasional acoustic interludes that play English classical music.

The band's lyrical themes pay tribute to England, for the most part, particularly the days of the British empire and its military and social history. Thus we have tracks like "6th Airbourne Division" and "Jus Ad Belum".

Musically, the band is quite impressive, mixing the symphonic and classical music elements seemlessly with the guitar riffs. The band was formed by C. Edward Alexander, a.k.a. Charles Hedger of Cradle of Filth. Therefore, the idea of how to blend the two disparate styles is familiar. The songs are mostly longer and feature frequently changing riffs and additional melodies keeping things interesting.

As far as symphonic black albums go, this is a fairly good release. There has been a lot of backlash against the genre for years, since Dimmu Borgir has become a parody of itself, and probably going further back than that. This is a strong album though and worth listening to. It's just not a must.