Imperial Vengeance are an English heavy metal band, from

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

Essex Essex ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England, and one of the home counties. It is bordered by Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, the North Sea to the east, Kent across the Thames Estuary to the ...

, England, formed in 2007 by former Cradle of Filth guitarist C. Edward Alexander (b. Charles Edward Alexander Hedger, 18 September 1980, Colchester, Essex/ Guitars, Vocals, Orchestration), and David Bryan (Bass, Lyrics). The band's musical style embraces aspects of

symphonic black metal Symphonic black metal is a subgenre of black metal that emerged in the 1990s and incorporates symphonic and orchestral elements. History One of the earliest forerunners in what would come to be the sound of symphonic metal was Celtic Frost ...

and other

extreme metal Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual tran ...

genres, with lyrical themes and imagery largely influenced by the

British Empire The British Empire comprised the dominions, Crown colony, colonies, protectorates, League of Nations mandate, mandates, and other Dependent territory, territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It bega ...

period. After issuing a self-released four-track EP in early 2008 entitled "Death: August and Royal" the band signed a deal with

Candlelight Records Candlelight Records is a British record label based in London, founded by former Extreme Noise Terror bass guitarist Lee Barrett in 1993. The record label originally specialized in black metal, but quickly expanded to various other forms of hea ...

, and released their debut album "At The Going Down of the Sun" in July 2009. The album's title track was also to feature spoken word from

Harry Patch Henry John Patch (17 June 1898 – 25 July 2009), dubbed in his later years "the Last Fighting Tommy", was an English supercentenarian, briefly the oldest man in Europe, and the world's last surviving trench combat soldier of the First World ...

, providing extracts from Laurence Binyon's '' For the Fallen''. During the following September, the band issued a video of the track "6th Airborne Division" which revealed a live line up of additional members consisting of Elle Torry- guitar, James Murray- Guitar, and James Last- Drums. Gigs followed, a notable appearance being at the Hellfire Festival at Birmingham's NEC. The band followed this with an EP that featured a cover of

Madness Madness or The Madness may refer to: Emotion and mental health * Anger, an intense emotional response to a perceived provocation, hurt or threat * Insanity, a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns * ...

1979 song

Night Boat to Cairo "Night Boat to Cairo" is a song by British ska/ pop band Madness from their debut 1979 album '' One Step Beyond...''. It was written by Mike Barson and Suggs and was also included on the 1980 EP '' Work Rest and Play'', which peaked at number ...

with a suitably eccentric video to accompany the release, signed a management deal with Rob Ferguson of Transcend Management, and moved labels from Candlelight in favour of the Transcend Music Group. 2010 saw the band begin outlining ideas for a second album, and in July issued a DVD that not only featured videos for both "6th Airborne Division" and "Night Boat to Cairo", but also included the filmed footage of the recording session with

It was also announced that the title for this next work would be "Black Heart of Empire" and would feature an appearance from the soprano

Lori Lewis Therion (formerly Blitzkrieg) is a Swedish symphonic metal band founded by Christofer Johnsson in 1987. Its name was inspired by the Celtic Frost album '' To Mega Therion''. "To Mega Therion" is Greek for "The Great Beast" and was a title used b ...

( Therion). A

Penny dreadful Penny dreadfuls were cheap popular Serial (literature), serial literature produced during the 19th century in the United Kingdom. The pejorative term is roughly interchangeable with penny horrible, penny awful, and penny blood. The term typical ...

style publication was issued in conjunction with the album. The band released ''Black Heart of Empire'' on 28 September 2011. Other artists that make appearances on the album include Therion soprano

, Vulture Industries vocalist, Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen, and

Dave Courtney David John Courtney (17 February 1959 – 22 October 2023) was an English self-proclaimed gangster who became both an author and an actor. Early life Courtney was born in Forest Hill, London. He went to Adamsrill primary school in Sydenham, ...

providing "the Voice of Old London." The album was recorded and engineered by C. Edward Alexander and mastered by

Russ Russell Russ Russell is a British record producer, sound engineer, mixer, mastering engineer, musician and writer. He has worked all over the world and now is mostly based at Parlour Studios in the UK. He was also the guitarist in the psychedelic band ...

Discography

EPs

* ''Death: August and Royal'' (2008)

Studio albums

* ''At The Going Down of The Sun'' (2009) * ''Black Heart of Empire'' (2011)

Current members

* C. Edward Alexander – guitar, vocals, orchestration * David Bryan – bass, lyrics

Live members

* James Last – drums, percussion * James Murray – guitar

Other contributors

* William Drury – drums, percussion * Elle Torry – live guitars, violin, cello *

– spoken word * Dave Courtney – spoken word * Lori Lewis – sung parts on Black Heart of Empire * Bjørnar Erevik Nilsen – sung parts of Black Heart of Empire

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control English heavy metal musical groups Musical groups established in 2007 Candlelight Records artists