IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT — Lexington Delirium (feat. Tomas Haake)

JUL 01 2025 · 12:00

IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT — Lexington Delirium (feat. Tomas Haake) (2025) Director: Brendan McGowan Era: Post-Pandemic Avant-Metal Renaissance (2023–2025) - A period of extreme metal boundary dissolution, art-institution access, and NYC-centric conceptual ambition intersecting with legacy extreme metal collaboration. Tier-1 archival artifact documenting a verifiable first — the inaugural metal performance filmed atop the Chrysler Building — at the intersection of extreme metal's avant-garde wing and New York City's Art Deco architectural heritage. The video's quantitative profile (warm color temperature, high motion, fast editing) reinforces rather than contradicts its monumental visual ambitions, making it an exemplary case study in how 2020s extreme metal leverages 4K production and iconic real-world locations to transcend subcultural visual norms. Essential for archives covering NYC music culture, extreme metal aesthetics, and landmark-based music video production. Context: Released January 16, 2025 as the third single from Imperial Triumphant's sixth album Goldstar (Century Media Records, March 21, 2025), 'Lexington Delirium' crystallizes the band's long-running mythologization of New York City's built environment. The video, filmed atop the Chrysler Building — an Art Deco masterpiece completed in 1930 — positions the band as inheritors of a distinctly American modernist grandeur. The choice of location is both historically resonant and symbolically loaded: the Chrysler Building represents the apex of machine-age optimism, mirroring the song's thematic tension between technological progress and existential delirium. The collaboration with Meshuggah drummer Tomas Haake bridges two generations of avant-extreme metal, linking NYC's avant-garde black metal underground to the Swedish polyrhythmic tradition. The video's release coincided with broader critical recognition of Imperial Triumphant as one of extreme metal's most conceptually ambitious acts. Director notes: Directed and filmed on location at the Chrysler Building in Midtown Manhattan — reportedly the first metal band performance filmed atop the landmark. Multiple press sources confirm McGowan directed the video for its January 16, 2025 single release. The band cited a positive creative collaboration with McGowan in press statements tied to the Goldstar album campaign. McGowan had a prior working relationship with Imperial Triumphant, having previously contributed to the 'Breath of Innocence' video. The production capitalizes on the Chrysler Building's Art Deco iconography, aligning visually with the album's thematic focus on NYC architecture, ambition, and urban mythology.