If we didn’t know otherwise, Imperium Dekadenz could be some new nu-black’n’djent band from California. The word “imperium” invokes something grandiose or powerful. The, uh, word “dekadenz” recalls band meetings where kids with improbable instrumental skill and unfortunate spelling capabilities meet. But that’s not the case at all. Actually, both cases are incorrect, as Imperium Dekadenz hail not from The Golden State but from Germany, and we can assume from their point of origin duo Vespasian and Horaz have better spelling skills than most Americans. Oh, and they’re not nu-black’n’djent. Far from it.
Formed in 2004 and quickly signed to Perverted Taste Music before joining the Season of Mist roster for 2010’s Procella Vadens, Imperium Dekadenz have pretty much cornered the market where it concerns despondent, atmospheric black. No, we’re not talking about DBM bands who croak about slitting wrists in bathtubs or how the planet’s nothing more than a maggot-infested hovel while enjoying high standards of European living, but rather how sad it is to sit in the middle of the Schwarzwald as the mists of autumn bring forth the earliest signs of nature’s death. It’s both literal and metaphoric. Heavy.
To celebrate the oncoming Imperium Dekadenz long-player, Meadows of Nostalgia, we’ve paired up with Season of Mist to bring you the mid-tempo, sad-sack song “Der Unweg.” So, find your own Schwarzwald, ’cause, hey, it’s Monday. And Mondays are always blue.
** Imperium Dekadenz’s new album, Meadows of Nostalgia, is out March 19th in the US on Season of Mist Records. It’s available for pre-order HERE. If you’d rather not wait, there’s plenty of other Imperium Dekadenz brilliance HERE for a few blackened ingots and a despair or two.
