Within this world we dig our own graves, and through Shadow of Intent, we shall lay in them. 2025 is the year for extreme metal, and Connecticut's own technical deathcore/death metal band has released quite possibly one of the most refined, atmospheric, and incredibly raw albums of the genre we have seen yet. Releasing their fifth studio album, Imperium Delirium (Latin for "Disordered Power"), this thing comes with teeth. This 12-track album, released via Blood Blast Distribution, is a nihilistic war symphony—bleak, cold, violent, and nothing but graves as far as the eye can see. The blend of symphonic deathcore and technical death metal this group has sent our way is punishing—and we deserve it.
"The controlling powers have sent you to your death.... And now you must prepare to fucking die."
Opening the battlefield is "Prepare to Die," the blasting recruitment into futile bloodshed. War-like drums, orchestral backing, razored and heavy guitars that shred and bludgeon the sides of your cranium, and vocal gutturals and screams that promise nothing but a bloodied and pointless end. This sets the tone for what we're about to experience—a massacre. Instrumentally, the band has evolved and dialed in their craft since their previous album, 2022's Elegy. The drums and guitars are woven with the orchestrals in a way that the album has gained this cinematic heartbeat to it. Vocalist Ben Duerr is (in my opinion) the peak of extreme metal vocal prowess. The shrieking highs, the bellowing gutturals—the man is a monster. By concept, this is the most polished way to display the topic of human conflict—war's physical maiming and its psychological effects: paranoia and propaganda. Guitarist/Producer Chris Wiseman and Duerr captured the lust for domination and power with precision.
The next three tracks, all previously released as singles, continue our descent into imperial madness. "Flying the Black Flag," a technical beatdown on executing insurrections; "Infinity of Horrors," a death-metal punisher on deplorable bodies and those who take their place to resume it; and "Mechanical Chaos," a brutal track on how as we further ourselves and innovate, so do we in means of slaughter. In "They Murdered Sleep," a point of view of the mental rupture from the causalities of war, it creates its own wasteland. Starting with wails and deep violins before exploding into a groove that I almost crowd-killed my damn cat to—it's a moment of clarity at the almost halfway point of the album. Not to mention Wiseman giving us insane fretboard work of solos (we expect tabs, Chris, dammit). Bouncing in and out of pounding drums and riffage and the orchestral points, we're reminded that in conflicts how selfish we are to bleed onto those that did not cut us.
"Consequences of pride and misplaced malice...Oh, but they ingest it."
These sound articulations outside stringed and percussion instruments throughout the album need to be spoken of at this point. "The Facets of Propaganda" has these haunting choir sounds that intentionally break up as it continues—a serenade to suffering. These guys riddle the album with glitch effects, synths, pianos, and rising and falling violins; it's as surreal as it is demanding. "Feeding the Meatgrinder," a death metal crowned track, features the staple and face of that genre, Cannibal Corpse's own George "Corpsegrinder." This is my favorite off the album, hands down. "Vehement Draconian Vengeance" and "Beholding The Sickness of Civilization" are pounding and feral. The former utilizes those prior-mentioned glitch effects, and the latter has a small, almost sung section—perhaps the first time any non-extreme metal listener will hear anything coherent enough for them to understand. Us who are attuned to this genre, strangely enough, have adapted the ability to understand the deathcore tongue (though we can hear it, we cannot speak it).
"Feeding The Meatgrinder" OFFICIAL MUSIC VIDEO
Near the end of the album, the track "Apocalypse Canvas" is completely instrumental, a three-way technical showcase between bassist 𝐀𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐞𝐰 𝐌𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐬, guitarist Chris Wiseman, and drummer 𝐁𝐫𝐲𝐜𝐞 𝐁𝐮𝐭𝐥𝐞𝐫. Monias gets his own section on this one, popping technical, almost djent basslines, while Butler shows he's not just a breakdown and blast beat drummer. All of these guys are proficient in whatever art they choose to create all around. "No Matter The Cost" gives no leeway; you would think this was a beginning track in the album—the end breakdown is merciless, desolate, and echoing the aftermath of what humans can do to one another and what great lengths we will go to to achieve it. Closing and self-titled track "Imperium Delirium," encapsulating these last 12 tracks, with 7 minutes of fast riffing, a soulful and almost flanger-delayed mid-song guitar solo similar to that of Within The Ruins, slamming chugs, building choirs, and Duerr becoming the vocal embodiment of wastage.
Dissecting this album, Shadow of Intent has painted a canvas that is nihilistic, bleak, and violently intelligent. "Imperium Delirium" is a capstone for the extreme metal genre—from articulated orchestrals, intricate and ruthless percussions, and technical bass and guitar prowess to vocal dominance, the album has a brutal cinematic design to it. Lyrically splaying open the flesh and veins of the war machine and its fatalities. The flaw of man is the mirror. There is a secret sound at the center of the world, and if you listen close enough, brave enough, it's Shadow of Intent's Imperium Delirium.
