Transmission to Mercury - A JJ2 Post

Today's Wacky Music Wednesday track comes from an Avant Garde, dissonant death metal band called Imperial Triumphant, out of New York. And boy when I say Avant Garde, I fuckin mean it, these guys are really weird in the best possible way. They're also one of those bands who wear masks to their concerts, adding an extra level of mystery and unapproachability to their music (again, in the best possible way). 

The song in question is 'Transmission to Mercury', and right now, Spotify only has the live version. It literally had the studio version YESTERDAY but it got taken down for some reason?! Very frustrating because I've been jamming out to it all week...

Either way, the live version is just as good, there's also their Youtube video (I can't find the studio version on Youtube either, so the live will do): 

The song begins with a cautious yet venturing piano section that is honestly very beautiful. Quickly following that is a gentle trumpet solo, which really gives a vibe of something calmly traveling through space. Upon hitting the 2 minute mark of the song, we reach a major transition as the rest of the band comes in. I adore the chuggy bass guitar here, and it comes through beautifully!! It's difficult to hear in the live version, but the backing horns and the dissonant choir adds soooo much tension and unease. 

Around the 5 minute mark, the song really starts to decay. The guitar riffs become less intelligible, sounding almost like someone wailing through a microphone. The backing guitar (and horns? it's hard to tell) is playing this awful, disgustingly perfect dissonant melody that stands out completely from the rest of the band. 

Eventually the song fully decays, fading out with no discernable melody, with only the drums remaining as the constant that holds the song together as it fades out completely. 

There's so many different layers to this beautifully constructed song. 

Most upfront is the journey that the song takes you on: as a radio wave signal sent to mercury. The beginning is beautiful, you're traveling through space just after exiting Earth's atmosphere, nothing but beautiful nothingness. The calm piano and trumpet carry you past Venus and you begin to approach Mercury. Things change as you arrive, though, the scorching radiation emanating from the sun begins to corrupt you, as you are no longer the clear signal you once were. As you make your descent, you are nothing more than discordant noise, a fragment of what was. 

Musically, the song feels like it collapses forwards, which lends to this feeling of decay and rapid dissolve. While chaotic, the introduction of the drums, guitars, and singer is clear and has direction, the dissonance of the instruments doesn't ramp up until the end as you feel that destruction of order. Rapid tempo changes and a polymetric feel caused by the drums playing a 4/4 while the rest of the band is in 7/8, 5/4, or 9/8 is par for the course for Imperial Triumphant, but feels especially disorienting in this song. 

There are many other interpretations of this song, especially if you go the route of thinking of Mercury as the mythological god instead of the literal planet but I like the signal decay interpretation because it feels right 

Hope you like this tune! Imperial Triumphant is a super cool band and I really want to keep exploring their music!