siLLy puPPy Coming from the city of Temryuk, Russia which sits just across from the southern Ukrainian enclave of Crimea, the band Империя ( Imperya ) which means “Empire” is one of those bands that formed all the way back in 1995 but never had the chance to release any product until recently. Apparently the brainchild of the duo of Roman Aguryanov (guitar) and Alexander Aguryanov (vocals), the band offers little info about its history but has had many lineup changes over its 25 years of existence.

While remaining an independent band, Империя ( Imperya ) has finally released its so far only album in 2019 titled Наёмники ( Nah-YOHM - kee ) which translates into “Mercenaries” which are of course soldiers of fortune who fight for a cause and often resort to violence. This band is obviously not interested in a greater international audience since all song titles and lyrics are in the Russian language but in the modern world where foreign languages add an exotic flair, i suspect that many non-Russian speakers will still be interested.

What we have here is Russia’s answer to Amon Amarth as Империя ( Imperya ) delivers a convincing and competent version of melodic death metal with local folk flavors fortified with catchy melodic hooks and death metal bombast complete with the growly vocals however Империя ( Imperya ) is certainly no one-trick pony and does a great job at implementing various tempos and dynamics to keep this short album of just under 31 minutes from becoming too derivative or in any way stale.

While the main melo-death flavors may remind of Amon Amarth, the band is talented enough to offer various personal stamps such as the call and respond differing vocal styles on “Безымянный” and the ferocity displayed on “Славим” showcases the band’s tight knit all out assault with the twin guitar attacks of Kiril Kucherenko and Roman Aguryanov whizzing around the bombastic rhythm section of bassist Petr Lemeshtenko and drummer Eldar Mekhtiev.

While i would hardly declare Империя ( Imperya ) a band to get hugely excited about at least in the terms of creativity, for those who love the melo-death sounds of bands like Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Insomnium and of course Amon Amarth, Империя ( Imperya ) does deliver a high quality album that is in the same league as its predecessors probably due to the fact that the core members have been at it since as far back as 1995 when this style of melo-death was coming of age.