From the solemn atmospheres of Leukotomy to the unrelenting aggression of Imperatus, the story of this Hanoi-based extreme metal outfit is one of transformation, defiance, and evolution. Spearheaded by founding member and primary songwriter Tan Dat “Nattsvärd” Nguyen, Imperatus blends black, death, and thrash metal into a punishing yet precise force—self-recorded, self-produced, and deeply uncompromising. With two full-length albums in just two years, the band is emerging as one of Vietnam’s most promising extreme acts. In this interview, we trace their journey, dissect their sound, and explore the heart of their message: resistance against conformity—musical, cultural, and personal.
From Leukotomy to Imperatus
Ethos:
Imperatus rose from the ashes of Leukotomy. Can you walk us through how that transition happened? What led to the split, and what made you continue under a new name?
Imperatus:
I co-founded Leukotomy in 2020 with an old friend during the uncertain and emotionally charged early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. In many ways, the project was a product of that time – an attempt to capture the strange, haunting atmosphere that surrounded us. That vision took form in ‘Eternal Path to Eden’, a 9-track concept album released in 2023 through a local label.
Following the release, the band underwent several lineup changes and eventually, due to creative differences, we decided to part ways. By the end of 2023, I had already completed a new studio album, but it almost had nothing in common with “the Leukotomy sound”. Together with the remaining members of Leukotomy – Minh Tuan “Magane” Phuong và Anh Kiet “Vaden” Quach Vu – we made the decision to move forward under a new name.
And so, Imperatus was born, with our debut release “At the Mercy of the Wind“.
E:
How did your time in Leukotomy shape the sound and identity of Imperatus? Were there any lessons or realizations that carried over?
I:
To be honest, musically, Imperatus bears little – if any – influence from Leukotomy. After completing what truly felt like an “Eternal Path to Eden” – writing, recording, producing, and releasing that album – I felt the need to pursue something entirely different. Where Leukotomy leaned into mid-tempo, lengthy compositions with minimal technicality and a strong emphasis on atmosphere and experimentation, Imperatus thrives on speed, intensity, and precision. It’s fast-paced, aggressive, and unapologetically brutal.
With that being said, Leukotomy was no doubt a crucial learning ground. The time working on the project taught me invaluable lessons about performing and producing music. Back then, I was new to the game and inexperienced, but over the years, I’ve carried forward those lessons, especially in recording, mixing, and mastering. I’ve also spent that time sharpening my skills as a guitarist, vocalist, and overall trying my best to be a better musician.
E:
How would you describe the current sound of Imperatus? What bands or genres have had the biggest impact on crafting your sonic direction?
I:
Our music is best described as a fusion of Death Metal, Black Metal, and Thrash Metal, with each of us bringing a strong influence from one or more of these subgenres.
Satoshi (Ullr) has a deep-rooted passion for Melodic Death Metal and Swedish Death Metal, and he also leads his own successful Hanoi-based project, Rêvasseur. Phong (Finn) lives and breathes Black Metal – that’s his domain. He’s performed session work for several Vietnamese Black Metal acts, including Vong, Atula, and most notably, Dodssanger. And then.. there’s Tuấn (Magane), a die-hard Thrash Metal enthusiast. He’s the kind of guy who can rattle off obscure yet insanely good thrash bands you’ve probably never heard of, and then list every Taylor Swift album in chronological order the next day. Okay…. maybe not the T-Swift part… but he’s full of surprises haha!!
I’ve grown close to each of them through our shared love for these styles – music that has also shaped me in profound ways. Given the nature of Imperatus – a relentless blend of fast-paced, blasting Black Metal (or dare I say – Norsecore), fused with chainsaw Swedish Death Metal, groovy Thrash Metal breaks, and a touch of neoclassical soloing – our sound works because of how naturally we work together. The chemistry is real, and it shows in the music.
E:
Blackened death metal can be both chaotic and precise—how do you balance technicality with atmosphere in your songwriting?
I:
As mentioned above, we bear influences from many metal subgenres, so the labeling of our music has been a weird dilemma for us. When Imperatus first started, we labeled ourselves as a Black Metal band, but “elitists” do not appreciate what we did, while some from the Death Metal community treated us as their own. Both a curse and a blessing, we thrive on the opportunity to walk on that border of the said subgenres, because speaking up against the “forced standards” has always been our vocal point.
With that being said, we had no intentions or efforts to force that balance. We write what we like, throwing in the mix with the ingredients that we love. Imperatus thrives on chaos, yet is precise with our in-studio performances.
The Power of Self-Production
E:
You self-record and self-produce your work. How has that impacted your creative freedom? Do you find it liberating, or are there challenges that limit experimentation?
I:
It impacted deeply as a matter of fact. Having total control over the recording and producing aspect of our work gave me the opportunity to control the final product. There was no limit for experimentation, actually, it provided more space there to experiment. Ideas that can shape or completely change the final result can come during the recording process or when I am doing the production duties. From the top of my head, “Accursed Warfare” on our debut album is a good example. There is that break in the middle of the track, where guitar layers just kept coming in for every progression along the rising drum fills until all just stopped, leaving nothing but silence and faint feedback noises. That idea came during mixing, and it made the track special.
E:
Is there one core songwriter in the band, or is the process more collaborative? How does a typical Imperatus track come to life?
I:
Well, I am the main writer of Imperatus. Before, I wrote everything from the music to the lyrics. But that changed a lot when Imperatus became a 4-piece band. With Duy Phong “Finn” Do joining in as our drummer, and Satoshi “Ullr” Fukuda on guitar, we saw a shift in the writing process for Imperatus, resulting in our second full-length album, “The Dusk of Hopeless Dreams”. Some tracks I wrote entirely and the guys joined in with their respective parts, some tracks were from completed demos that Finn wrote (“Echoes of My Soul” and “Wrath of the Late Huntsman”), while track like “Beneath the Moon’s Pale Veil” were based on Magane’s materials,…
Personally, this is the first time that I have had this sense of complete collaboration between members, where we work together effortlessly, bearing the same ideas and work rate. And with that, sharing writing credit across all tracks.
E:
What’s your writing environment like—chaotic jam sessions, meticulous demos, or a mix of both?
I:
The first album was me recording materials from several jam sessions, saving up a “library” of riffs and trying my best to fit them into separate tracks. With that, I was constrained to writing from the basis of my guitar works. That changed during the making of “The Dusk of Hopeless Dreams.” We took the challenge of writing everything from music sheets and Guitar Pro tabs without having our instruments. It was just us, sitting at work, neglecting tasks, writing songs on GP and sending them to each other, fun as hell haha.
E:
What kind of topics do you explore in your lyrics? Are there recurring themes or concepts that define your albums?
I:
The name “Imperatus” perfectly reflects the themes the band aims to explore.. It is the past participle of the Latin verb “imperare”, which means “to command.” By choosing this verb form, the band intended to use it in the passive voice, one that suggests that we are “commanded” to deliver our music to the audience. Building on that idea, the themes we write about are our replies to all the things we are often forced into – the things we are “commanded” to do, whether we like it or not.
For instance, our debut “At the Mercy of the Wind” revolves around wars. Though there were no historical events or any political/religious views directly quoted, the negativity from them was used to portray the mentioned fictional war. With “Embrace the Darkness, Slay the Divine” as our motto, our slogan, where the “mortals” are the ones without power, discriminated against, under no fault of their own, and the “divine” are the ones in power, the oppressors, whose divinity is self-proclaimed.
On the other hand, our latest release “The Dusk of Hopeless Dreams” takes the broader approach, raising war against hypocrisy. We target several topics that have become “the norm”, a standard that we were forced to accept. With that being said, with Imperatus music, you are “commanded” to fight back against those constraints.
E:
Where do you draw lyrical inspiration from—personal experience, history, mythology, current events?
I:
In terms of lyrics for the album, I drew inspiration from the things I read about. Somehow, this fact was surprising to some people when the topic was mentioned, but I read a lot haha.
I can “name-drop” in detail which book inspired which tracks in our discography, but that is quite time-consuming. So let me just use this opportunity to recommend a few books, authors, or poets. “Nỗi buồn chiến tranh” (The sorrow of war) by Bảo Ninh, or classics like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “The Things They Carried,” “All the Light We Cannot See,” “Johnny Got His Gun,” “The Malazan Book of the Fallen,” a novel series, were also very influential. All of the mentioned have inspired “what” I write, but “how” I write most entirely came from poetry. And with that said, Vietnamese poets like Hàn Mặc Tử, Xuân Diệu, or Nguyễn Bính taught me a lot on how to put my emotions or beliefs into words.
Crafting the Aesthetic
E:
Your visuals are striking. How do you come up with the concepts for your artwork and branding?
I:
Thank you for the kind words! We had the utmost pleasure to work with talented artists who transformed my ideas into our album covers – Blasart, who did the cover for “At the Mercy of the Wind”, and a good friend, Sam Tang, who visualized the cover for “The Dusk of Hopeless Dreams”. They were very supportive and, not gonna lie, patient while we collaborated, taking in my commissions thoroughly and not just following all of my requests, which may be unreasonable or “weird” at points, but also had their own suggestions and ideas to encapsulate our albums into art.
I myself had minor roles in the making of our artworks and layouts as well. I did the colorizing for the covers, which is not the easiest progress considering that I have deuteranopia, but the fact that I worked solely on my PC helped a lot with the use of color codes and digital tools. Tuan (Magane) was helpful as well. As an architect in day-to-day life, he provided many suggestions on arrangements and, of course, the colorizing progress. However, personally, my proudest piece is the Imperatus logo, which took me days editing pixel by pixel.
E:
Does AI play any role in your design process, or do you prefer to keep things entirely human-made?
I:
I cannot say that we never used AI in our designs, but the use was minimal. As some already know, the footage I used in the background of “Altars of Despair” lyrics video was made by AI. This was due to the fact that I had no intention of using real footage from actual wars that happened, going against my idea of our album. Still took me days for the editing and not to mention the rendering (if you use Vegas Pro, you’d know haha). Now, come to think of it, that was probably the only use of AI of mine haha.
To me, in any form of art, AI should only be used as an aiding tool, helping out with small tasks, not taking over work completely. Audiences are purchasing your art for your efforts, not a soulless use of computer-generated product.
A Scene Divided, A Scene Growing
E:
How do you see the Vietnamese underground scene today, especially from a metal perspective?
I:
From a listener’s perspective, I believe the Vietnamese underground metal scene is truly blooming. More and more artists are emerging, releasing original music and offering local fans homegrown versions of the sound they love. We’re also seeing a growing listener base, especially among younger audiences, who don’t just enjoy the genre but embrace it as a lifestyle.
As a musician in the scene, this underground metal resurgence fuels our passion to keep creating, performing, and organizing shows.
That said, there are still downsides. With the relentless pace of technology and social media, online debates – and even hostilities – can easily arise between those with differing views, and come to life. Toxicity isn’t exclusive to the metal community, but it exists, and it shouldn’t. People can have different tastes, listen to what you want and hold the comments to yourself.
E:
Do you feel like the scene is collaborative or more fragmented? Are there enough platforms and support systems for bands like yours to thrive?
I:
I feel like the scene is both collaborative and divided. On one hand, artists are working together more than ever, and many of us have formed real friendships – not just through a shared love of the genre, but through genuine connections in real life and Imperatus is a great example of that.
We came together through a mutual passion for specific styles of music. Each of us had our own projects before joining the band, and we came from different places – Satoshi, for instance, came all the way from Japan. But through that shared passion, we formed strong bonds and united as one – Imperatus.
On the other hand, divisions still exist within our local metal scene. Some are deep-rooted, dating back decades and tied to political differences, like the lingering North-South divide. Others stem from people who politicize music to serve their own vested interests, sometimes to the point of hostility and even sabotage. And then there are those who talk a big game, self-appointed themselves with the mission to innovate, but don’t back it up – hypocrites, essentially. I won’t name names, but unfortunately, this is still a reality.
Vietnam’s underground music scene holds great potential. It’s just a shame that hate and division still linger. We all need to do better!
E:
What would you say is needed for this scene to grow and become more sustainable?
I:
Taking everything I’ve said into account, we need less hostility and more love and collaboration. On the international stage, more people are paying attention to our aspiring movement, and more artists are showing interest in coming to our homeland to perform..
Seize the opportunity – and do better..
Looking Ahead: What’s Next for Imperatus
E:
What are Imperatus’ short-term and long-term plans—more releases, live shows, maybe international collabs?
I:
As of this interview, our second album, “The Dusk of Hopeless Dreams,” has just been out for less than a month. Right now, our main focus is on supporting and promoting the release. All I can say is that we’re open to opportunities – if you’d like to see us live, just reach out. We’re only a message away.
Touring is still a dream for us at this stage. We’ve missed several chances in the past for various reasons, so making it happen this year would mean a lot.
As for future releases and collaborations, there’s not much I can reveal yet. After releasing two full-length albums in two years, we would love to have a moment to breathe. That being said, we’re not closing the door on anything.
E:
What advice would you give to younger Vietnamese bands just starting out, especially those trying to do heavier music in a smaller scene?
I:
We would like to use this opportunity to have a few parting words.
To our dear listeners:
All we hope for is your continued support. Most of us are working hard, saving up, and pouring everything we have into creating and releasing music for you. If you believe in what we do, show it – buying our merch goes a long way. It’s one of the few ways we can sustain ourselves in this economy.
To the young ones joining the movement:
Keep your expectations in check. This path isn’t easy, especially in a place where metal is still growing. But if you stay grounded and push through the struggles, you’ll come out stronger. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
And.. to the hypocrites:
Grow the fuck up.
Imperatus is a testament to the power of self-determination in art. Carving their own path through Vietnam’s blooming yet complex underground metal scene, they fuse technical skill with thematic purpose, crafting music that commands attention and refuses compromise. As they continue to evolve and expand their reach, one thing remains clear: Imperatus is here not to follow, but to lead. And they’re just getting started.
