Produced by veteran German metal producer Waldemar Sorychta who flew to NZ earlier in the year to record the album at The Stomach in Palmerston North, ‘Existential Threat’ is a no compromise third album from Manawatu death band Imperial Slave.

With no clean singing, no ballad, and seemingly no mainstream appeal at all the album has gone into every Kiwi chart it can, including the NZ Top 40 Album charts, in October 2026. Soldier Slaves is the first music video from the album, directed by prominent NZ metal video director Amber Beaton.