We played better and faster but when Moloch left the band his brother Carol took his place in January of 1989. We progressed in arrangement and we now play more technical but at the same time heavy, fast, and brutal. Extremest deathcore rules!!!
Bariel / Imperator interview, Deathvomit #2, 1990
IMPERATOR recorded their first and only album at C.C.S. Studio, Warsaw, during December 1990 and January 1991. A month later the material was mixed with Staszek Bokowy and The Time Before Time was completed on this day in 1991.
IMPERATOR were in close contact with Dead and Euronymous (MAYHEM). The Time Before Time was originally intended for release through Euronymous' Deathlike Silence Productions as Anti-Mosh 002 (which would instead be BURZUM's eponymous album, released in 1992).
[De Mysteriis dom Sathanas is] planned to contain 8 tracks and to be released on D.S.P. as Anti Mosh 003. When the 2nd edition of the MERCILESS LP has sold out and paid, the next band will go into studio. (IMPERATOR form POLAND). When their 1st edition has paid we'll go into a studio and record our LP.
Dead / Mayhem interview, Slayer #10, 1994
In the end IMPERATOR released the album through short-lived Polish label Nameless.
...extremely nice guys [Deathlike Silence], but it looked like they haven't been able to arrange the money we needed to enter the studio, pay other costs according to the session. Besides it has taken so much time..., that waiting. Here greetings to Euronymous and Dead (there...).
I think it's good that the album is finally out! In our sitation it wasn't so important if it was a small label or a big one. We wanted to put something finally out and didn't really care for the name of the label. State of affairs made us doing that and I think it's Ok, no remorse or shit... nothing is lost 'least!
Bariel / Imperator interview, Holocaust #5, 1991
It's a bit frustrating, but it is also a result of trying to be "underground" which is a suicide policy. Anyway, the main thing is that these evil records get released at all, and not who's releasing them.
Euronymous / Mayhem interview
IMPERATOR have recently been playing live and The Time Before Time is scheduled for a new reissue in summer 2019.