This is a reissue of Impellitteri’s fifth Answer To The Master by those lovely people at Night Of The Vinyl Dead. The sound had changed slightly by this time, with a much heavier groove to the tunes. We all know how impressive Chris is on guitar, but equally important to the sound is Rob Rock’s vocals, which are perfect for the music.
The Future Is Black opens up the album and it’s monster riffage all the way. It has great guitars that sound so fat and huge, it’s favourite track time already. Fly Away would make any melodic rock band proud. A very commercial sounding song with a big hook and chorus, and an added bonus of James Christian on bv’s. A NWOBHM-style riff opens up Warrior, with just a hint of All Night Long by Rainbow. I’ll Wait closes out Side 1 with a soft intro involving an acoustic guitar and Rob’s vocal. Yup, it’s power ballad time, but at least the acoustic solo is cool.
Hold The Line kicks off Side 2 and it’s the melody and hook that drives this one. It has quite a simple riff, but the instrumental section is super cool. I wonder how long it took them to find the right tempo and groove to fit the lyrics to Something Wrong With The World Today, as it’s a very wordy song and the riff is choppy. The title track is up next and it’s another variation on THAT riff with double kicks all the way. The soloing is off the charts on this one. It’s speed metal time with Hungry Days. I love the harmony guitar and the solo is killer! Last track is The King Is Rising, and we go out as we came in with maximum riffing and big vocal melodies.
9/10 from The Grooveman.
