Tag: impellitteri (Page 2 of 2)

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.

The one thing I do miss about most modern metal is the lack of melodic vocals. Nearly every modern metal band has the the guy growling down a drainpipe style vocal. I get there is a time and place to fit that into a song to accentuate the light and shade of a tune, but unless the music is absolutely killer I switch off and move on.

Melody is high on the agenda with Impellitteri without compromising too much on the metal. Chris is a great guitar player in the Malmsteen mode but with more of a metal edge. Rob Rock is a great vocalist although some of the lyrics I find a bit too much with the bible content. If I want to be preached to I would go to church.

Anyhoo, the songs are all great with amazing playing and huge fat riffs, which is always a plus for me. Venom, the title track, is a perfect example of a killer speed metal track. Fast chugga riff, over the top guitar, and awesome vocals. No song lasts more than 4.30 – in fact – there is only one track over 4 minutes making every track straight to the point and making you want more. My personal favourites are Nightmare and Reach For The Sky, both are killer tracks with monster riffs. The production is fat and in your face and sounds super clear. Impellitteri don’t make bad records and this is no exception.

9/10 from The Grooveman.