Impellitteri - Crunch
Dream Catcher Records - 2001
By Rodrigo
/images/covers/impellitteri.jpg
For those of you who have not heard of this band: SHAME ON YOU!! This band has been around since the late 1980's and to date they have released 6 albums and 3 EP's. Impellitteri is the band fronted by the exceptional guitar player Chris Impellitteri. He has drawn comparisons to other great guitar players, mainly Yngwie Malmsteen. But that is where the comparisons end because while Yngwie is heavily influenced on classical music, Chris plays a more aggressive, crunchier and distorted guitar. Rob Rock (who has since left the band to pursue a solo career) handles the vocal duties and he has one of the best voices in metal today. This guy can flat out sing. The remaining members of the band are James Amelio Pulli who handles the bass; Glen Sobel who plays drums and Edward Harris Roth is the Keyboard player.
Crunch is the band's best album by far. They have adopted a more "in your face" style of music than in previous albums. By this I mean it is more raw, distorted, heavy and just like the title of the album says, it is crunchier but they still manage to keep the melody of their previous works. Rob Rock has always handled the majority of the lyrics and he changed his writing style for this album. In previous albums the songs were mainly about religious themes, but for Crunch there is more variation. Some of the songs are about Y2K, driving a fast car and an apocalyptic view of the Earth in the not too distant future. The album contains 10 songs, 2 instrumentals, 1 ballad and the remaining 7 are true heavy metal songs. "Texas Nuclear Boogie" is one of the instrumentals and it is a blues based rocker but the other instrumental "Spanish Fire" is even better. It is extremely fast, Chris belts out some amazing leads, riffs and solos and the remaining players easily handle the duty of keeping up. My favorite track of the album is "Wake Me Up". The intro of the song is excellent; its starts slow with a keyboard melody line and a distorted chord progression in the background. It then kicks into high gear and it features probably the best lead of the album (it starts at about the 54-second mark of the song and it is repeated after the chorus).
Other standouts of this album include the first song "Beware of the Devil", which is fast and heavy and sets the tone for the rest of the album. "Turn of the Century", has a chorus that easily stays in your head.
This album was previously only available as an import from Japan but it has since been released by Dream Catcher Records in Europe. This release also includes another standout Impellitteri album Screaming Symphony, 2cd's for the price of one! So do yourself a favor and buy this album! You do not have the excuse of saying that imports are too expensive. Get the 2cd version for $20 and enjoy!!
Dream Catcher Records - 2001
By Rodrigo
/images/covers/impellitteri.jpg
For those of you who have not heard of this band: SHAME ON YOU!! This band has been around since the late 1980's and to date they have released 6 albums and 3 EP's. Impellitteri is the band fronted by the exceptional guitar player Chris Impellitteri. He has drawn comparisons to other great guitar players, mainly Yngwie Malmsteen. But that is where the comparisons end because while Yngwie is heavily influenced on classical music, Chris plays a more aggressive, crunchier and distorted guitar. Rob Rock (who has since left the band to pursue a solo career) handles the vocal duties and he has one of the best voices in metal today. This guy can flat out sing. The remaining members of the band are James Amelio Pulli who handles the bass; Glen Sobel who plays drums and Edward Harris Roth is the Keyboard player.
Crunch is the band's best album by far. They have adopted a more "in your face" style of music than in previous albums. By this I mean it is more raw, distorted, heavy and just like the title of the album says, it is crunchier but they still manage to keep the melody of their previous works. Rob Rock has always handled the majority of the lyrics and he changed his writing style for this album. In previous albums the songs were mainly about religious themes, but for Crunch there is more variation. Some of the songs are about Y2K, driving a fast car and an apocalyptic view of the Earth in the not too distant future. The album contains 10 songs, 2 instrumentals, 1 ballad and the remaining 7 are true heavy metal songs. "Texas Nuclear Boogie" is one of the instrumentals and it is a blues based rocker but the other instrumental "Spanish Fire" is even better. It is extremely fast, Chris belts out some amazing leads, riffs and solos and the remaining players easily handle the duty of keeping up. My favorite track of the album is "Wake Me Up". The intro of the song is excellent; its starts slow with a keyboard melody line and a distorted chord progression in the background. It then kicks into high gear and it features probably the best lead of the album (it starts at about the 54-second mark of the song and it is repeated after the chorus).
Other standouts of this album include the first song "Beware of the Devil", which is fast and heavy and sets the tone for the rest of the album. "Turn of the Century", has a chorus that easily stays in your head.
This album was previously only available as an import from Japan but it has since been released by Dream Catcher Records in Europe. This release also includes another standout Impellitteri album Screaming Symphony, 2cd's for the price of one! So do yourself a favor and buy this album! You do not have the excuse of saying that imports are too expensive. Get the 2cd version for $20 and enjoy!!
