Led by band founder and guitar wizard Chris Impellitteri, the band known as Impellitteri recently released its genre defying, incendiary new metal masterpiece, The Nature of the Beast, on Frontiers Music worldwide.
It is a tour de force of heavy metal musicality, that brings the best of the old school metal vibe, into the 21st century, accompanied by some of the most fantastical and imaginative playing and songwriting in the genre.
Much like Van Halen, Impellitteri is the last name of the guitarist and primary songwriter, but it is still structured like a band. Alongside Chris Impellitteri from the very beginning has been friend, collaborator and vocalist Rob Rock, who co-founded the band in 1987, reunited with Impellitteri in 1992, left for a couple of years earlier this decade, but returned in 2008 and has been at his side ever since. He is the yin to Impellitteri’s yang and a key part of the band’s unique sound.
“I never, ever viewed this band as a solo project. That’s a big misnomer we get. I get thrown in with the Yngwie Malmsteens of the world and all these other people, but that’s not right. It’s nothing I ever aspired to. I grew up listening to Van Halen, they were one of my big loves. So, for me, it was like Van Halen, where there were four guys contributing and no one guy is more important than the other. Without Rob, this band would not be the same. People need to understand I am Chris Impellitteri the guitar player, who is simply one member of the band Impellitteri. I am no more important than Rob Rock or James Pulli or our drummer. Sure, the media are going to pick up on certain guys in the band and I understand that it’s my name, so normally people will gravitate to that. But without Rob Rock, I couldn’t imagine these records sounding the way they do,” he said.
“James Pulli has been in this band since 1992 and is an instrumental part of this band. He is an amazing bass player. He can be really technical, but he can also be very solid, and he gets great tones live and in the studio. He also sings all the background stuff. He is just an extremely talented, critical part of this band. He is another guy who, had he not been there, I don’t think we would have the same sound. John Dette played drums on this record and now he is in the band. He worked with us on the Venom record [2015] as well. He is an amazingly talented drummer and also played in bands like Slayer. He hits hard, has amazing timing and there is something special about his playing that adds something to the music. It’s not just there to support it and add to the foundation, but his playing lifts it and just makes it better. So, we are extremely grateful for what he has done to add to our music, especially on The Nature of the Beast.”
After independently releasing a self-titled EP in 1987, also known as The Black Album (three years before Metallica’s) Impellitteri has released 11 studio albums, including the brand new record, The Nature of the Beast. For two of the albums, Stand in Line in 1988, and System X in 2002, former Rainbow, Alcatrazz and MSG vocalist Graham Bonnet performed the vocal chores. Curtis Skelton did the vocal chores on the 2004 album, Pedal to the Metal, with Rock singing on all other releases.
Although not a huge commercial success in North America, Impellitteri has a legendary status in the Far East, particularly in Japan, where they are revered to this day, and where the most significant part of the record sales come from. The band’s signature sound is a potent blend of thrashing metal, but done with deftness, elegance and virtuosity. There is a significant emphasis on superior musicianship, but also in creating memorable melodies that act as a wonderful counterpoint to the shredding guitars and insistent double-kick drumming and bombastic bottom end.
The Nature of the Beast, and Impellitteri’s music in general, is rife with nods to the various influences that shaped Chris Impellitteri the young musician’s approach to his art and his career, including classical composers – particularly Vivaldi. At times the nods are subtle, although, interestingly the title is not, as it is an obvious reference to one of his favourite bands – Iron Maiden.
“We have always been labelled as kind of original because we don’t sound like the bands that came out of L.A., the hair bands of the 1980s, but we’re also not like the thrash guys that came from the Bay Area either. To be honest, when we were first started, Rob and I were playing in bar bands before we did our first record and we were doing covers of Judas Priest and Maiden and from that you kind of learn your skill set and your composing style. It was very European, and U.K. driven, and that influenced us a lot. But then we took it to another area. We started doing things that were more advanced, technically speaking and also faster. Maybe it was our age at the time, but we always wanted to do everything with maximum energy,” Impellitteri said, adding that for the new album, he wanted to hearken back to those formative days and the music that so profoundly impact he and his bandmates.
“When I was writing the record, I think one of the first songs we wrote was Run for Your Lives, which we just did a video for. And something intrigued me about that. When it was finished, I basically said, ‘this reminds me of classic Priest or classic Maiden.’ And I really started to miss that. When I was a little kid going into high school in the early 1980s, bands like that ruled the world, at least in the metal community.
“And I missed those kinds of songs, that kind of sound. And I always wondered when that would sound like if a band did it today. So, many years later, with a really good production, badass playing and al of that here we are. Musically, that was what I was trying to recapture with the songs on this album. And there are a lot of times where you can hear a lot of musical references to our past. And as for the title, Nature of the Beast, we almost didn’t use that because of the Iron Maiden album Number of the Beast. But we stuck with that title because in some ways the music on this album recaptures the spirit of those days. I love to listen to the early Maiden records and the early Ozzy records with Randy Rhoads; I loved the cover art and the energy in those records, and everything about them. So, really we were trying to recapture that spirit.”
With musical compositions that are as infused with technical virtuosity but also with memorable melodies, writing songs for Impellitteri is no swift, by-the-seat-of-your-pants process. Indeed, it is intricate, comprehensive and deliberate – taking the initial spark of inspiration and building upon it until a completed musical structure takes shape.
“The truth is it probably took about two years from conception to completion for this record. We do take time to vet the material, mainly because we want to sit back and get some clarity so when we return to it, we have a fresh perspective – to see if what we’re doing is any good. For most creative people, especially if you’re a musician, you know that when you start writing songs, it becomes somewhat obsessive. Obviously, what happens is you are living with this day in and day out, and eventually you hear the song so much that you begin to convince yourself that it is really good. It’s only when you get away from it for a while and you work on other music, come back to it and readdress the demos a few weeks or months later when you get that clarity,” Impellitteri said.
“So, we take this approach for a reason, and it’s been part of our secret. We really try to spend time making sure what we’re going to lay down as a foundation is solid. And it always starts with a riff for us. The way I write, I play guitar all day long. I am always doing something and a lot of times I just stumble onto a riff by accident. When that happens, I run into the studio and record it. I will then take a day or so and go back and listen to see if it was any good. If it is, it starts to become this animal we’re going to begin to develop as a band. But all of this stuff doesn’t happen over night.
“At this point I bring it in and we do it with the rest of the band. We will go into a space and rehearse the stuff. James, Rob and I have been doing this for so long together that we know immediately if it’s clicking; if we’re smiling and each of us is really getting into something, we’re pretty certain we’re on the right path. We’re pretty certain we know our fans are going to probably appreciate what it is that we’re creating. And I just think that comes from tenure, because we have been doing this for so long.”
Like many musicians within the rock, hard rock and metal fields, Impellitteri said he still believes it is important to create a full album, such as The Nature of the Beast, as a work of art, and as something tangible and tactile, even though many within the industry are saying the concept of the album is dead. Yes, sales are nowhere near what they used to be, but in his mind, sales shouldn’t be the primary focus anyways.
“First and foremost, I am an artist. This isn’t about money for me any more. We have already made more money in places like Japan than I will ever need. I known that sounds shocking to most people, but most people in North America are like ‘who are you?’ But the reality is that in some countries we have achieved a lot of fame and fortune and all that fun stuff. The reality is we do this because we love doing this; we love creating. Every record is like we’re starting with a blank canvas and we get to create this art, we get to express ourselves and that’s extremely rewarding,” said
There are a couple of very memorable cover songs on Nature of the Beast. The first is an incendiary and intense version of the Black Sabbath classic Symptom of the Universe, from that band’s very underrated Sabotage album, released in 1975.
“I have always loved the riff in that song. Tony Iommi is one of my favourite guitar players; he is just a riff master. There are just very few people on this earth that are able to achieve what he has done in terms of compositions or creating these iconic riffs that are very memorable and instantly identifiable. Symptom is one of those songs that we used to always play around with and jam at rehearsals,” said Impellitteri.
“And it came in handy when we were getting tones for the record. Playing the intro to that riff, it’s really based on a diminished scale and it’s very dark and evil sounding. When you’re really trying to get tones for the guitar sound on a record, it’s a great thing to play. Basically, it was something that we had always fooled around with and one day I was playing around with it and all if a sudden we started playing it together and I started playing this other stuff over it, really crazy kind of classical soloing. And before I knew it, we started laughing at each other, which meant we were on to something pretty cool, so we knew we had to keep this going, we had to take it further.
“To be honest though, it wasn’t until the vocals got laid down that we said, oh yeah this is going on the record. For us it’s amazing. We’re really thrilled at what we were able to pull off because it kind of re-energizes the song without losing the original vibe.”
A second cover is a breathtakingly evocative and powerhouse version of the classic theme song from the Broadway hit Phantom of the Opera.
“Growing up as a little kid in the United States, it’s something we have known about and has been a big Broadway musical for years. It’s become part of pop culture. It’s very well known, and I always loved it. It’s another one of those things where you fool around with it and wondered what it would be like as a hardcore metal song, with crazy shredding soloing and having a singer that can sing like Pavarotti – a powerful tenor,” Impellitteri explained.
“It was always in my mind to do it, literally from the time I was a teenager. However, we almost didn’t do it because there are other bands that have done it. Nightwish did an amazing job with Tarja Turunen singing. So, I almost didn’t do it, but when I listen to their version it’s different, much simpler, almost like an AC/DC kind of vibe. We wanted to take it to the extreme with thrash metal drumming and crazy guitar solos. We were originally going to use a female singer to do both parts but then it was like, hey let’s push Rob. Let’s see if we can get Rob to do this, to go from a tenor to a soprano. And believe me, as a singer that is brutal to try and pull off. Plus, what people don’t realize is we are playing it much faster than the original. So, to sing those scales off the tempo we’re playing is crazy. But I think he killed it.”
Impellitteri said the band would love to play more dates in North America, but because of the nature of the production for their live shows, its hard to find promoters who can book large enough venues – not something the band has a problem with in markets like Japan and Europe where they play sold out shows in big halls.
“We have wanted to tour the world for years – a full blown tour. We always will go do Japan and then do dates in Europe and people over here will be wondering why they can’t ever see us. I will be blatantly honest, I know we have lots of fans in Canada and the U.S. and we want to play there, but we’re not going to play clubs. We have evolved to where we have a certain sized production because we are used to playing bigger venues,” he said.
“We do know there is a demand, but we don’t know how to prove that to promoters. But we are still working on it. In the meantime, we are planning our tours for the fall and the summer festivals next year and looking forward to getting feedback from our fans everywhere on the new record.”
For more information, visit https://www.impellitteri.net.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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