Impellitteri – The Nature of the Beast

6/10

Back in the 80’s, Chris Impellitteri was one of the greatest shredding guitar players around, and his band had a great start with powerful songs, great performances and legendary Graham Bonnett on vocals. But when you hear the new Impellitteri album today, it’s not that much different from the old days. Chris still shreds greatly without losing track of the melodies, there are great balls in both drums and bass, and Rob Rocks vocals are superb. Overall, The Nature of the Beast is a good album. Not one of the greatest albums of its kind, but still really quite enjoyable. In these days when shredding guitars is more associated with recent Yngwie Malmsteen-albums and teenagers guitar players who seem to be having more contests in how fast you can play than in song writing, it’s nice to see an old legend drop in and show everyone how it’s done.

I find it quite odd that they include two covers on the album, but on the other hand, they both work. Phantom of the Opera has been done many times by other metal bands, but it’s still quite cool to hear Impellitteri do it. The Black Sabbath masterpiece Symptom of the Universe is a little bit more odd, but the way the sneak in the Heaven or Hell-riff is reason enough to hear it! In the end, the covers work just as well as the original songs, so why complain? Let’s not forget that guitar legends of the past such as Frank Marino did a great deal of covers on their releases, so let’s call this another nice throwback to the old days of guitar legends, something which “The Nature of the Beast” already consists so greatly of. Thank you, for that Chris, and thank you all in Impellitteri!

Band: Impellitteri
Title: The Nature of the Beast
Label: Frontiers
Date of release: 12/10-18
Time: 49,53
Rate: 6/10
Stand out track: Phantom of the Opera