Album Review: Impellitteri - The Nature Of The Beast

There always have been, and always will be, plenty of bands that have worlds of talent, who can't seem to make a great record, no matter how hard they try. Impellitteri has been trying their best for decades, and they still haven't mastered the craft. The band's namesake is a highly talented shredder, and Rob Rock has one of the more commanding voices in melodic metal, and yet every time I have ever listened to this group, I came away wondering how they had spent so much time honing their instruments, and not nearly enough honing their songs. Being a great musician is not the same thing as being a great songwriter. Keep that in mind.

"Masquerade" is a great example of what I'm talking about. The main riffs of the song are a blur of notes, which are impressive for anyone who knows what it takes to play that fast and in time. I won't deny his skill, but what is it in service of? When the chorus comes in, Rob Rock chants the word 'masquerade' repeatedly, and without much melodic development. It is supposed to be a chant, but it doesn't give us any reason to want to join in. I've said before, that style of writing worked in the 80s, because that was the only option for mainstream-ish sounding heavy music. Now that we have countless bands taking different and more melodic routes, the old way sounds dated and tired, which it always was.

The other issue is that with the band's love of playing fast, the songs blend together even more than they otherwise might. The thing about a melody is that it needs time to breathe, and the band doesn't give any of their good ideas the space to sink in. By the time you hear it, and get into the groove of it, they have already moved on to the next bit. We can only proccess information so quickly, and the band blazes through the songs faster than I can absorb what they want me to.

We also get two covers on the album, which baffles me. They run through the theme from "Phantom Of The Opera", which gives Chris Impellitteri ample time to shred to his heart's content. Why they didn't simply write a couple of riffs for him to solo over for a more conventional instrumental is beyond me. Hearing it, all I'm thinking is that I would rather be listening to that soundtrack, because the trademark organ theme is more striking than anything Impellitteri is offering us.

"The Nature Of The Beast" is meat-and-potatoes speed metal, but I don't find speed metal to be interesting at all. Playing fast is a skill, but it's only useful if the songs call for it to be used. These songs don't make much of a case for it. In fact, I would dare say slowing the tempos 5-10bpm would make these songs sound heavier, and could even make the melodies stickier.

So look, if you like speed metal, or just need to get your adrenaline flowing, this might be an album for you. It pounds away without letting up, so it does that job. However, that's not what I want to hear from my metal, so I can't say it did much for me. The guys are talented, but yet again they fail to deliver songs that make me pay attention to anything but their speed. When you even manage to make a Black Sabbath song sound wrong (in this case by playing it way too fast), you're not winning me over. "The Nature Of The Beast" is an album I wouldn't recommend, certainly not when compared to the much better albums Rob Rock made with Roy Z. Now those are what they should be doing.