Impellitteri

APPRECIATE!!!!!

Listening to 'Crunch' now...amazing record!!!!!! Heavy Melodic Metal!!!!

Sound off, Impellitteri fans!!!

Only Impelliterri album I own is " Stand in Line' with Graham Bonnet on vocals, excellent album.

Love him!

I was expecting to hears some news about this band.

System X was overly-patriotic, but that is my only complaint about the man or his bands. An absolute genius. Wish he would come back from Japan and do some US shows!!!

The only Impellitteri record I own or have heard is Stand In Line.

Some great stuff with all the singers though I like the Rob years best. There is news of a new album with Rob too.

for me Impellitteri is defined as Screaming Symphony. It is hard to find a better album from start to finish...

Alex

from

www.metal-zen.com

BM: How did your gig with Impellitteri happen? You haven’t worked with him since the year 2000. How did a reunited Impellitteri album come together?

RR: Well, me and Chris have remained friends throughout the years. We talk once in a while. He had given me a call and said he was going to do another Impellitteri record and he wanted me to sing on it. I said, “Oh, well what have you got?” He says, “Well, it’s another JVC Victor Japan release.” He doesn’t have the rest of the world yet. But he wanted to go back and do the first line-up, basically, me and him and do this album. I think it’s the last album for his JVC Victor contract. So he wanted to finish the way we started, I guess. I’ve been waiting for a long time to hear from him in that regard. Whenever we’ve talked in the past six or seven years we never talked too much about music. More about family stuff. So this time he brought up the album and I said, “Yeah. It sounds cool. Let me hear your demos and stuff.” He sent me some music and it was really good. So I said, “Yeah, let’s do it.”

BM: Hmmm.

RR: The big difference is, though, when I’d do the albums with Chris, I would fly out to L.A. for a couple weeks. First I would demo the songs at home, and then I would fly out there. And Chris would be the guy recording the vocals, you know, we’d record it in his studio. But this time, I was really busy, I didn’t want to fly out from Florida for a couple weeks out there, and he didn’t even suggest that this time, which really surprised me, because Chris is a very hands-on kind of guy.

BM: [laughs]

RR: He said, “This album, you do your vocals in Florida, do whatever you want to do.”

BM: Really?

RR: Yeah, he says, “I’m still working on my guitars and these songs for like two years now.” So he says, “I got my parts down, and I’ll just trust you to come up with something great. And just demo it for me first, and then we’ll agree, and we’ll move forward with that.” So that’s what he did. I demoed them up at home, and then once we all said, you know, once we agreed that this was going to be the melody, he didn’t even bother with the lyrics, I went in and recorded them locally here. And then I sent my vocals to the mix guy, up in Canada. And so it’s being mixed right now in Canada, while Chris is in California, and I’m down here in Florida, and the mixing guy is just sending us [laughs] copies of mixes.

BM: [laughs]

RR: And saying, “Ok, what do you think?”

BM: How is he sending them, via email or something?

RR: Yeah, you know, like YouSendIt, like downloading it.

BM: Oh yeah, yeah. [laughs]

RR: It just amazes me how much has changed since, you know, when I used to do the Impellitteri records.

BM: Yeah.

RR: You know, we’d just fly out there and spend time together. Now it’s like, I still haven’t seen Chris in a long time. [laughs] I haven’t seen Chris probably in six years. [laughs] And here we are making a record together.

BM: [laughs] That’s wild. Thanks to the magic of the Internet, you can make a record 3000 miles apart. [laughs]

RR: Yeah, it’s amazing.

BM: Well, how does the stuff sound to you, compared to the older stuff you used to work on with him? What made you hear it and say, “Sign me up”?

Answer to the MasterRR: Well, I heard a couple songs that reminded me of, like, the Answer to the Master [1994] album. And the Screaming Symphony [1996] album. And those two albums, for me, were the best stuff we did. So [on the new one Chris] stopped chasing the MTV video sounds.

BM: [laughs]

RR: Like on his last album, he wanted to be modern, he wanted to be on MTV, and he just, I guess he just stopped chasing that and said, “Well, if I’m going to do it with Rob, I guess we’ll do what we always do together.” [laughs] And that’s what I really liked about it, it’s raw and it’s really more, to me, straight metal, Screaming Symphony not trying to cop on some new fad or something. So I really liked it.

BM: Well, when I sent you the e-mail about Chris’ announcement on Blabbermouth [”The goal of this record was to make a historic album that will rival ‘Van Halen 1′, OZZY’s ‘Blizzard of Oz’, PANTERA’s ‘Cowboys from Hell’, YNGWIE’s ‘Rising Force’, METALLICA’s ‘Master of Puppets’, and even new artists like CHILDREN OF BODOM and AVENGED SEVENFOLD.”] I wondered if that confidence is typical of Chris Impellitteri, if he’s that enthusiastic all the time? Or if this new stuff really is that good?

RR: Well, Chris is very enthusiastic about it. [laughs] Put it that way.

BM: [laughs]

RR: But I talked to him, I said, “What are you saying here, man? I don’t understand.” He said, “Well, it didn’t come out the way I meant it” is what he said. He said, “What I meant is this will be, you know, for those bands, like Metallica, say they put out 10 albums, and their, whatever album that you think is the greatest, or Van Halen might think their first album is the best one.” He thinks this album is his Metallica, it’s his Van Halen, it’s like your favorite album from those bands. This is his favorite album for his band. So yeah, I’m like, “Well, it don’t sound nothing like that, dude.” [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RR: I didn’t get that from that. Of course, people flag on him for it, but I’m just like, “Well, that’s Chris. He gets excited.”

BM: [laughs]

RR: [laughs] But no, it’s really good. I think it’s going to probably be our best album.

BM: Really?

RR: Yeah, I think it’s really strong. And Greg really mixing it, you know, it’s really, really solid. You know, with Impellitteri records, there’s always me and Chris in the mixing room battling it, you know, it’s funny. We’d be mixing it with Michael Wagner, and Chris would be like, “Guitar’s gotta be louder.” We’d sit there, and about an hour and a half later, I’d be like, “Ok, you done?” “Yeah.” “Ok, now turn the vocal up.” [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RR: We’d go back and forth. So by the end of the record, you know, the drums would be small, because the vocals and the guitars are up in your face, you know?

BM: Yep.

RR: But the new album, with Greg mixing it, the drums are in your face, everything’s in your face. It’s really coming out really good.

BM: Who is the drummer? According to Wiki, it doesn’t list the bass, keyboard, or drums for this album. Who are they?

RR: It’s the same guys. Glen Sobel on drums, James Pulli on bass, and Ed Roth on keyboards.

BM: Really?

RR: Yeah, yeah.

BM: That’s interesting. Whoever updates those Wiki entries neglected to do that this time. So it’s James Pulli, Ed Roth, and Glen Sobel – the classic line-up?

RR: Yep, the band we toured with. And we toured Japan, I don’t know, four or five times. It was always the same band, so it was cool to finally make an album all together too. Because we had Ken Mary in there playing drums in the beginning. You know, I don’t know what happened with him in the more recent years, but now it’s back to, to me, the prime lineup and the prime sound of the Impellitteri sound of Rob and Chris. That’s the real reason why I wanted to do it, because it was back to what me and him do naturally, you know. Not some contrived thing where we’re trying to chase a sound. I was happy about that. We’ve even got the typical 15, 16 tracks of backing vocals going on too. Just like the old sound. It sounds cool.

BM: Yeah. It ought to be great. I’m excited to hear it. Is it going to be called Good and Evil?

RR: Yeah.

BM: Ok, good. When is that coming out, do you know?

RR: I don’t know. Originally, I think it was supposed to come out at the end of the summer, but we’re still mixing it. [laughs]

BM: [laughs]

RR: But probably in the fall. I don’t know, maybe next year. I really don’t know.

BM: Sometime soon?

RR: Chris is like, you know, “When it’s done, it’s done.” He said, “I’ve always been rushed.” He said he’s always rushed his albums in the end, trying to make deadlines, and this time, he’s just like, when he’s done, then they can set the deadline.

Fantastic! If it even resembles answer to the master or screaming symphony I am stoked! It is great to getting the original lineup back together as well...

Alex

I've only recently started getting his music. The few cd's I own I like very much and I hope to someday get more.

I was surprised how good Crunch is...ya'll need to check that one out too...

I can't wait to hear this new one...

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I've only recently started getting his music. The few cd's I own I like very much and I hope to someday get more.

Remember you saved one from the flame as well.

spectrefate wrote:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

I've only recently started getting his music. The few cd's I own I like very much and I hope to someday get more.

Remember you saved one from the flame as well.

Yup. That's one of the 2 that I own.

exact33 wrote:

for me Impellitteri is defined as Screaming Symphony. It is hard to find a better album from start to finish...

Alex

You are correct sir

ah a man with excellent taste!

Thanks for the Interview. It helps to hear some news about the album. I can't wait, hopefully they do something great

sweet, love his work

What are your thoughts on the Stand In Line album with Graham Bonnett on lead vocals? I saw a used copy last night and hemmed and hawed for quite a bit before putting it back down. I did some reading up last night when I got home. The reviews I've read are kinda all over the place. Some folks love it, others not so much because it's not Rob Rock on vocals and more commercial than his other releases. And the covers of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and 'Since You've Been Gone' don't fill me with much hope.

So what says the Heart of Metal? Stand In Line, purchase or skip?

Stand In Line is certainly not a bad album. The only thing is I'm not a huge Graham Bonnet fan, so it's not as exciting for me as a Rob Rock-fronted album, but the songs are good. Not as "in your face Metal" as the Rock stuff, but still tons of guitar and it's good and melodic...

I personally liked it and I think I liked it because I am Graham Bonnett fan, it is more commerical then the other Impellitteri albums and I even liked the instrumental version of 'Somewhere Over the Rainbow' and 'Since You've Been Gone'

I've listened to most of it on YouTube. Better than I thought, but not blowing me away either. I dunno. If I make it back this weekend and it's still there I might pick it up. I think it was only $5. Looks like I could probably make that back on ebay if I change my mind on it later.

I like Graham's voice but Rob is who you instantly think of when you mention an Impellitteri project.

I am the only guy on this board who is not a fan of Rob Rock, so I am going to prefer 'Stand In Line' and also I happen to think Graham Bonnett is an excellent vocalist.

Also find Bonnett's resume impressive, look at the guitarist the man has worked with Ritchie Blackmore, Michael Schenker, Yngwie Malmsteen, Steve Vai, Chris Impellitteri, Bob Kulick, Mickey Moody and few others I have left off my list.

Great news. Impellitteri will release their latest album titled the nature of the beast in october!

A new song is already out. A great one too:
https://youtu.be/do3Z4TxrYpA

I have been investing into this band lately and i have just picked up their debut album Stand in Line.