Album review: IMPELLITTERI – Venom

Frontiers Records [release date 17.04.15]

Venom is the tenth studio album from Impellitteri and their first since “Wicked Maiden” back in 2009. My last dealings with Chris Impellitteri, however, were way back in 1988 with his debut “Stand In Line” album and I believe I only purchased this due to the fact that one Graham Bonnet was vocalist at the time.

Chris Impellitteri was one of the group of speed guitarists, alongside Yngwie Malmsteen, Jason Becker, Marty Friedman etc, who liked nothing better than showing how fast they could solo. The style of “Venom” has not altered one iota from this premise.

Returning alongside Chris is founding vocalist Rob Rock, long term bassist James Pulli and a new drummer in Jon Dette.

Title track Venom kicks things off as the the album means to go on … over the top shredding, hi-pitched vocal screams and solos which seem to be at a higher volume than the main song itself…

Nightmare is the best song on here as it has a little more melody and variation than anything else on offer. Jehova is an overtly religious number where the chorus just consists of “Jehova” over and over again … not sure what happened to the final “h” either…

Venom just doesn’t work for me … it’s all very dated (could have been the follow up to the 1988 debut even) and the screechy shredding solos take priority over any actual tune.

…as for the cover…well…it’s just creepy!

One for fans of speed metal only … **

Review by Phil Berisford

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