I recently acquired The Complete Beast boxset by Impellitteri, which contains nearly everything from his first EP through 2009 (it seems to be missing the Fuel for the Fire EP and a few tracks from the live album). I'm still in the process of listening to all of these albums, but wanted to see what people think of his music.

A few discussion prompts if you do like him:
-What is your favourite song/album of his?
-Where do you rank Chris, if at all, amongst the shreddy guitar players
-Are the non-Rob Rock releases worthwhile? Seems like he's the guy for this band, but didn't appear on everything they've done

So far, I'm up to Eye of the Hurricane, and I'm tempted to say this is the best release so far. The debut EP was great as well - pretty much everything has been, but it's a lot of music to absorb in a short time. As a shredder, I don't think Impellitteri is as gifted of a solo-writer as the likes of Malmsteen, Axel Rudi Pell, MAB, etc. He's definitely very talented, but I like those other guys better.

One other thing I appreciate is that, so far, he has resisted the temptation to do anything related to the 1990s. Bands from the 90s are the best when they sound like they have no idea what decade they're playing in. These albums would have been right at home a few years earlier than they were all released.

I'm not the greatest fan but enjoy most, if not all, of his records.
The last two ("Venom" and "Nature of the Beast") are actually my favorites by a fairly wide margin.

Even though Axel Rudi has written the same record literally a dozen+ times, his songwriting is better (even if there are only 6 songs, each of which he's re-written a dozen times) and his soloing is more melodic and less "flashy".

Yngwie's material up through "Facing the Animal" is the highwater mark for this subgenre.

One of my favorite shredders!

S/T EP - A melodic speed thrash masterpiece. Rock left to do more melodic stuff, Joshua's Intense Defense and Angelica's s/t album.

Stand in Line - Impelliteri wrote something he felt more appropriate for Bonnet so it is a huge change from the debut ep. I would put this in the same league as Bonnet's work with Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group and Alcatrazz/Yngwie. Melodic hard rock with huge 80's keys and some metal gallop. It genius but you have to like the genre.

Grin and Bear it - The best glam metal album no one ever heard. Rock sounds amazing here.

Victim of the System - 1 speed track and one blazing instrumental and then lush AOR with awesome choruses.

Answer to the Master - like a speed metal Boston. Very catchy. Probably their best album.

Screaming Symphony - Very sharp and focused. The Reign in Blood of melodic metal. Rock makes preachy sound good. Probably their best album again. My first exposure to Impelliteri.

Eye of the Hurricane - this is where they start to lose me. Still good but they do a few things that irk me.

Crunch - some effects on the voice, gimmicks and modern stuff creeping in. Rob Rock leaves and does an album with Roy Z, an album with some dudes I never heard of and then 2 albums with CJ Grimmarck from Narnia. These are all pretty good to excellent.

System X - Graham Bonnet is back but this is too hard edged for me. Not what I want from Impelliteri or Bonnet. The last Impelliteri album I ever bought. Oddly enough Impelliteri said this is what Stand in Line should have been.

Pedal to the Metal - a weird concept, it has pieces of popular metal songs combined into new songs. I couldn't handle it.

I like Axel Rudi Pell's Wild Obsession and Nasty Reputation (with Rob Rock on vocals) but that is it. I love Soto and Giolle but I don't like any of their ARP albums.

I love Yngwie but Impelliteri was love at first listen. Yngwie took me some time to appreciate. It was too hard rock, not metal enough for me at first. And those keyboards.

I don't know about MAB. Nitro was too crazy for me. Those vocals. Does he have any solo stuff similar to Impelliteri or Yngwie?

P.S. I think he is supposed to release another album this year. I think the last few albums are good but not quite as great as the 90's albums. Rock sounded great on the Destroyer of Death album. Let's hope this next Impelliteri album is great!

Sometimes I find that artists with a long and under appreciated discography actually have their peak in more modern times. I could definitely see this being true.



Thanks for the detailed breakdown! To address a couple of things you said: I only have MAB's solo album and it's fully instrumental, so not really comparable to these artists, but he's obviously a crazy guitar player. As for ARP, I'm surprised you don't like the Gioeli stuff. Every album is identical, but they made a ton of albums together before it got stale.

Also, I'm currently listening to System X and I don't really think Graham Bonnet sounds very good here. Him aside, it definitely feels like there are starting to be diminishing returns from some of these records.

I'm only familiar with Stand in Line. It's not half bad but I vastly prefer offerings from Yngwie and Steve Vai.

Venom is a killer record, though really the only one I'm familiar with. Rock's vocals are badass and Impellitteri's actual guitar work is nice and shreddy without being too flashy and self-indulgent. Some of the earlier stuff sounds intriguing though, I may have to check it out.

Big fan of the last two albums, currently checking out some of the older stuff.