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IMPELLITTERI
War Machine

Frontiers (2024)
Rating: 7.5/10

Another album in and American guitar master Chris Impellitteri once again blows speakers and eardrums with his neo-classical shredding. More belligerent than the likes of Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Impellitteri – in whichever form – has channelled fiery power metal aesthetics since the 80s and with War Machine prepare to be enthralled and overloaded once again.

Listening to War Machine, as with every other Impellitteri opus, one envisions the axe man and his team jumping through hoops of fire, dodging wayward bombastic fireworks and serenading the heavens beneath waterfalls glistening with static electricity. Sure, my description seems theatrical, but that’s what this stuff needs to be otherwise it would simply come across as mindless, self-Indulgent noodling.

With War Machine you get curtains of thick cloying smoke punctuated by messages addressing the state of the world; usual rants include artificial intelligence (‘Superkingdom’) to more simplistic sweaty rockers (‘Light It Up’). Impellitteri has always maintained a hard metallic spine even with nu-metal shades on past releases. Having said that, at times – even with its masterful creative flourishes – War Machine is a tad predictable, but then again what else were we expecting, cosmic funk? Avant-garde jazz? What you get here is ballsy heavy metal strewn with strips of dazzling speed metal (‘Wrathchild’), anthemic pulsations (‘Out Of My Mind’) – although the lyrics in ode of heavy metal are woeful – and the downright brilliant (‘Power Grab’).

Throughout the opus I hear flashes of Judas Priest, circa Painkiller (1990), and even Dio, but that’s more in the vocals of Rob Rock who has been a powerhouse since the 80s. There’s a lot to savour here even outside of Chris Impellitteri’s axe slaying; the percussion and bass drives hard and I’d imagine those drums will increase in potency now that Slayer and ex-Forbidden sticksman Paul Bostaph is behind the kit.

Forty years in the business and it’s fair to say that Chris Impellitteri is still the business when it comes to wielding the axe.

Neil Arnold

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