Welcome to another edition of From My Collection. With Halloween right around the corner, I figured I’d pull out some seasonal listening to mark the occasion. Did you really think I was going to insult your intelligence with an Alice Cooper or King Diamond album? Maybe next year, but this week we’re digging deep into the collection with Rise of the Mutants, the debut EP from horror themed metalpunks, Impaler. Who are these self proclaimed mutants and why should you terrorize your loved ones with this brief four song offering of splat-tastic speed? This essay will attempt to answer all that and more. Now who’s ready for some “Shock Rock”?
When people think of Minnesota’s contribution to the pantheon of popular music, usually two things come to mind: Prince and their punk scene. This is for good reason. The Purple One would go on to push the boundaries of pop music, while maintaining enigmatic, superstar status until his untimely demise. Meanwhile, bands like Hüsker Dü and The Replacements would prove punk to be more than loud, brief blasts of racket, incorporating elements of noise, dissonance, and introspective songwriting that would influence everything from emo to alternative rock. With such talent on display, it was easy to miss the humble Minnesota metal scene, which boasted bands like Powermad, Kublai Khan, Slave Raider, and the subject of today’s essay, Impaler.
Formed in 1983, Impaler aimed to combine the gruesome stage antics and lyrical content of Alice Cooper with the raw, grizzly metalpunk of Motörhead, Plasmatics, and Discharge. Overall, it was an interesting time for heavy metal music. Thrash and power metal both existed, sonically speaking, but neither were yet properly coined and established as respective subgenres. Impaler was too filthy to be power metal and not aggressive enough to be thrash. The Metal Archives labels them as speed metal, but even that feels like an injustice compared to archetypal speed metal bands like Acid and Tank. For the simplicity’s, I’m going to say Impaler is a metalpunk band. They were crossover before crossover was a thing, and that alone should be enough for you to keep reading this article.
Not long after their formation, Impaler gained infamy all over Minneapolis with their over the top stage show. They also dropped demo after demo after demo, before finally getting in the studio to record their debut EP, Rise of the Mutants. In a trial and error approach, the band chose the four best songs from these demos to rerecord for the EP: “Shock Rock”, “Crack That Whip”, “Impaler”, and “Heaven’s Force”. Together, the four songs clocked in at a little under 10 minutes, but achieved the band’s purpose of a musical short, sharp shock, that would draw the attention of underground zine readers and tape traders from coast to coast.
It wasn’t just Impaler’s music designed to draw your attention. It was their imagery as well. The cover image of frontman Bill Lindsay with a hunk of bloody viscera hanging from his mouth would arguably become more infamous than the music itself, being spotted everywhere from the 1986 cult classic movie Trick or Treat, to the unforgiving hand of D.C. superwife Tipper Gore, who demanded the album be pulled from shelves. This would of course lead to the EP being reissued on Roadrunner and attracting an even wider audience.
Rise of the Mutants opens with the raucous “Shock Rock”, whose up front lyrics are sure to remind us this is no easy listening affair…
“Insane, over the top
Hold on me, just won’t stop
Horror stories, science fiction
Shakes me like a drug addiction
Want it, need it
Crave it every day
Have it, I demand it
Louder, I say
Shock Rock, Shock Rock”
Granted, I’m sure one could figure this out by the rapid speed, punkish attitude, barbed wire riffing, and Iggy Pop-esque vocal snarls, but you get the idea. “Crack That Whip” continues this glorious metalpunk amalgamation, one part the raw power of The Stooges, one part the leather clad lethality of Judas Priest. At no point on Rise of the Mutants is there a hint of melody, cleanliness, or accessibility, but there’s a swagger to “Crack That Whip” reminiscent of AC/DC and Motörhead.
As we flip over to side B, we’re greeted by the band’s namesake track, which very well may be the greatest Paul Di’Anno era Iron Maiden song never written. The lead riff is just a tad reminiscent of “Running Free”, but I digress. The riffs rule, the attitude rules, and the lyrics even see the band dipping into fantastical territory. See, and you thought metalpunk bands only sang about sex, drugs, and rock n’ roll! This picturesque lyricism continues on the EP’s closing cut, “Heaven’s Force”. A final blast of aggression, “Heaven’s Force” is what I imagine Slayer’s Show No Mercy would’ve sounded like if it came out in 1982 instead of 1983.
So whatever happened to Impaler? The controversy surrounding Rise of the Mutants lead to a full length album, If We Had Brains…We’d Be Dangerous (1986), which was produced by, wait for it, Bob Mould of Hüsker Dü! Unlike fellow 80s provocateurs Twisted Sister and W.A.S.P., Impaler never crossed over into the mainstream realm of metal and hard rock, but they never intended to do so. They were perfectly comfortable in their own cobweb covered crypt within the underground metal niche, and still are to this day. Impaler continues to release albums, EPs, and splits. They also continue to stage their heavy metal horror show all around the country. As the old saying goes, “It pays to slay!”