As the old Styx song goes, “Nothing Ever Goes as Planned”. When we spoke with virtuoso shredder Chris Impellitteri in October of 2022, he said that the long awaited follow up to 2018’s The Nature of the Beast was slated for a “summer of 2023” release date. Well, the summer of 2023 came and went, as did the summer of 2024, with no new developments on the Impellitteri front. So you could only imagine my joy when come a couple months ago, yours truly received a press release regarding 12th studio affair, War Machine.
Perhaps more shocking than the announcement of the album itself was the addition of drummer Paul Bostaph into the fold. Best known for his work with Slayer, Forbidden, and Exodus, part of me was curious and perhaps even a tad skeptical as to how a thrash drummer would find his place in a traditional metal band. It was essentially the same scenario as veteran Ken Mary joining thrashers Flotsam and Jetsam, albeit vice versa. In the same breath, Impellitteri’s output has grown more aggressive with each outing. This is a band who fully embraced the power metal boom of the late ’90s/early ’00s, and have incorporated it into their sound ever since.
Taking this into consideration, War Machine is an album that draws many musical parallels to Judas Priest’s Invincible Shield. There are no shortage of nods to the glory days of ’80s metal, when major labels were sweeping up any bands they could with big hair and loud guitars. Whether it be the anthemic “Out of My Mind (Heavy Metal)”, high speed headbanger mania of “Light It Up”, or infectiously catchy melodic metal glitz of “Beware the Hunter”, there are no shortage of no frills, retro metal bangers that reach to the innocence of my jaded metallic soul. When songs like these crank through my headphones, I feel like a green-faced teenage metallist again.
On the flip side of these blasts of metallic nostalgia are towering slabs of pummeling power metal, toeing the line between US bloodlust and euro pomp. Admittedly, the opening title track and “What Lies Beneath” doesn’t sound too far removed from what one would expect of a Frontiers power metal release. However, cuts like “Hell on Earth”, “Power Grab”, and “Wrathchild” manage to kick us in the teeth with fury and determination. Framing it all, the double bass domination of Bostaph, rumbling basslines of James Amelio Pulli, and Halfordian shrieks of Rob Rock, are face melting guitar solos, courtesy of the band’s namesake himself. Nearly 40 years on, Impellitteri manages to craft wicked guitar passages that are bound to keep six stringers scratching their heads for days on end.
In the scope of Impellitteri’s catalog, War Machine doesn’t come close to scratching the top of the pack, but when put next to today’s NWOTHM fare, it absolutely destroys the competition. Even the tried and true power metallers, should they be adventurous enough to explore an affair that strays from the Helloween formula, will be pleased by this beast of an album, and that speaks volumes. With a fire burning brightly underneath their rear ends, Impellitteri are back with a vengeance. As Ozzy Osbourne once sang, “The war machine keeps turning…”
7 out of 10
Label: Frontiers Records
Genre: Power Metal
For fans of: Judas Priest, Yngwie Malmsteen, Anthem