Underground heavy metal act Impellitteri have been at it since 1986, formed by guitarist Chris Impellitteri and singer Bob Rock (no, not that Bob Rock). For their recently-released twelfth album, War Machine, Impellitteri recruited Slayer/Kerry King drummer Paul Bostaph. Decibel spoke with Chris Impellitteri to get the scoop on War Machine, working with Bostaph and how the band has changed over almost four decades.
Your new album, War Machine, is your first in six years. Other than your lineup change, what’s new in the band since your last release, 2018’s The Nature of the Beast?
We experienced a pandemic, multiple wars have broken out globally and we got older, wiser and I hope better as musicians! We used the downtime during the pandemic to push ourselves to be better musicians, better songwriters and find the musical direction that would make a statement as to where we are as a band in the year 2024! We worked our asses off to write, perform and record this new album!
Drummer Paul Bostaph joined the band and recorded on War Machine. How did you connect with Bostaph and what does he add to Impellitteri?
We needed a great drummer that could play all the technical fills and fast double bass drumming that is often in Impellitteri music, but at the same time we also needed a drummer that could play like John Bonham! Thankfully, Paul Bostaph’s name was brought to our attention… Ultimately, Paul brought a heaviness to these songs as he hits the drums with a lot of power and aggression! He also came into the writing and recording with a lot of his own really cool drum parts that took our music in a different direction!
What does the process of writing a new album look like for Impellitteri? Does it happen slowly over the course of a few years or do you lock in to write in a specified window?
As a band we are always writing new music. Our songwriting always starts with the creation of a great riff! Luckily, because I play my guitar all the time, riffs seem to naturally come to me, and once I have a great riff the verses, pre-choruses and choruses evolve very quickly.
Once I have a rough template of the song, I then share the songs with James [Amelio Pulli, bass], Bob and, on this album, Paul, who all then come up with their own parts! We then generally get together and play a bit live to make certain the songs naturally feel great at our chosen tempos, then we push record and go for it! And when we get lucky, our combined input gives us some great music!
What about recording? Are you a band that demos everything multiple times or do you go into the studio and work things out on the fly?
We always demo our music! Demos give us time to revisit songs at a later date with a fresh perspective! The key for us is to always try to play the music live (even if we just run through the song a few times) to make certain we have the excitement and energy needed to excite us and our audience! We always use the big studios to capture our performances.
Were there themes or ideas, lyrical or musical, that you wanted to discuss or incorporate on War Machine?
YES! Obviously we are affected by the wars breaking out globally and that is part of the lyrics in songs like “Hell on Earth,” “Power Grab” and “War Machine.” I hate war! We all need to love one another! As far as the musical direction: we wanted to make a great hard rock/ metal album that would make a statement once and for all who and what Impellitteri sound like! And I think we succeeded with songs like “Hell on Earth,” “Wrath Child” and “Out of My Mind (Heavy Metal.”
Impellitteri has been a band since 1986. What do you think are the biggest changes in the band and in the music industry since you started as a band?
I started this band with Bob Rock in late 1985 and the first song we wrote together was a track called “Lost in the Rain.” When we started this band, our vision was to be like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden on steroids mixed with Mozart, Vivaldi and Beethoven, and here we are more than 30 years later still rocking hard and loving every minute playing together!
As far as the music industry, a lot has changed… but we do not pay attention to industry stuff as the industry has always ignored bands like us, so we just carry on doing what we love and thank God we have many fans around the world that support us and love our music!
War Machine is out now on Frontiers Music Srl.
