Venom

The magical collaboration of Rob Rock and Chris Impellitteri, which began all the way back in 1987 with the self-titled EP, has long been a successful venture. Ever since I first heard the Victim of the System EP in '93 I was hooked on this amazing combination of Rock's powerful vocals and Impellitteri's virtuoso guitar leads and solos. And although there has been a whole bevy of talented musicians who have worked with the band over the past 2 decades, Rock and Impellitteri have remained the core of the band's success. In essence, their work together eclipses what either have accomplished doing their own separate thing - and that says a lot.Venom picks up right where 2009's Wicked Maiden left off and that's no easy task. Wicked Maiden (the release which marked the return of Rob Rock to the band after a hiatus for 2002's System X and 2004's Pedal To The Metal) was a brilliant amalgamation of elements from their best albums: the melodic hooks of Answer To The Master and the speed, heaviness and progressiveness of Screaming Symphony. Venom is a beast for sure, once again featuring catchy melodies and superb guitar leads. Impellitteri (who like Tourniquet drummer Ted Kirkpatrick is heavily influenced by the classical composers) has such a distinctive style that the music is immediately identifiable - speedy melodic metal with catchy riffs and really fast guitar solos. It's shred and it's definitely not dead. No ballads here. The more than capable southpaw John Dette - who has played with the likes of Killing Machine, Testament, Slayer and Animetal (with Impellitteri himself) - steps in on drums and delivers a performance on par with the style put forth by Glen Sobel on the last release - lots of double bass sixteenth note rolls. Long time Impellitteri bassist James Pulli rounds out the foursome. The culmination of sounds is a melodic metal shred fest - wonderfully produced - that is second to none.While many of the songs are quite up-tempo, there are a few slower rockers like the quintessential Impellitteri "Face the Enemy" with its plodding and mesmerizing lead riff. Chris's solo on this song is short but sweet, every note perfectly placed and executed. "Nightmare" has a slightly modern vibe and "Rise" has a really sick opening riff followed by a great exhortational chorus. The break out/solo section smokes as well. Lyrically this stuff is totally consistent with Rock's prior output of scathing/warning type lyrics mixed with uplifting and powerful praises and metal anthems. The "bonus" tracks - not an afterthought by any means - feel more like a continuation of the powerful pummeling that has come before so definitely worth obtaining the version with these songs.It's easy to recommend this release for fans of the band of course but also to anyone who misses true shred. And if you've never heard these guys before ... no better time than the present to taste this venom!

Impellitteri demonstrates he hasn't run out of cool ideas. If you've liked his crunchy neoclassical-ish shred before, you'll like it here, too. In my opinion, this album doesn't sound redundant, but others may not share that opinion (most likely others who weren't into his art). The songs are, for the most part, catchy & invigorating. Lots of tastefully layered guitar. If you're a fan of Rob Rock's vocals, you will be happy here (I don't hate him, but I was one of the few who thought Curtis Skelton sounded awesome on PEDAL TO THE METAL, and hoped he'd continue with the band). In my opinion, again, this album, song for song, is stronger than WICKED MAIDEN, and on par with PEDAL.. Worth the cabbage I spent on it easily.

Yet another great album from speed metal masters Impellitteri! "Venom"! Chris Impellitteri never ceases to amaze with his guitar mastery. He shreds most effortlessly as always on this album. The songs are very good, well written and composed. The vocals by Rob Rock are as good as he has been in some time. This album in my opinion is much better than "Wicked Maiden". There are more solid rocking tunes on this record with less, if any, filler. If you like music with plenty of guitar shredding and great harmonies with soaring vocals and of course if you already know and love Impellitteri then you will for sure like "Venom"!

I discovered Rob Rock by chance several years ago and loved his solo albums. Since he had no new material there I researched back and found Impellitteri. Glad I did! This is my first album from them and it's great. Rock sounds awesome and the guitar work is amazing. The first song is enough to hook you in and it doesn't let go. Will be getting more albums from these guys

I have been listening to Chris since system x which featured the great Graham Bonnett on vocals but Rob Rocks been singing in this band for quite some time also. Chris guitar playing is fantastic,hes one of the few players today that I really don't get tired of listening. Great melody in every song here,shredding etc is put with perfect effort. I hope they tour soon around where I live.Great investment if you are into Chris guitar playing,even his older material is 5 star material. Buy it!

Rob Rock continues to have one of the most powerful voices in rock/metal. His return to Impellitteri was seamless. The material is fresh, with savage guitar mastery by band founder, Chris Impellitteri. I highly recommend this to fans of the original works of the band, as well as to any fans of the genre looking for something new. This is music to drive too fast to.

Chris returns with his best riffs yet. Venom picks up where wicked maiden left off and continues into the power metal realm. The vocals are amazing as always. If there was one criticism its that Chris seldom slows down to play a melodic line in his solos. If he took these riffs with the solos off of hurricane this would be ten stars!

If you like great songs with a world class singer and musicians you will love this cd!

Decent album but not Impellitteri's best, the previous one 'Wicked Maiden' was far superior. 'Venom' suffers from every song sounding a bit too similar, & tedious rapid double bass drumming! Some songs too are really dull & tuneless like 'Jehovah' with weak choruses. Probably best track is 'Reach For The Sky' - actually one of the 2 bonus tracks. It has been a 6 year wait since the last album, lets hope it is not several years until the next one. Chris Impellitteri went for a really heavy sound on this one but at the cost of strong songwriting, & the double bass drumming on these tracks is absolute overkill & gets very tedious indeed! Check out 'Stand In Line' & 'Wicked Maiden' albums for much better songwriting

When he made wicked maiden i thougt that he was on the rigt way, but this is not good specially the drums, why do he have to pump those bass drums all the time (talent solved) could not listen to the hole cd once, had to change to another style of heavy music

........Anleihen (Gitarrenläufe) aus der Klassik treffen auf bissig-giftigen Metalsound. Scheidende Riffs und Gesänge mit recht trockenem Sound bilden einen eigenwilligen aber sehr authentischen Metalmix. Urwüchsig, düster und energetisch..........kunstvoller Metal der sich nicht anbiedert und sogar polarisieren kann.Mehr braucht man nicht wissen um zu erahnen, was da auf den Hörer zukommt. Alles andere ist Geschmacksache.

Durch Zufall entdeckte ich im Internet, dass Impellitteri eine neue CD herausgebracht hat. Da ich alle anderen Alben von der Band besitzte, darf dieses nicht fehlen. Ich bestellte und bin nicht enttäuscht. Gewohnt gute Qualität von Impellitteri. ^^

Avevo conosciuto Impellitteri negli anni '80. Uno dei guitar hero di quel periodo. Ritrovarlo oggi in splendida forma non è niente male. Disco godibilissimo per gli amanti del metal classico