Metal Caravans

Crunch, the fifth full length album from Impellitteri to feature the combined talents of Chris Impellitteri and Rob Rock, showcases more of the bands trademark fast paced and energetic brand of heavy metal.  With his neo-classical influenced style of playing, the gifted Chris Impellitteri still ranks among the fastest and most technically proficient metal guitarists of his era.  Rob Rock continues to bring out the best in the bands sound with his abundant and smooth sounding classic tenor voice.  Drummer Glen Sobel replaces Ken Mary - who performed on Impellitteri's three previous studio releases - and puts forth an intense performance that helps bring the bands all out raw energy to a level not found on past efforts.  (Sobel is the dude dressed in chain mail in the photos accompanying the albums packaging.)  James Pulli remains a steady presence on bass, while Edward Roth adds just the right amount of texture on keyboards.

The superlative production values to Crunch feature a plethora of rhythm guitar placed upfront in a near flawless mix of crystal clear lead guitar and punchy bass lines.  The drums, for a lack of better words, are produced to utter perfection.

Initially released by JVC Victor in Japan, Crunch was later re-issued by Dream Catcher as part of a two CD set with the bands 1996 effort Screaming Symphony as the second disc.  Please note that on the Dream Catcher version the songs “Forever Yours” and “Texas Nuclear Boogie” were replaced by a bonus track entitled “Freak Show”.