Guesting on Talking Metal, Impellitteri guitarist and namesake Chris Impellitteri discussed the band's new Nature of the Beast album, practicing his guitar, the band’s history, vocalist Graham Bonnet, and suggested that shred guitar is accepted more in Japan than anywhere else in the world. Following is an excerpt from the interview.

Chris: "I play guitar every day because I love it, so I don't think any more about the practice ritual or the routine. I mean, I have guitars everywhere in my house; also by my pool, downstairs, studio, you name it. It's just guitars everywhere. I love playing guitars, I'm always playing, every day, at a certain point of the day. I guess I'm past that point in my career where I really think about how long I do it. I think the fact that I play every day is important because of the muscle memory.

All guitar players know this. You do something in repetition, you do it so often. I'll never forget this: We're doing Barcelona, Spain, I'm on the Venom (album) tour about two years ago; I think Iron Maiden was headlining, we're playing and we're having a blast - it's like 35,000 kids and they're all rocking with you. And there's one song I played the solo for, but I was thinking about something completely different like, 'Will I make it to the flight in Germany?' or whatever. And you only realize when you've played the solo perfectly, like, 'How did that happen?' That's muscle memory."

Impellitteri recently released a video for their cover of Black Sabbath's "Symptom Of The Universe", featured on the band's 11th studio album, The Nature Of The Beast, out today, and available to order here.

Says Impellitteri: "To all of our heavy metal friends around the world, we hope you enjoy our version of Black Sabbath’s 'Symptom Of The Universe'. We have always wanted to re-create this magical riff and song as it really inspired us musically. This type of song can be tricky as you want to respect the integrity of the original music, but at the same time you want to take the song in a new direction and make it your own! We obviously Impellitterized the song and added lots of haunting melodies, screaming vocals, shredding guitar solos, walking bass lines, and thrash style drumming... (but what would you expect from Impellitteri, ha ha! We sincerely hope the great Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, and Bill Ward enjoy our version of 'Symptom Of The Universe', as well as their fans! Time to rock!!"

30 years into their musical career, Impellitteri have created a mind blowing, highly energetic, and thrilling new musical adventure with The Nature Of The Beast. The band is on fire with their musical acrobatics, addictive riffs, shredding guitar solos, speed metal drumming, and screaming power metal vocals that are all ingredients in these killer songs.

Like many of their talented peers, Impellitteri continue to carry the torch for guitar driven heavy metal. On The Nature Of The Beast, the band shines throughout, especially on songs like the power metal driven “Run For Your Life”, the highly energetic remake of Black Sabbath’s “Symptom Of The Universe”, the lunacy of “Gates Of Hell”, the addictive riff of “Hypocrisy”, and the speed metal cover of “Phantom Of The Opera”.

“The new music was written with passion and a sincere love for heavy metal,” says Chris Impellitteri. "I think as a band we grow stronger with each new album. Our artistic abilities seem to get better with age, but at the same time we seem to sound even more energetic, crazy, and youthful with this release. You could say the music on this newest musical child is an extension of our previous record Venom. I love the Venom record, but I am currently obsessed by The Nature Of The Beast. We are thrilled to share this new music with our FANS and friends around the world and I really hope they like it!”

Impellitteri recorded The Nature Of The Beast in Los Angeles, California with legendary engineer/ producer Mike Plotnikoff (Van Halen, Aerosmith, In Flames), mix engineer Greg Reely (Overkill, Fear Factory, Impellitteri), and engineers Jun Murakawa and Sean Shannon.

Like their childhood musical heroes including Vivaldi, Iron Maiden, Queen, Black Sabbath, Al DiMeola, Paco de Lucia, John McLaughlin, and Pavarotti, Impellitteri strive for greatness - creating, performing and recording this new music with all four band members, Chris Impellitteri (guitars), Rob Rock (vocals), James Pulli (bass), and Jon Dette (drums) contributing stellar performances. The album was recorded in a grand fashion using large tracking rooms and vintage analog equipment to capture the bands live musical energy and performance.

"As a guitarist I challenge myself to conquer my human limitations,” continues Chris. "I practice for hours each day to improve my technique. I also spend a lot of time customizing my guitars, amps, and pedals to achieve this crazy guitar sound. On this new record my guitar sound is really me trying to create a tone that sounds a bit like a chainsaw blended with a beautiful Stradivarius violin. It is Beauty and the Beast with lots of pick attack! The guitar solos have lots of technical shredding elements, but at the same time they are very melodic and I think fun for everyone to listen too. The riffs are also exciting for me to play as there is a lot of obvious influences that I brought to this new record."

The band will head out in support of the album with dates to be announced in the coming months.

"Hypocrisy"
"Masquerade"
"Run For Your Life"
"Phantom Of The Opera" (Andrew Lloyd Webber cover)
"Gates Of Hell"
"Wonder World"
"Man Of War"
"Symptom Of The Universe" (Black Sabbath cover)
"Do You Think I’m Mad"
"Fire It Up"
"Kill The Beast"
"Shine On"

"Run For Your Life" video:

Impellitteri is:

Rob Rock - vocals
Chris Impellitteri - guitars
James Amelio Pulli - bass
Patrick Johansson - drums
Jon Dette - drums *

* appears on studio album