Impalers – Prepare For War

Remember the first time you heard “Pleasure To Kill”? It was one of the most satisfyingly brutal experiences in existence because of its pure anger. Impalers is somewhat of a modern version of that era of Kreator. The band offers riffs that are off the charts when it comes to headbanging ability, and singer Søren Crawack’s vocals are like what Mille would sound like if death metal existed when Kreator started. In other words, they are guttural beyond belief, while still retaining a thrash sound to them. This sets the stage for the aptly titled EP “Prepare For War”. This release is designed for just that (war). The two original tracks on the EP showcase the band’s incredible songwriting abilities. Both songs are memorable and manage to be quite different from each other.

The first of these two songs, the title track, stands out for its demonstration of the rhythmic domination. The guitars downpick with great speed for much of the song, and you can’t help but groove along to it (sidenote: don’t mistake this for groove metal; it’s more of a Metallica/Anthrax style downpicking than anything else). Though the song eventually speeds up in the middle, it returns to its primary form near the end of the track. The only slight complaint I can levy against this song is the fact that it opened the EP, and that’s only because the next track, “Destination: Warfare”, is both faster and more brutal than this track. This song opens with a riff that would not be out of place on “Power and Pain” or any other number of rifftastic 80s albums. Despite the fact that the song barely cracks 2 minutes, it manages to leave quite an impact. This is achieved because, while the main riff is quite speedy, the verses are not built around incredibly fast alternate picking, creating plenty of variety within the song.

The other half of this EP consists of two covers: Sodom’s “Napalm In The Morning” and Motorhead’s “The Hammer”. The former cover is perfect. For one thing, it’s an incredible song choice, as the band previously displayed their ability to create a somewhat rocking “mid”-tempo song (this version sounds quite a bit faster than Sodom’s). Another reason why this cover is worth hearing is because Crawack’s vocals are even harsher than Tom Angelripper’s, giving the song even more power.

The Motorhead cover is well done, but Motorhead is probably one of the hardest bands to cover. Much like their early speed metal contemporaries in Anvil and Exciter, it feels like everybody has leapfrogged beyond their music. Don’t get me wrong, Motorhead will always be one of the greatest bands of all-time, but the three tracks preceding “The Hammer” on this EP are just of a different breed. Only Motorhead can really do Motorhead, so while everything is competently played, this was perhaps not the best choice for a cover. Nevertheless, the band has done such a great job with the rest of the EP that this shouldn’t be much of an issue. On the whole, if you want thrash that is absolutely vicious, Impalers fits the bill!

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Highlights

"Prepare For War"

"Destination: Warfare"

"Napalm In The Morning"

Final Rating

4.4/5 or 88%. 

Written by Scott