Posted on: August 10, 2008 Posted by: James McQuiston Comments: 0

Today’s metal scene is known for combining various genres such as punk, hardcore, grind, death and thrash metal, and shaping them into new subgenres. But if you dig deeper in heavy music history, you’d be surprised that metalcore, grindcore or crustcore were played long before they had a name! Impulse Manslaughter proves that even in the 80’s punk and metal did collaborate, creating the same extreme combinations we know today.

The exclusive double reissue of “He Who Laughs Last… Laughs Alone” and “Logical End” shows the band in the peak of their career. Impulse Manslaughter’s debut album “He Who Laughs Last… Laughs Alone” delivered sixteen devastating tracks closed in a little more than 30 minutes. The intensity of the material was truly incredible – no wonder the album sold very well for its genre, while the band grew famous as pioneers of the punk/metal/hardcore crossover. The follow-up album “Logical End” was released in 1988, but this time it consisted of only ten tracks. Two of them were cover versions of “Stone Deaf Forever” by Motorhead and “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones – quite unusual choices for such an extreme band.

Impulse Manslaughter remains one of the most innovative bands as far as extreme music goes. Both full-length albums proved that metal can be approached from many different angles, without losing its primal power. This double reissue introduces a raging group of maniacs who managed to capture their work in an amazing combination of anger and intensity. So without further ado, stick this album in your CD player and prepare to be destroyed!

Metal Mind Productions will release double re-issue of “He Who Laughs Last… Laughs Alone” and “Logical End” on 7th July 2008 in Europe and 2nd September 2008 in USA (via MVD). New digipak edition is limited to 2000 numerated copies. Digitally remastered using 24-Bit process on golden disc.

Impulse Manslaughter
“Logical End/He Who Laughs Last… Laughs Alone” (remastered)

Label: Metal Mind Records
Cat. No.: MASS CD 1189 DG
Barcode: 5907785032842
Format: CD Digipak (limited edition of 2000 numerated copies)
Genre: punk/metal/hardcore crossover
Release date: 07.07.2008 Europe / 02.09.2008 USA

Tracklist:

1. Drag
2. Face It
3. Not Quite Sure
4. Missing Children
5. Gimme Shelter
6. Crimson Dreams
7. No Deals
8. Let Them Die
9. Stone Dead Forever
10. Borderline Retard
11. Batman & The Oracle of Penile Savage
12. Vomitheads
13. We’re All Bored Here
14. Suffer in Silence
15. Walls
16. They Start The War
17. Premature Evacuation
18. Crimes
19. Too Late
20. Pills
21. This World
22. Sedation
23. Cheer Up You Fucker
24. Kein Spiel
25. Oatmetal II
26. 1987 Schitzoid Sam
27. Pattonstien’s Disease
28. Piss Me Off
29. Sack O’Shit
30. Ratbag
31. Slithis
32. Nothing
33. Sedation
34. Chaos
35. Contradiction
36. Oatmetal
37. Media
38. Dogshit
39. Harness

Bio
Impulse Manslaughter was formed on New Year’s Eve 1984 in Chicago, when Glen Herman (drums) and Chris “Mike” Hanley (bass) decided to start a band together, while sitting in Glen’s basement. They called themselves Liberty Cabbage, but quickly changed the name to Impulse Manslaughter after adding vocalist Karl Patton and guitarist Randy Sorkin into the fold. This line-up did not preserve long, however, as Randy was soon replaced with Dan. From that time on, line-up changes became a constant problem for the group…
In the fall of 1986 Impulse Manslaughter recorded their debut EP called “Burn One Naked & Nuke It”. Although the EP was entirely self-released, it gained a surprisingly big popularity in the underground metal scene and got a handful of favorable reviews in American and European magazines (not to mention that the EP was picked “Single of the Week” by Britain’s NME). Unfortunately, Dan quit the band shortly after the material was recorded. This allowed Chris to switch from bass to guitar, and after a countless number of auditions, Nick Stevens (known from Terminal Death) was added as the group’s new bass player. Together they went on their first American tour which ended up with their equipment being stolen by a street gang in Los Angeles. Despite these misfortunes, Impulse Manslaughter begun working on their first full-length release. “He Who Laughs Last… Laughs Alone” hit the stores in November 1987, distributed by Underdog Records in USA and a small record label in Europe, started by Glen’s pen pal. This label was… Nuclear Blast!
Impulse Manslaughter’s debut album delivered sixteen devastating tracks closed in a little more than 30 minutes. The intensity of the material was truly incredible – no wonder the album sold very well for its genre, while the band grew famous as pioneers of the punk/metal/hardcore crossover. In the meantime line-up problems occurred again, as Nick decided to leave the group. Chris switched back to bass, while the band welcomed guitarist Mike Schaffer in their ranks. Unfortunately he didn’t last long in Impulse Manslaughter and eventually joined Paul Speckman’s band Abomination. Without a proper guitarist in sight Chris decided once again to switch to guitar and the group got Vince Vogel of Screeching Weasel to fill the bass position. With a fairly stabilized line-up Impulse Manslaughter started working on their follow-up album…
“Logical End” was released in 1988, but this time it consisted of only ten tracks. Two of them were cover versions of “Stone Deaf Forever” by Motorhead and “Gimme Shelter” by The Rolling Stones – quite unusual choices for such an extreme band. Although the album proved that Impulse Manslaughter was a scene phenomenon, the line-up problems they faced again almost destroyed the group. After the departure of Chris and Karl the remaining members wanted to carry on with new musicians – John Tolczyk (guitar) and Guy Aitchinson (vocals). The style of their music, however, went through such an enormous change that the band decided to change their name to Vermicious Knids and dump their previous material…
Fortunately, “Logical End” got great reviews everywhere and Nuclear Blast persuaded the guys into reassembling the group and going on a tour across Europe with label mates Rostock Vampires. With John as the second guitarist, Impulse Manslaughter returned in all their glory to invade Europe. Unfortunately, the tour proved to be a major letdown – due to numerous organization errors, several shows were cancelled and by the end of the tour the group collapsed again.
But that wasn’t the end of Impulse Manslaughter. The guys continued to play gigs, though soon founding member Glen Herman left them for good. With Dan Duchaine of Speed Freaks filling in for the drummer, the band prepared to write some new material, when Chris Hanley – the second founding member – announced that he’s leaving as well to form his own band No Class. He was replaced by Rob Lanam, known from Flying Bottles. After these immense changes the group managed to record two EPs: “Sometimes” in 1991 and “No War” in 1992 – a split with long time friends Provocation. After a short US and Canadian tour Impulse Manslaughter officially broke up…
Some years later several band members met in the studio to work on one last album by Impulse Manslaughter – a compilation of live recordings they managed to gather over the years. The material was planned to be released only in a cassette tape format, but the label that was supposed to release it eventually dropped the idea. It wasn’t until ten years later that a small record label Beer City Records decided to give this compilation a try. “Live at WFMU” officially hit the stores on July 20th, 2004.

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