Long before the metalcore, grindcore, and crustcore became part of the punk/hardcore scene, Impulse Manslaughter played it. They took their appreciation of Motorhead, Discharge, Battalion of Saints, and Misfits and came up with something faster and heavier. They were a loud, abrasive, snarling punk band with a metal edge.
Chicago's Impulse Manslaughter was formed in Glen Herman's basement on New Year's Eve 1984 by Glen and Chris (Mike) Hanley under the moniker "Liberty Cabbage". They wisely changed the name and added friends Karl Patton and Randy Sorkin. Unfortunately, life in Impulse quickly proved too much for Randy so he left the band. Line-up changes would continue to curse Impulse for their entire existence.
After Randy's departure, Dan came on board. With this line-up, they began playing shows all around the Chicago and the US Midwest. In the fall of 1986, the band wandered into the studios to record their infamous self-released EP "Burn One Naked & Nuke It". For a DIY release, the EP sold very well and received favorable press in the USA and throughout Europe. It was even pick as single of the week by Britain's prestigious (and strangely alternative pop oriented) New Musical Express (NME).
While things were going great for the band, they must not have been so great for Dan because, just as the EPs notoriety began, Dan decided to leave the band. The band took this opportunity to switch Chris from bass to guitar. After going through a string of bass players, Nick Stevens of Terminal Death was added.
With the new line-up, the band ventured out on their first tour. The US west coast proved interesting for the band. While the tour began well, just outside of San Francisco, their van broke down. They managed to hitch a ride from the sound truck of Huey Lewis and the News. The Huey Lewis road crew was kind enough to dump the band off in LA. Upon reaching the LA gig, the band found the only way to reach home was to liberate themselves from their equipment which was acquired by a local street gang.
Happy to survive the trip, the band immediately began work on their first full length LP He Who Laughs Last. Laughs Alone. The record would be released in the USA by a local Chicago label Underdog Records. In Europe the band turned to a new label created by Glens pen pal. The name of the label was Nuclear Blast Records (yeah that Nuclear Blast). While the band waited for the record to be released, they shot out to the US east coast for a month long tour.
After returning from the tour, the band developed a line-up problem again. While a good player, Nick Stevens wasnt very reliable. The band solution was to add guitarist Mike Schaffer to the band. This allowed Chris to switch to bass if Nick didnt show. Eventually the instability got to Schaffer, he bailed out to join Paul Speckmans band; Abomination. However, before leaving, Mike would record two tracks with Karl, Chris, and Glen for the new Metal Blade label Death Records. The track Pills would appear on the Complete Death 2 compilation. It would also appear on the European version of the He Who Laughs Last. Laughs Alone LP along with the song Piss Me Off.
He Who Laughs Last. Laughs Alone would sell well, especially for Nuclear Blast. Both the label and the band were unprepared for the business side of things. In typical punk fashion, the agreement was done on a handshake, no contracts. To this day neither Nuclear Blast nor Impulse has any idea how many copies of either full length LP were actually sold. They just agree that for an independent hardcore punk record of that time, it was a lot of records. To make matters worse, Impulse naively assumed Nuclear Blast (run by their friend) would take care of everything. They were wrong. During the bands existence, Nuclear Blast sent lots of records and some small checks to use for recording, but never sent a royalty check.
Making another attempt at stability, the band asked bassist Vince Vogel of Screeching Weasel to fill in for Nick. Eventually Nick just disappeared. Vinnie joined Impulse permanently. Expediting the inevitable, Screeching Weasel took this opportunity to kick Vinnie out of the band citing a personality problem (which sounds much better than "he found a better band"). With the bassist problem solved, Chris finally switched from bass to guitar for the last time.
With the line-up stabilized. again, the band quickly created their next record; Logical End. Due to the rush to get new material out, the record included only 10 tracks of which 2 were covers (Motorheads Stone Deaf Forever and the Rolling Stones Gimme Shelter). The record would be released on Chicagos Walkthrufyre Records in the USA and Nuclear Blast Records in Europe.
During the recording, Chris began to have doubts about the bands future and quit. Karl soon followed. Glen and Vinnie decided to persevere by recruiting Vinnies friend John Tolczyk on guitar and artist Guy Aitchinson on vocals. They quickly realized the new line up was way too different from Impulse. They dumped the Impulse material changed the name to Vermicious Knids.
During this hiatus, Logical End continued to receive good reviews and sell well in Europe well enough for Nuclear Blast to offer the band a European tour with label mates Rostock Vampires. The band couldnt pass up the chance and reformed strictly for the tour adding John on second guitar. Unfortunately, this was Nuclear Blasts first attempt at a tour. It was plagued with problems. The tour began well in England with shows booked directly by the band playing with Doom and Chaos UK. However, everything fell apart once the Nuclear Blast dates started. Show cancellations, greed, and general misinformation became the norm. Frustrated by promoter ineptitude, members began to leave. First, Chris decided to leave. A few weeks later, Glen and Karl left. Several friends tried to help Vinnie and John finish the tour, but eventually the last few dates were scraped.
Surprisingly, the band did not end, but tensions were pretty high between Glen and the rest of the band. Eventually, the longstanding drummer and founding member quit. He was quickly replaced by Dan Duchaine of Speedfreaks whom the band had played with a few weeks earlier. With just a few practices, the band was up and running again.
Further tribulation came when just before the band was to record a new single, the other founding member Chris Hanley left. He would later create a solo project entitled No Class. No Class released one record on the Wild Rags label. He was replaced by Bottles Flying guitarist Rob Lanam.
With all the line up chaos, Impulse was nearly silent for over 2 years, but the band managed to finally get into the studio to record a 5 song EP called "Sometimes". To further complicate matters, Nuclear Blast chose to release the EP on their new imprint Mind Control Records without telling the band. The EP received mixed reviews and little notice as did the imprint.
During the recording of the Sometimes EP, John began playing drums and created a side project called Eyegouger. Eventually, John spent more time concentration on his side project than Impulse. Impulse parted ways with John leaving the band a four piece once again.
The band continued on as a four piece recording the split EP No War with long time friends Provocation. Then one day when Rob didnt show up for a practice, a friend of the band Rick McKelvy was hanging around and plugged in for some fun. The band asked him to join that day. But, it wasn't enough to keep the band alive. After a short US east coast tour and a few Canadian gigs, Impulse disbanded when Vinnie and Dan quit.
After the break up, several band members went back into the studio to put together one last recording. It was intended to be a cassette tape only release of live material and rarities for the few hardcore fans of the band. The company that was supposed to put it out never did. The record sat on the shelf for the next 10 years until Beer City Records got a hold of it and released "Live At WFMU".
After Impulse, Karl & Rob created Gutterhead. Karl now plays with Alehammer. Dan went on to play in the bands Feck, Fuckface and Motivo Loco, as well as doing some reunion gigs for The Service. In the Spring of 2007 Speedfreaks reform.John is currently playing bass for the black metal outfit Bloodthrone, as well as a new project, Busted Cunt. January 2010 Burning Sons start gigging out, Dan plays drums.
