Album Notes

Nocturnal Impulse, originally founded in Montpelier, Vermont around 2000, relocated to Boston’s Northeastern University. During front man Will Carpenter’s first semester at N.U. he met drummer Chris Lyons in a music theory class. Chris and Will ended up forming the first Boston incarnation of Nocturnal Impulse in the spring of 2003, and shortly thereafter, Chris transferred to Berkley.

Although they had really good chemistry from the start, they had trouble finding a bass player who clicked with them. Despite this, they began to hack out an album and, shortly after losing their first Boston bassist, began the arduous task of mixing it. As the mixes neared completion there was a passing fling with a second bass player and, just in time for the album to be complete, the boys finally hooked up with Adam Bracken, a fellow music major, and lover of metal.

Unfortunately, Chris decided to split from the group shortly thereafter, leaving the band to find a replacement. Jason Mintz wound up being just the man for the job, learning a set worth of material in record time. With a self-released debut album, and the best lineup yet, they are back and ready to rock.

One thing that makes Nocturnal Impulse so intriguing is the wide variety of musical influences that affected its members. Will often cites Kurt Cobain as his original influence to play in a rock band from the beginning, but his current influences are much more diverse, including such artists as Primal Fear, Type O Negative and Dream Theater, as well as old greats like Ozzy Ozbourne, Aerosmith, and Stone Temple Pilots. Adam’s influences tend to lean more towards Tool, Metallica and Megadeath, and Jason listens to anything from Led Zeppelin and Cream to Iron Maiden and Children of Bodom. Despite this diversity, Nocturnal Impulse has a clear style of their own and, although all songs to date have been written solely by Will, the band talks about starting to write collaboratively at some point.

Nocturnal Impulse has played at several venues over the past few years including The Choppin’ Block (now thankfully defunct) in Brigham Circle, Harper's Ferry in Allston, After Hours at Northeastern, The All Asia Café and The Middle East (upstairs and downstairs) in Cambridge, and The Atrium and The Lucky Dog in Worcester and, most recently, The Paradise Rock Club in Boston. They have been well received in most places, which can perhaps be attributed to the high-energy performance style they bring to the stage