1327. Yngwie Malmsteen / War to End All Wars. 2000. 4/5

The path that Yngwie Malmsteen had taken through the 1990’s decade could have been seen to be a trepidation one, given the amazing change the face of music went through during that time. This will be the sixth album of his that I have done an episode on in the last 12 months of this podcast, which stretch from the start of his solo career to the start of the next century. Some would say that in that time period, his albums have remained almost significantly unchanged, that each showcases the talent that he has on his guitar, but that in general you could play a song from one album and then a song from another, and it would be difficult to perceive any great difference in the output. That is not an unfair assumption, because in most ways Yngwie stuck to what he knew and obviously what he enjoyed, the ability to showcase his guitaring talent in a way that was flashily pertinent to himself, and in some way attempt to create a song around that which would appeal in some way to his fan base.
In 1998 he did something that he had been building up to over a number of years with his album “Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra”, The album was Malmsteen's first attempt at a classical concerto suite featuring electric guitar solos. All of the music was composed by Malmsteen, though his compositions were scored by his friend and fellow musician David Rosenthal and performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. It was perhaps the first moment where Yngwie began to do things that he wanted to perform rather than to try and make a commercial breakthrough. This has been followed by the album “Alchemy”, which saw a return to material that was not written and performed for that same process.
Into the year 2000, and with the sting of the previous decade being retracted, and a definite feel of nostalgia creeping into music being written by bands that harked back to their roots of the 1980’s, Yngwie probably found himself back in his element – the opportunity to create an album that utilised all of his most famous tricks, with an air of expectation that that sound may once again become the status quo. Thus was the atmosphere that Yngwie brought to the world his new album and first of the new century, titled “War to End All Wars”.

The album begins with a fire and fury that hasn’t been heard for some time on an Yngwie Malmsteen album. And it is something that repeats itself through most of the album. “Prophet of Doom” opens the doorway and lets the demons fly out, anticipating a style that many have often looked for from Yngwie Malmsteen and his band but have rarely sighted. John Macaluso on drums comes to the fore immediately, not doubt given strict instructions as to how the drums were to sound here for this album, and complying implicitly. Mats Olausson on keyboards is offered the same advice, to duel with Yngwie when asked, and beyond that provide the support that the song requires, which he does as he has done on several other Yngwie albums with aplomb.
The second track “Crucify” is where you get a real feel for Yngwie on the other instruments, and how powerful he is in utilising them. The bass line on this track is brutal, Yngwie plays it extremely hard on this song, and it has an unusual guttural sound about it, flying along at the same speed as his guitar over the top. The sitar as well, making an appearance through different moments of the song gives it that eastern attraction that Yngwie does on occasions. “Crucify” goes for almost seven minutes, and along with this often brutal but at times scintillatingly brilliant song, Boals and his vocals perform acoustic acrobatics, reaching highs and beyond that he has hinted at before, but perhaps has never performed to the levels he does on this track. It is an amazing song, one that sets a new bar for the best songs of Yngwie Malmsteen’s career. “Bad Reputation” musically channels the most recent albums from the band, but with a renewed emphasis on the vocals, where Boals again excels, bring his amazing range into the track. In the verse and bridge of the songs he does sound like he is moving along the same vocal lines as from his best known work with the band in “Trilogy”, but when he goes out on his own to really hit the notes above that wavy line he sounds magnificent. And again, this is fairly noticeable all the way through the album. When he sings the same tone along the riff, with a multilayered vocal to make sound as though many are there rather than one, it does have similarities to other work. But when he just goes back and sings unabated, he and this album jump out of the ground and out of the speakers at you. It is when it is at its most brilliant.
“Catch 22” is mostly about Yngwie’s superb guitaring. And yes, that is obviously every song here, because that is what every Yngwie Malmsteen album is about. But his rhythm riff on this track is somewhat astounding. It is something to hear, to try and discern how he can play it. That bass guitar again as well, especially in playoff underneath his guitar solo in the middle of the track, is outstanding. The low guttural sound again, but moving in and away from what the guitar is doing, in an almost Geezer Butler way. It is superb, and Mark Boals sings the hell out of this song too. “Masquerade” is the most commercial sounding track on the album, but not in the way that sounds. Unlike the way Yngwie once chased the commercial route, this just has a brighter tone about it, and more rock structure, but with the anticipated Yngwie guitar blow outs. It starts with verse/chorus/verse, nice riff and great vocal, and then Yngwie goes full Yngwie and lets fly with his guitar solo piece that blows that out of the water, and brinsg this back to pure Malmsteen magic. On this song you can hear where Stratovarius and Sonata Arctica and Rhapsody and other bands of that ilk in the European power metal scene got their ideas, because it is all contain on this song. It's another beauty. The instrumental “Molto Arpeggiosa” follows, and follows the note by note playbook that so many of his instrumentals follow.
“Miracle of Life” is the power ballad of the album, the type that Yngwie does on every album, the one that I think he think will draw people to the album and have them connect with everything else he has played on the album. It isn’t necessarily true of course. Often they are the songs that you skip to get to the next great faster heavier song. Over his career he has produced some good versions of these types of tracks. This one is listenable without being terrible, but it does act as a momentum killer. Some of course may believe this album needed a circuit break, which this could be classified as. Back to the main event though with “The Wizard”, that fast paced double kick rhythm with Yngwie’s fingers flying up and down the fretboard and Boals flying over the top. Yngwie’s solo on this track is absolutely scintillating, careering along at the speed that has been set by the drums and bass. It stretches far beyond the vocals coming back into the track, and is an exceptional five minutes plus of Yngwie Malmsteen magic. It is one of the best tracks on the album.
“Preludium” is as the title suggests, a prelude to the next rack. It gives Yngwie the opportunity again to showcase his love of the neo-classical range of his music, something that dates back to his first ever solo album where he showcased it in spades. This acts as a nice callback to those times, and also as a bridge to those times and to the present day. It segues straight into “Wild One”, which feels like a more modern update on a song from the “Trilogy” album. Indeed, this would fit very well into that period with the structure and style of the song and vocals very reminiscent of that age. “Tarot” does the same thing, taking that middle distant mid-tempo that Yngwie enjoyed while playing his flying gutar licks and solos over the top to create a dual speed symphony is performed to perfection here. “InstruMental Institution" is the third Yngwie instrumental, with almost all apart from the drums played by him. It allows him to once again express himself in that way he does so well, and reintroduce the playoff between guitar and synth that for the most part is absent from this album, but is still a joy to hear whenever he decides to bring it back to the party. The album then concludes with the title track, “War to End All Wars", another of the fastest paced tracks on the album, highlighting again just how this album was constructed and played, how the music was written and composed, and the major counterpoint to the albums that have come before it. In many places this could almost be classified as speed metal such is its careering off the rails style - and I am here for every single part of it.

As I have made mention of on other episodes that have been discussing albums by Yngwie Malmsteen, I had a period of about a decade where I had more or less written off Yngwie as someone I needed to keep up with. I loved and love his first albums, but “Eclipse” and “Fire and Ice” which had come in the early part of the 1990’s decade had turned me off, and with that changing decade (not only in music but in major parts of my own life) I was happy to seek out other avenues and bands to explore. And, as I also explained on the recent episode to discuss his 1995 album “Magnum Opus”, it wasn’t until “Unleash the Fury” attracted me once again in the middle 2000’s that I rediscovered a desire to go back and listen to all of the albums I had missed. And there were a few of them!
This one was an interesting one from the outset. If there was a fury that needed to be let out and engaged, I think this was the album that had it. Some of Yngwie’s guitaring on this album, as I have already discussed, is outrageously scintillating. He goes all out, bringing fire to his music, but also trying to bring back the 1980’s sound that other bands were also dabbling in, and in his case, I think trying to reconnect with a fan base that may have drifted away. So many of the aspects of this album spoke quite loudly to me because I was one of those fans that I feel this album was designed to try and speak to and draw back into the fold. For me of course, it was 5-6 years later than when the album was released, which was probably unfortunate for both Yngwie AND me.
Does this album offer anything new? Not really. As I’ve said, to me it sounds like an album that is trying to bring back the fan base. That means if you enjoy the first few albums that Yngwie released in the 1980’s, you will probably find something here that you will enjoy. If you enjoyed his 1990 album, there is also material here that you will enjoy. If you do not like Yngwie and his flamboyant guitaring antics, then you will not find anything here that will change your mind. He is a creature of habit, and promoting Yngwie and his guitaring is basically number one on his to do list.
Listening to this album again this week I have been surprised just how much it does remind me of the “Trilogy” album, which of course Mark Boals also sang on. That connection to the past is far stronger than I remembered when I first heard the album. And perhaps it is just that I am older now, and those kinds of connections are becoming more important to me, or perhaps just more noticeable. It is definitely a heavier album than those earlier albums. Yngwie has ramped up his material here to fit in with the heavier side of his music without losing his vital and quintessential characteristics that his guitaring style requires in order to make it his album. Having the experience and excellence of Boals as lead vocalist is a definite plus as well. For me, it is a shame that this was his final album with Yngwie, though given Yngwie’s notoriously difficult personality and how many artists have struggled to get along with his ego, perhaps the two album stretch was about what you would expect.
If you want to hear a heavier, uptempo style of Yngwie’s music that he produced in the 1980’s then this is still an excellent listen, and to fans I can’t recommend it enough. To those who aren’t, I’m sure you have already heard enough.

1267. Yngwie Malmsteen / Trial by Fire: Live in Leningrad. 1989. 5/5

Yngwie Malmsteen, Yngwie J. Malmsteen, or Yngwie J. Malmsten’s Rising Force, or any of the other names that Yngwie has released his albums under over the last 40 years, had been on a hot steak from the time that their eponymous guitar prodigy had moved on from stints in bands such as Steeler and Alcatrazz and struck out on his own with his own band in tow. After three amazing albums in “Rising Force”, “Marching Out” and “Trilogy”, he had teamed up with lead vocalist Joe Lynn Turner to produce the “Odyssey” album, one where the band gained their first charted single, and continued with rising album sales across the world. So, what comes next after you see a constant rise in popularity? Well, you go out and record a live album, don’t you? To showcase how good your band sounds on stage, and hopefully also bring in more fans to your music and have them consider buying tickets to your concerts as well.
The album was recorded during the band’s gigs in Leningrad in the old Soviet Union in February 1989 and features arguably the band’s best line up showcasing material from arguably the band’s best four albums. Over the years it has been noted often that Yngwie was a difficult person to work with, always looking for perfection, but with an ego that would also be difficult to work with. During the tour for the “Odyssey” album, on which this live album was recorded, there were reported differences of opinion between Malmsteen and Turner, both of whom felt they were the person to take centre stage. Turner should have been familiar with this given his time in Rainbow alongside Ritchie Blackmore, who was Malmsteen’s idol and another ego centric character. Despite these perceived differences, this album contains performances that do indeed showcase the best of what the Rising Force band were able to produce at that time, and as such is a terrific live album to listen to.

The album has 11 tracks to it, which offers you a taste of each piece of the Yngwie Malmsteen puzzle. The songs of the album that the band is touring on to promote are heavily featured, with “Deja Vu”, “Heaven Tonight”, “Dreaming (Tell Me)” and “Crystal Ball”, all of which are fantastic. Joe Lynn Turner gives a great vocal performance on them. The album also has some chosen tracks from the earlier albums, such as “Liar” and “Queen in Love” from “Trilogy”, and “You Don’t Remember, I’ll Never Forget” from the “Marching Out” album. The strangest choice here is the cover of the Jimi Hendrix Experience song “Spanish Castle Magic”. Sure, it is another opportunity for Yngwie to shred his way through a song by a fellow iconic guitarist, but with so much material of his own on offer to put out there to satisfy his fans, he chose to play this instead.
Then we have the instrumental, guitar riffing laden tracks that Yngwie has made his own. Two of these from the first album, “Far Beyond the Sun” and “Black Star”, are the songs that truly brought him to prominence, songs without vocals that are still just as amazing to listen to today as they were when they were released, and these live versions of the tracks are no different. Yngwie’s guitar solo spot in the middle of the set contains pieces of different various classical suites and stretches to over ten minutes. These three instrumental tracks take up a little over 25 minutes of the 65 minute album. And yes, they are important because they showcase who Yngwie Malmsteen is and what he can do. So, bravo for that. BUT... possibly, could it have been better if they had put some more actual songs onto the album to help maintain that side of the album? The video released with the same name as this album contained three further tracks, which would have added to this album immensely. “Rising Force”, “Fury” and “Riot in the Dungeons” are all terrific songs and while they were no doubt edited out to keep this as a single album and not a double, it is a shame not to have them. It is worth watching the video not only for these songs, but to see Yngwie capture the camera and the stage with his guitaring. It is something to behold.

Yngwie Malmsteen has been a part of my music life since very early on in my heavy metal existence. My heavy metal music dealer was very kind in furnishing me with those first three albums when they were released, and “Odyssey” is one that was purchased very close to its day of release. I am fairly certain that I actually saw the video of this concert before I got the album, once again with that same old metal dealer inviting me over to watch it one day. Jason Kearin certainly has a lot to answer for, or more precisely to be thanked for.
The video and album of this live release are both terrific, and had a lot of airplay back at the time of its release. At that point in time Yngwie had not toured Australia, so this was what we had to imagine just what it would be like to see him play live. And this band was terrific. The brothers Johanssen, with Anders on drums and Jens on keyboards, along with Barry Dunaway on bass guitar, do an admirable job of backing up the two stars of the show without trying to outshine them (though on the video Jens does look like he would prefer to be more in the action). Joe Lynn Turner croons and emotes through the whole set list in his inimitable style, while Yngwie himself takes the centre stage and holds it throughout.
I’ve been listening to this album again for this podcast episode, and it has been enjoyable, but I have different feelings about it now than I remember doing when it was first released. Back then I know I loved it, and spent weeks and months playing it over and over. And it is still a good album. But, unlike a lot of live albums, I found my interest waning quickly when I’ve had it on this time around. And for me now, the excess of the instrumental tracks, the Jimi Hendrix cover, all of that is a bit much. They are great, especially “Black Star” and “Far Beyond the Sun”, but if they had removed the other two and hit me with those three songs that are on the video, I would be enjoying this a hell of a lot more at this point of life that I am. Now it is an album that I could have listened to a couple of times, and been happy to stop there. But, because I am dedicated to this podcast and the episodes I produce, that just wouldn’t have been good enough. And so you have my more accurate position on this album 35 years on from its release. It sounds good, and it is more than worth a listen. But then, go back to the actual studio albums. They will retain your interest far longer than this.
When the tour concluded, the band imploded, and everyone moved on to other projects. Yngwie brough in new band members and continued on, including a tour of Australia following the next studio album. But that story must wait for another episode.

1248. Yngwie Malmsteen / The Seventh Sign. 1994. 3/5

The career of Yngwie Malmsteen as we reached the middle years of the 90’s decade had seen the extreme highs of playing to sold out crowds around the world and seeing his music videos plastered all over music programs across the globe, and posters of himself being pinned up in bedrooms everywhere. As a guitarist he was considered one of the best, one of the main influences and purveyors of the instrument in the modern age, and with good reason. He had a solo career with albums that were the envy of other musicians, showcasing not only his amazing guitar skills on these songs but an ability to write songs that were also catchy enough to make an impression on the charts, which was something that he had strived for over a long period of time.
The end of the 1980’s decade had seen four masterful solo albums and a live album and video to match, and it appeared that he was trending upward in every respect. The 1990’s however didn’t quite work out the way that he had hoped, with the advent of grunge and alternative music putting a big hole through his fan base. In the US especially this genre of music was sucking the life out of every other pursuit, including guitar gods who specialised in neo-classical guitar riffing and the power ballad in particular. The two albums Yngwie released in the 1990’s with new vocalist Goran Edman, “Eclipse” and “Fire and Ice”, were still popular, but trended down on the success that his initial albums had produced. And while the US and to a lesser extent the UK was moving away from his style of guitar and synth based music, it was Japan and Europe that continued to fly the flag for this style, and it found Yngwie retreating into their territory as the safe haven that his music required, where he could still retain his popularity without having to compromise to what was occurring elsewhere in the music world. It meant that his albums through the 1990’s were generally only released in Japan and Europe, something that probably did affect sales elsewhere in the world, but to what extent will never really be known.

It does take a special person to want to go out and buy every Yngwie Malmsteen album. There is a penchant for the song structures to become very similar throughout, a trend that really only started from the “Odyssey” album onwards.
This album, unlike most of the albums up to this point in time in the Malmsteen catalogue, does have what I consider to be three clearly defined sections when it comes to the type of songs produced. Michael Vescera, the new vocalist on this album following the release of Edman, has contributed lyrics to three songs on the album, and they strike out at you immediately. All three tracks have a different structure and are sung in a very different way. For instance, “I Don’t Know” has the sort of lyrics and vocals that are aimed at the audience the band is trying to attract. The fast double kick drum has gone and is replaced with a much harder rock hammering 4/4 timing, and the vocals are the hard rock standard as well, not soaring or screaming, but just at you in an almost conversational way. “Bad Blood” and “Crash and Burn” have the same tempo as this, completely different from what you would usually expect. Did Vescera take on these particular tracks to contribute to deliberately? It’s an interesting overview, that his lyrical writing came on the three songs that have this same style.
Beyond these tracks, we have the tracks penned entirely by Malmsteen himself which as always have his two usual styles coming at you – the fast paced guitar/synth based power metal that is punctuated by his amazing solo pieces that are the real reason we all come to listen to a Yngwie Malmsteen album, and then the power ballad slower tracks where he tries to suck us in to believing he could be a popular commercial success.
The former styled songs such as the opening track “Never Die”, “Hairtrigger”, the excellent title track “Seventh Sign” and “Pyramid of Cheops” which are the more immediately enjoyable, with the faster pace, backed by Yngwie’s great guitar riffing and solid harder styled vocals from Vescera that make the journey a far more enjoyable one. “Pyramid of Cheops” is certainly the heaviest song on the album, with a real driving beat and moody tempo that defies what Yngwie usually offers on his albums.
The other style is highlighted by songs such as “Meant to Be” and “Forever One” that drag out into infinity with the ballad vocals and Yngwie’s classical-styled guitar that is able to be appreciated for its intricacy but perhaps not loved for its output. “Prisoner of Your Love” in particular is extraordinarily painful, and yes, awful. With lyrics composed by Yngwie’s then wife Amberdawn, it is just the kind of track that should be thrown away in post-production or assigned as a last-minute bonus track to the Japanese release if at all. Yngwie also has two of his instrumental pieces here, “Brothers” and the closing track “Sorrow”, which as always hark back to his earliest work, though without the real originality that those songs and albums contain.

I loved all of Yngwie’s first four albums. His debut album was actually one of the first albums that I bought on CD when I first got my stereo with a CD player on it, and it was played a lot as a result. And I first got to see Yngwie live at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney on the Eclipse Tour, which was amazing.
It was the “Eclipse” album that I felt things started to turn for Yngwie, and the commercialisation that he was looking for at that time changed my perception of his music. When “Fire and Ice” followed and was in a similar ilk, I moved away from his music for about a decade, as other music genres and bands began to take a precedence over what I perceived to be Yngwie’s obsession.
A decade later, and in a different period of my life, and I decided to go back in time, and check out what the maestro had been doing over that period, and on the back of what I considered two very good albums at the turn of the century, I also went in to check out exactly what this album was like. And though there had been a change in personnel since I had last heard him, my ears were still biased against what he was producing here. I enjoy a few of the tracks, but overall I wasn’t amazed by the output. I thought Michael Vescera had a good sounding voice, but without the amount of amazing guitar work that Yngwie had always inserted into his earliest work, it didn’t grab me enough to really push forward.
Another two decades later, and I am once again revisiting this album. And it would be fair to say that if I wasn’t doing this podcast I very probably may never have listened to this album again. But I have, and I’m glad I have. Over a number of weeks, I have now listened to this album many times more than I have in the previous 30 years, and while this still has many flaws that would make it very difficult for it to be on a listening rotation with me, I’ve grown to enjoy it far more than I ever have. It’s still obvious that Yngwie at this time was still looking for a commercial success that had well and truly passed him by at this stage of his career, and was still not utilising his guitar enough. But there are some good moments here, and if you have it tracking in the background while you are pottering around the house or at work, then there is enough here to catch your attention along the way. It will never be one that I grab off the shelves when I want to listen to a Yngwie Malmsteen album. And there is now every chance that given this episode is almost over, I may never listen to it again. That in itself is perhaps the most incisive review I could offer you on just how engaging “The Seventh Sign” is.

1120. Yngwie Malmsteen / Parabellum. 2021. 4/5

Yngwie Malmsteen has had a long and storied career in the music industry. He made his name with his amazing guitar skills, and a slew of albums through the 1980’s including Rising Force, Marching Out, Trilogy and Odyssey that sent his reputation soaring. His desire to become a commercial hit drove him constantly and meant an ever-changing and mass rotation of band members and song styles that often found his star either glowing or waning depending on which stanza you found him at. This was especially true of his lead vocalists, who came and went as though through a revolving door. His reputation for perfection and for being difficult to work with meant that sooner or later you felt that the only way he was going to be able to keep producing albums that he wanted to hear was to actually work on them himself, and write and record them pretty much on his lonesome. And to the great surprise of no one, that is eventually the road he went down. In recent years, and certainly here in the case of Parabellum, Yngwie plays all of the guitars, all of the bass, does all of the drum programming, and where it becomes necessary, provides all of the vocals.
In an interview with Guitar World magazine from May this year, Yngwie was quoted about what went in to recording this new album: “I always try to push myself on every album I do, and attempt things which are more extreme than previously. But what has helped this time is that I wasn't able to go on the road because of the pandemic. It meant I could take much longer in the studio, both to write and record. Because I am usually always on tour, which is great, I haven't had the luxury of spending a lot of time working on new music for more than 20 years. But I suddenly had no pressure at all on that front. And I feel the album has benefited enormously as a result.”

While Yngwie’s albums have generally employed a lead vocalist for a majority of the songs through his career, in his most recent albums and also again here on Parabellum, Yngwie has ditched the lead vocalist, and done all of the vocals himself. This has inevitably led to more songs once again becoming just instrumentals as Yngwie lets his guitar doing the talking instead. Indeed, just four songs on Parabellum have lyrics. And his vocals aren’t bad as such, but they aren’t a strong lead vocal like fans were used to when people like Mark Boals, Joe Lynn Turner, Doogie White and Jeff Scott Soto. Of the four songs that contain vocals, there is a mixture in the quality. “Wolves at the Door”, “Relentless Fury” and “(Fight) The Good Fight” all, for the most part, sound very similar. This comes about because the sections where Yngwie is singing all have the same double time double kick operating underneath a rhythm riff that is basically just filler, allowing him to sing over the top of it. And, to be fair, his vocals as I said are not strong, and also sit in a very narrow range that doesn’t really ever change. So while they aren’t terrible, they just aren’t very interesting either, adding little to those songs. Now, once the songs break out of the vocals part, and Yngwie gets back to doing what he is good at which is playing elaborate guitar solos, then each of these songs is on the improve.
“Eternal Bliss” though is sadly a terrible attempt at the power ballad. Terrible. It is slightly reminiscent of his days in the early 90’s when he hoped to be a commercial success, and for me at least turned me off his music for about a decade. This song is the glaringly awful song on the album, the one that sucks a great deal of the joy one feels about it just by being there.
The remainder of the album is a collection of great instrumental tracks in the best Yngwie Malmsteen method. His guitaring has returned here to his neoclassical roots, and his fingers fly over the fretboard to keep us all entertained. “Presto Vivace in C# minor” - yep, that’s the name of the track – is fantastic, reminding us all how proficient he is at playing classically written music on the guitar. The title track “Parabellum” is another hard packed guitar track, charging to its conclusion with riffs that must have made his fingers bleed. “Toccata” and “Magic Bullet” are also great fast paced songs that will remind you of Yngwie’s heyday. “God Particle” is a slightly different song from the others on the album, mixing the vibe with classical guitar and electrified shredding, while the closing track “Sea of Tranquillity” is another beauty, though perhaps if one is to be slightly picky, it does feel as though it goes on a bit long toward the end of the track.

Maybe Yngwie is right in suggesting that because he had time to sit down and write and record this album because he couldn’t do anything else because of the covid 19 pandemic, that this makes this album the best he has done for some time. Because I really feel that listening to this album. The last Yngwie album I really got excited about and enjoyed was 2005’s Unleash the Fury with Doogie White on vocals. Prior to that you’d probably have to go back to 1988’s Odyssey. In between there have been albums I was excited about, such as 1990’s Eclipse and 2008’s Perpetual Flame, but in both of those cases I felt extremely let down and indeed steered clear of Yngwie for a time after both of those albums.
Here on Parabellum it sounds as though he has the mix right again. The majority of the songs here are just Yngwie banging away on his guitar, producing the amazing sounds that are the reason we all discovered him in the first place. And more importantly, they are brilliant guitar sounds, showcasing his wonderful talent without trying to find a format or written way to express himself. If he just spent his time over this last 12 months just hammering away with licks and riffs, and then found the best way to put them together into songs, then he should be doing that all the time from now on, because this really works terrifically well.

Rating: No need for lyrics, the master is back. 4/5

1012. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force / Odyssey. 1988. 4/5

Yngwie Malmsteen’s fight for commercial recognition and success had continued to build throughout the 1980’s. He had a tough fight on his hands. Not only did he want to showcase his amazing guitaring, but he wanted to do it in a fashion that would also find itself commercially viable in the world of rock radio around the globe. No easy feat. The recruiting of the Johannsen brothers, keyboardist Jens and drummer Anders helped to settle the band, especially the keyboard and synth skills of Jens, but what was perhaps the best commercial move was the obtaining of former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner as front man for the album. The result was this album, and in that commercial sense Odyssey became the most successful of Yngwie’s career.

When this was released back in 1988, I just loved it. It was one of four or five albums that year that I wore to death, furrowing deeper grooves in the vinyl and stretching the tape on the cassette copy by the number of times I played it. Even those songs that were of the slower, verging on ballad-like qualities, the ones that in the not-too-distant future I would be decrying as a menace to heavy metal, I still loved and sang along to. Some people around me would write this album off as trash, as just a narcissist on guitar surrounded by musical fluff and patsy lyrics by a narcissist on vocals. In those days I was mostly blind to any of that. I loved the tempo and the atmosphere of the tracks, and the honeyed vocals of Turner allowed me to generally wash over the lyrics and just enjoy the songs as they came out at me. Any arguments to the contrary were for me shut down by the massive disappointment of the following album Eclipse which really did head down a complete commercial path. Again, I was mostly blinded against any criticism.
Listening to this album today, you can hear that it has dated quite massively. It is very much tied to the era, with the keyboard and synth highly involved despite the master craftsman on guitar being the showcase piece. And without appearing to bow to those naysayers of the past, Turner’s vocals and some of his lyrics are just a little too stonewashed and gratified to be completely comfortable with. It would be an easy thing to dismiss this as a stereotypical 80’s overhyped synth guitar album with little or no substance, and place it back in the racks.
But there is still more to this album than that.
It has those moments that are obvious attempts to crack into that radio market, songs that have been crafted by both the writer of the music (Malmsteen) and the writer of the lyrics (Turner) to find their way into the popular market. The single released from the album, “Heaven Tonight”, had that kind of business trade, the music video also helping to raise its profile. It may not have made the grade in Australia, but overseas the single saw good sales and promotion of the album itself. It is a genuine single, written to be so, and yet it is still enjoyable from a purist Yngwie fan to love. “Hold On” and “Dreaming (Tell Me)” are both in the power ballad category, though with that distinctive Yngwie guitar sound that puts it at a bit above that level, giving you something to enjoy that doesn’t always come with a power ballad. “Now is the Time” is not in this class of song, but it is quite a sugary rock song that suits the radio metaphor. If someone were to say to me that these were rubbish songs that made the album unenjoyable to them, I could understand where they were coming from. Not agree, but understand.
Because then you have the songs on here that make the ride well worthwhile. The opening track “Rising Force” is a cracker, starting the album off on the right foot and at the right tempo. After the somewhat powder puff remainder of the first side of the album it concludes with the rollicking “Riot in the Dungeons” which increases the tempo nicely. The second side of the album has the two star attractions, those being “Déjà Vu” and “Crystal Ball”. Either or both of these should have been singles if Yngwie was really serious about hitting that commercial market, and not because they are commercial songs in the same way that “Heaven Tonight” is. Both have those characteristics but they are not purposely written in that way. Both are great sounding hard rock track backed by trademark Malmsteen riffs and terrific vocals from Turner that make them stand out from the crowd. “Crystal Ball” especially is a terrific track that is still one of my favourite Yngwie songs. “Faster Than the Speed of Light” is also a fun faster track on the back half of the album. To top it all off, the three instrumental tracks – “Bite the Bullet”, “Krakatau” and “Memories” – all showcase Yngwie’s wonderful skills to their utmost.

I have no doubt that if I was rating this back in 1990 I would have been throwing full marks at this album. As I said, I loved this back in the day. With years for both the album and my music tastes to mellow somewhat, I accept that there are a few flaws on the album that I may well have ignored when it was released. None of that wipes away my enjoyment of this album to this day however. It may not be perfect and it may come across as overblown, but I still love it for all its cracks.

Rating:  “Through the doorways of the heart, step inside, the magic starts.”   4/5

896. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / Perpetual Flame. 2008. 4/5

When I first heard that Tim Owens was going to be the lead vocalist on the new Yngwie Malmsteen album, it was the most excited I had been about a new Yngwie album since the release of Odyssey way back in 1988. I mean, how could it miss? Yngwie's guitaring and Ripper's amazing vocals? It had to be a win-win situation.
Of course, in most circumstances when I think things like this I am dreadfully disappointed in the long run.

Once again the album is a mix of songs with vocals and straight instrumentals. The instrumentals on this album are on a par as in recent times for Yngwie. As has started to become a regular thing, Yngwie plays all of the lead and rhythm guitars as well as the bass guitar on all tracks, as well as additional keyboards, also wrote and composed all of the tracks on the album. So, in essence, with the instrumental tracks, it is all Yngwie. So judge the material on the back of one man's effort and ability. As is almost always the case with this man, these are just fantastic. "Caprici di Diablo" is followed on the album by "Lament", with both instrumentals clocking in at four and a half minutes. "Caprici di Diablo" is the faster paced of the two, while "Lament" has that extra emotion played into it with a melancholy pace. "Heavy Heart" is an almost epic finale to the album, featuring the best of the undercurrent rhythm while Yngwie layers his guitars over the top in a cavalcade of crushing riffs and runs.
The album opens with a fierce flurry on the guitars and the predictable and punishing Ripper scream to start the album off on the right foot. "Death Dealer" and "Damnation Game" both rip along at the best Yngwie speed, rifling guitar matched by the keyboards and hard hitting drums. Live to Fight (Another Day) slows the tempo back to a slower, heavier undertone, allowing Ripper to wax lyrical over the top of the grunging beat in duality. "Red Devil" is saved from the average by Yngwie's solo break which is the highlight of the song. "Four Horsemen (of the Apocalypse)", "Priest of the Unholy" and "Careful What You Wish For" are all excellent combinations of Ripper's vocals and Yngwie's amazing guitar sound.
Just to mix things up, "Magic City" has only Yngwie providing lead and backing vocals on a lengthy 7+ minute track. The change in vocals is absolute. Not that there is anything wrong with Yngwie's singing, but it is a stark difference form the powerhouse that is Tim "Ripper" Owens. "Eleventh Hour" sees the return of Ripper to the microphone, before the concluding "Heavy Heart" puts a close on the album.
Is there a down side? If I was to be nit-picking, Ripper's vocals all seem to be on the one wave length. There is not the variety that he is capable of in both pitch and depth of character. For the most part of the album he retains a similar disposition, which could well be because of the way the songs were written rather than his personal preference. Everything still sounds brilliant, but perhaps a bit of variety in the vocals would have improved things even more. Like I said, nit-picking.

Overall it is another terrific album from Yngwie and his dwindling support staff. His return to form after a lacklustre decade during the 1990's is a welcome one. While he has had a number of people performing vocals for him throughout his career, Ripper also bring back a power to this side of the material that is both welcome and challenging.

Rating:  "Now the demon is here again, vengeance is burning in my soul".  4/5

894. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / Trilogy. 1986. 4.5/5

Whether you love him or hate him, there is no denying the fact that Yngwie Malmsteen is an absolute freak on the guitar. While many who admire this fact are also vocal about the mainstream way Yngwie approached his career, citing that looked for a commercial bent in his song writing to reflect an ambition beyond just being a superb guitar player, I can only say that, for the first few albums of his career at least, I loved every single aspect of it.

Trilogy continues along the same path that was started with Marching Out. Instrumental pieces featuring Yngwie's amazing talent are mixed with fully fledged songs that combine lyrics with guitar and keyboard solos all structure within the fabric of the tracks. Some suggested they had a commercial bent. I prefer to describe them as catchy pieces with simplified lyrics. None of the songs here have the slightly more complicated story-telling tales that accompanied the tracks on the previous album. They are simple, and designed one would suggest for the sing-along aspect that they actually encourage.
For the most part this album isn't as furious as Marching Out, but it is no less enjoyable. New vocalist Mark Boals has an impressive set of pipes on him, and the music almost feels as though it has been put in that mid-tempo range to allow him to croon over the top and not feel rushed. The major tracks such as "You Don't Remember, I'll Never Forget" and "Queen in Love" use this to their advantage. They aren't fast, but Boals uses his range to deftly create the mood of the song, which is then replicated during Yngwie's guitar solo break. "Dark Ages" is a slower and darker mood than these songs, but uses similar techniques.
The faster tracks such as "Liar" and "Fury" enhance the upbeat tempo by being fuelled by the double kick drum of Anders Johansson throughout the length of the song, which again is replicated by a faster paced fretboard action from Yngwie during his break. His duelled solos with Jens Johansson's keyboards generate the highlight of these songs, a nice touch that is a hallmark of most of the best Yngwie Malmsteen songs. "Fire" is probably the heaviest song on the album, using conventional drumming but with a heavier emphasis on the guitars and vocals. "Magic Mirror" is a more power metal styled faster paced song again.
As will always be the case with Yngwie, he still has his instrumental pieces, where he can structure his guitar to maximise its exposure while the rest of the instruments are generally there to enhance rather than take centre stage. "Crying" is a good example of this, while the closing track "Trilogy Suite Op: 5" showcases the best that he has to offer.

Yngwie Malmsteen is a wonderful guitarist, and more than handy on just about every other instrument as well. He once again takes on all roles here apart from the Johansson brothers on keyboards and drums. Mark Boals brought a less frenetic style of vocals to the album, which is probably also reflected in the music itself. I still love this album, and think it is a great testament to Yngwie's talent and the growing European power metal sound that this was a forerunner to.

Rating:   "I now will tell you all a story, that no one ever heard before".  4.5/5

818. Yngwie Malmsteen / Magnum Opus. 1995. 3.5/5

The 1990’s is a decade where Yngwie J. Malmsteen and whatever band he had acting as his support crew in those days should have both met its demise and flourished beyond recognition. With grunge and then alt metal and groove and industrial metal making its moves to inhabit the musical dynamic of the decade, Malmsteen form of power metal and guitar hero antics was never going to thrive in the areas where they have formed solid roots. And, for the most part, this is exactly what had happened. North America in particular turned against him, his attempt to crack the lucrative commercial radio market in the US in particular came to a crashing halt with the onset of the Seattle invasion, and the extending forms of musical genres away from that. 1988’s “Odyssey” had reached #40 on the US Billboard charts, 1990’s “Eclipse” could only manage #112, and #121 with “Fire and Ice” was his final appearance in 1992. But over in Europe, there was still a market for his music. Indeed, the burgeoning power metal scene throughout that continent had Yngwie Malmsteen to thank for its existence in the first place, and his albums still saw reasonable sales as a result. Sweden, Finland and the Nordic areas of his own youth still offered him the love for his music.
All of this must have led to a decision making process in Yngwie’s thoughts coming into a new album. While the world around him was changing its musical patterns, the foothold he had in Nordic countries and Japan must have given him the impetus to continue on his main music focus, and believe he could find a way to make a break in the market if he stuck to his guns. And so came the album titled “Magnum Opus”, one where he kept his gunpowder dry and kept charging at the front lines with his guitar driven songs in the hope that the opposition would fold in his wake.

The album explodes with exactly the kind of opening track you expect from an Yngwie Malmsteen album. The flowery flourishing guitar with all the trademark twiddles and tweaks, great vocals from the front man, on this occasion Michael Vescera once again, and the solid bass and drums underneath which form the base of the track. “Vengeance” does all of these things, following the template that has been well grooved by this stage of Malmsteen’s career. It is just as enjoyable and fun to listen to as most opening tracks on his albums are. “No Love Lost” is perhaps the most commercially pleasing song Yngwie has performed since the halcyon days of the “Odyssey” album some 7 years earlier. The chorus riff and vocal is perfectly written and performed for the commercial market. Unfortunately, by 1995 this had disappeared completely from most places on earth, instead buried in alt rock and industrial metal. For European audiences, while they would still have eaten this up, even they were moving to a faster paced double kick style of power metal, a bit more aggressive and a bit more ballady. This is a great hard rock song, a really exceptional one in fact. If it had come years earlier, it could well have done great things for the band. Instead, it makes a great second up song for this album. “Tomorrow’s Gone” follows and has an eastern almost Egyptian feel about the music and by association the vocals as well. A drop back in tempo and a harder stop start feel about the guitar and vocal brings a moodier aspect to the song. This does however tone down the contribution of Malmsteen’s guitar work for the most part, and when it does come in it is made to work harder and grittier rather than the floury procession it most often attains. As a counter point to the songs to this point of the album it actually works quite well, and Vescera's vocals are perhaps the best part of the song.
“The Only One”, in much the same way as “No Love Lost”, is a very commercially structured track, everything about it looking for the radio and singles charts. And, in exactly the same way as the flaws are exposed in the reasons behind that particular track, they come in to play here as well. This just isn’t the right time. It feels, when listening to this song on this album, that the moment has passed, and that this has been dreadfully misdiagnosed as a song for the time. Is it okay? Yeah, I guess so, especially if you like the 90’s albums “Eclipse” and “Fire and Ice”, because that is what is sounds like it is from. It... just doesn’t fit. And, further on to that is “I’d Die Without You”, the dreaded ballad. Apart from Yngwie’s classically toned acoustic clear guitar doodle to open the song, this really does tread down a path that has been worn away to almost nothing in the years passed. The most shuddering thing about this song however is the similarity of the chorus in music (and vocally) to the Tom Waits song “Downtown Train”. Listen to the chorus of that song, and then the chorus of this song. I think you will be suitably staggered and will never be able to listen to this song again without thinking of that other track.
“Overture 1622” is the atypical Yngwie Instrumental piece, and one he still composes and plays brilliantly. You certainly can’t knock what he does when he decides to go down this path. And yes, for some it may sound the same as the other instrumental pieces he has done over the years. But I still love them, and this one is no exception. It is then followed by “Voodoo”, which delves into areas that sound both familiar and yet distant. It has similarities to it as already discussed from the albums that came out with Goran Edman on vocals, the style of the track structure is similar and the vocals are as well. There is a lot to like about this style of Yngwie song, and the fact it is incorporated here is still a pleasing aspect of the album. Yngwie’s soloing in the middle of the track also helps to anchor the track to that era.
“Cross the Line” is... well... NOT an Yngwie Malmsteen song. This riff and bassline are more like late 1980’s LA glam metal than anything that Yngwie usually offers us. And – once again – it's at least half a decade too late for this kind of material. Hey, it’s fine to listen to now, but at the time this album was released, it was waaaaay too late for this. Yngwie’s guitaring too is so unlike him it is almost disturbing. This is almost LA Guns or Ratt like in composition and performance. On many listens to the album, I can enjoy it now for what it is. But it is such a change up, many fans might just pass this over as a result. I couldn’t blame them if they did.
“Time Will Tell” moves back into the mystical themes musically, Yngwie utilising eastern classical acoustic and clear guitar again, before powering into the opening riffs. It is an interesting musical style to go to again, but he has shown he is not afraid to visit several different styles on this album, none of which actually should work in that era of music. What they DO happen to do is appeal to his fan base. Vescera’s vocals are a star attraction again here. “Fire in the Sky” treads a typical post 1990 path with its musical track, the basic fast paced rhythm of the song with Vescera singing along the riff, leading into the instrumental solo break with playoff between the keys and Malmsteen’s guitar, and then back into the end of the song with the vocals into the chorus and the conclusion. It’s all fine to listen to – all Malmsteen lovers will enjoy it - but it certainly isn’t breaking any new ground when it comes to either his music or the genre in general.
The album then concludes, as per most of Yngwie’s album, with an instrumental which showcases his amazing guitar skills to ensure that this is the final memory you have of the album when it finishes. “Amberdawn”, named after his then wife, is a classic Yngwie instrumental track, beautiful in its composition and easy to listen to in awe, while again not bringing anything jaw dropping to the conclusion of the album.

It is fair to say that I have had my ups and downs with Yngwie Malmsteen and his albums over the years. From the very beginning, his first four albums and first live album, all released between 1984 and 1989, all grabbed me to my heart, and I still love them as much today as I did when I first heard them. From that point there was a difficulty. HIs 1990 album “Eclipse” and following tour of Australia failed to really live up to my demanding expectations, and along with other factors in life and with music, I then missed his releases from the 1990’s, including this album. It wasn’t until the release of his 2005 album “Unleash the Fury” that I rediscovered him as an artist, and wondered if I’d missed a trick in having ignored his material for almost 15 years. So I began to go backwards and chase up those albums he had released while I had been on hiatus, to see just what may have occurred. And overall, even though I have enjoyed bits and pieces of those albums, none of them really grabbed me as being top shelf albums. Until this one. Because when I first heard this album, I WAS transported back in time to better days.
As with other recent releases just prior to “Magnum Opus” this is a very commercial sounding release. There is no doubting the quality of Yngwie's guitaring, it is spectacular throughout. In fact, in many places it is the equal of anything he had produced up until this time. Michael Vescera, formerly of Loudness and many other projects, once again lends his vocals to this album and he sounds terrific. The rhythm section and keyboards are also all great. So what’s not to like?
Back off the shelves and back in the CD player this week, and I have heard all of the things as described in the previous section of this episode. And the great thing about the differences and changes and styles of the songs on this album when listening to it 30 years later is that it doesn’t affect the enjoyment of the album. On its release, it must have been weird though. Grunge and alt rock ruled the world, and here was an album that contained some songs that were looking to utilised the style and genre from 5-7 years prior, styles that for all intents and purposes in 1995 were dead! I do wonder how I would have felt about that if I had listened to it then instead of not for another decade after its release.
The majority of the songs here seem to be structured that way. Yngwie's solo's in the middle of the songs that require vocals are great. The places where a tough sounding start comes in, such as with "Vengeance" the opening track. When it wants to be a bit harder and a bit faster, it sounds great. But when the sensibilities change - sometime in the middle of a song - it just sounds a little out of place. Songs like "Vengeance" and "Voodoo" are really good songs. Even the very Eclipse-era sounding "No Love Lost" sounds fine here. But they are dragged down by songs such as "The Only One" and "I'd Die Without You" and "Cross the Line" that can't cut the mustard.
Despite this, I have really enjoyed hearing this album again over the last week or so. I’ve given it 10 really good listens, and I would not be averse to continuing to listen to it a bit more. It isn’t a perfect album, but as a showcase to Malmsteen skills and Vescera's voice, it is well worth any fan of their work checking it out.

773. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / Spellbound: Live in Tampa. 2014. 2.5/5

You would think that a live album - correction, a double live album - featuring Yngwie Malmsteen, arguably the most celebrated guitarist of our time, should be a no brainer. We already know he pretty much plays live what he does in the studio because he is such a stickler for his instrument, so you know that they guitaring will be superb. Then we know he has an extensive catalogue of songs, both with vocals, and just instrumentals, so that he will surely choose a set list that will have everyone jumping. And even though he played almost every instrument on his last album Spellbound, including the sparse vocals that were required, we know he has had a brilliant array of vocalists through the years, so no matter who he employed to sing on this would be terrific.
Well, most of that doesn't really come to pass at all on this live album, Spellbound: Live in Tampa.

The majority of this double album is made up of instrumental numbers. Now, that's not such a big deal when Yngwie is involved, but no matter how far you want to go with this argument, this many instrumentals can only engender boredom and repetition whether you are watching it, or just listening to it. As brilliant as Yngwie is, his guitaring can only hold your complete attention in an instrumental for a certain length of time. So count them up. There are 30 songs on this release, and of those 30, there are 19 instrumentals, of varying lengths. Once again, don't get me wrong, Yngwie is a genius and brilliant to listen to, but when it's all guitar for too much of the time, well it just becomes too much. Even when you throw in stuff like "Far Beyond the Sun" and "Black Star" that are still as brilliant today as they were 30 years ago.
So, with a majority of instrumental tracks, no doubt Yngwie decided that forking out for a lead vocalist was a bit of a waste of time, given that he would be rendered superfluous for at least half of the set. So, what do you do? Well, you get your keyboardist Nick Marino to do a double shift, and sing lead vocals when necessary as well as fill out the keys necessary for the night. Great money saving idea. Except that Marino's vocals are despicable. Not terrible, but just not right. They don't fit the songs at all, and when he has to do any amount of vocal chord stretching (and given that he's trying to sing songs done by Jeff Scott Soto, Joe Lynn Turner, Doogie White and Tim Owens, that is a LOT!) he is found out noticeably. And it would be a false statement to say that it doesn't detract from the songs at all, because it really does. Overall the current band line up is good. Everyone does their job well, and leaves it to Yngwie to be the show. It does get very tiresome as Marino keeps telling the crowd "Let's hear it for the maestro!!" You know how good he is, we know how good he is, and Yngwie knows how good he is. Surely neither party needs to be encouraged to give praise.

This actually turns out to be a rather depressing release. The vocals on the songs that require them are just dreadful, and suck any enjoyment out of them immediately. The songs that don't require vocals are either brilliant (see above mentioned two songs as examples) or just a little overplayed to enjoy. No one can doubt Yngwie still has it, he plays like a demon. If he had taken Ripper out on vocals for this, it probably rates a 4 or 4.5 out of five, even despite the average song list. Put the average song list and the average vocals together, and you have a rather unhappy result.

Rating:  I can see the moment of some kind of truth.  2.5/5

747. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force / Marching Out. 1985. 5/5

Those of you who are long time followers of this podcast will be aware that my original iteration of Music from a Lifetime was taken down for supposed transgressions in regards to the music I was using on those episodes. 3.5 years of hard work down the drain. After some thoughts of abandoning the concept, I decided to start again, and episode 3 of that resurrection dealt with Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s debut studio solo album titled “Rising Force”, which was released in December 1984. It had come on the back of journeying to the US and playing in the bands Keel and then Alcatrazz, and discovering that his ego didn’t always fit in with the egos of others in the bands he played in. It had been on the back of leaving Alcatrazz that he has decided to release his own solo album, and the response was enormous. What had originally been planned as an instrumental side project to his work with Alcatrazz had become his sole focus, and the addition of two songs with vocals from Jeff Scott Soto had given it the ability to transcend just the guitar geeks who wanted to fanboy about his guitaring skills. “Rising Force” went on to win Guitar Player's award for Best Rock Album and was nominated for a Grammy Award for 'Best Rock Instrumental', reaching no. 60 on the US Billboard album chart.
This success convinced Malmsteen that he was on the right path, but in order to gain to kind of commercial success that he was looking for, he knew that he would have to create songs that focused as much on the lyrics as they did the music. Having utilised Soto on his first release, he was retained for the follow up album as well. Jens Johanssen, who had played keyboards on the debut album also returned, as well as bringing along his brother Anders as the new drummer. The majority of the songs and lyrics were composed by Malmsteen himself with some input from Soto.
Riding on the crest of the wave following that critically acclaimed debut album, Yngwie decided to name the project Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force, and with the more lyrics-focused songs combined with Soto’s wonderful vocals and Malmsteen’s shredding guitar, they ticked practically every box in the quest for the mainstream success that he craved, with the sophomore album titled “Marching Out”.

When this album was released, and probably even more so today given the way they somewhat date the album to its mid-1980's release, some fans and reviewers alike tend to be critical of the lyrics than have been written for this album. And that is all a matter of personal taste, but to be honest, are lyrics the be all and end all of a song? Not everyone can write lyrics that are meaningful on several levels in order to appease the majority of listeners, or want to make a statement with their songs, be it political or empirical. Some of these same fans and reviewers are critical of the structure of the songs, not focusing on the lyrics but on how the music is structured and arranged, focusing as it would on the guitar of Yngwie Malmsteen as the main product. These two views led to a swathe of music listeners not taking this release seriously, and yet in the same breath heaping praise on the glam metal genre rising out of the US at the time. I don’t have a problem with the second part in the slightest, but I do when it comes at the expense of this album.
The opening minute of “Prelude” creates the anticipation of the opening, perhaps seen as unnecessary when it comes to the album but still performing its duty as requested by its composer, which all comes to pass as the opening track “I’ll See the Light, Tonight” opens with the squeal of Malmsteen’s guitar and the prescient scream of Jeff Scott Soto to bring the album to life from the outset. Simple lyrics, enhanced by Soto’s wonderful vocals, give the song the additional ability to be sung along to at the top of your voice, and still perform the main act of the vehicle which is to showcase Yngwie’s guitar work, which is in top form here. It’s a great fast paced classic to open the album. This is followed by “Don’t Let It End”, with Yngwie’s clear guitar under Jeff’s beautiful vocal bursting into the passionate and energetic leap into the song proper, the hard hitting rhythm giving Yngwie his basis to riff over the top, into the pre-chorus where the melodic guitar and Jeff’s harmonic vocals combine to create that beautiful combination that these two create for the entire album. Yngwie’s solo captures the mood as well, and the song ends in a powerful conclusion that signs off in style. Another fantastic song to headline the beginning of the album.
The following two tracks are arguably the best on the album, showcasing Yngwie at his finest. His quiet guitar opening shows off his amazing ability on the six string in an almost classical opening slot, before bursting into the harder riffing quality he brings to this album, driving the energy that is then captured by Jeff which he powers into his vocal delivery. Singing about ritualistic dealings is off putting to many people, either as being satanic or childish, but the mood of the music perfectly captures the feeling of the lyrics and makes this another great track, driven by Anders Johanssen’s double kick drumming underneath Yngwie’s terrific soloing. This flows in the same way into “I Am a Viking”, great lyrics and the music suits them perfectly, taking you back to the days of the Vikings on the ocean, it draws that picture and has you rocking on the waves on one of those dragon boats as you listen. Yngwie’s guitaring and especially solo piece is a great match once again.
For those fans out there who are only interested as Malmsteen as a guitarist, the first of two instrumentals follows with “Overture 1383”, a song that combines both the faster pace and the subtle quiet guitar interlude that Yngwie does so well. Malmsteen combines his guitars here to create almost a symphony through the middle of the track, beautifully drawing in all of his prowess on the instrument to create the kind of track that only he can. This crashes back into the heart of the album with “Anguish and Fear”, backed by the solid rhythm set by the Johanssen brothers, giving Yngwie the ability to wander around with his guitar and add his pieces as he sees fit, and Jeff crooning his lyrics over the top. The solo section has a terrific playoff between Malmsteen's guitar and Johanssen’s keyboards in a fashion reminiscent of Deep Purple in their heyday which really adds to this track in particular. This is followed y another of the best songs here in “On the Run Again”. This is actually a remake of the song "Victim of the City” by Malmsteen’s former band Steeler. Jeff Scott Soto wrote new lyrics for this version and also the new title. It is a rollicking track and Jeff’s vocals excel on this song, going from sublime to high pitch scream, all while Yngwie unleashes his best. A terrific track. Then comes “Soldier Without Faith” that combines a beautifully heavy riff from Yngwie to introduce the song before he unloads into another great solo piece, and then a passionate performance from Soto again on vocals. Another great combination of performances here from all the players, showcasing their mixing of styles and abilities. That riff that comes in before the vocals, and is repeated after Yngwie’s solo into the next section of vocals, is superb.
Another of the fastest tracks of the album comes next in “Caught in the Middle”, great melodic riff followed up by Jeff’s incredible vocals again almost stealing the show, something he goes close to doing on most songs – until Yngwie starts soloing, and you remember what you came into the album for. However, I do particularly like Jeff’s vocals on this song. The album then concludes with the instrumental title-track “Marching Out”, another wonderful showcasing of the guitarist Yngwie is, a style that does not suit everyone’s taste but surely allows everyone to appreciate that he is some talent on the instrument.

My erstwhile high school heavy metal music dealer always seemed to find me the good stuff, and Yngwie Malmsteen was certainly one of those. My first experience with Yngwie was the songs “Black Star” and “As Above So Below” from his debut solo album, the aforementioned “Rising Force”, which were taped at the end of another cassette on which he had recorded albums for me. From here I had insisted on getting that entire album, which soon came my way. Once I have digested all of that, and discovered that Yngwie indeed had two more albums out at that time, I soon had yet another C90 cassette in his hands, in order to get both of those albums recorded for me. One of those albums was “Marching Out”. The other? “Trilogy”, his third solo album. And yes, you will get to hear all about that in about 12 months time.
From the superb opening of "I'll See the Light, Tonight", into "Don't Let it End" and the brilliant "Disciples of Hell", Yngwie and his band mates are right on song. Jeff Scott Soto stars on these opening tracks, his soaring vocals adding to the spectacle of each song. "I Am a Viking" sounds like you are on the ocean, rolling with the waves on one of those dragon boats, Yngwie's guitaring is superb here in its illustration. Yngwie still has his instrumental break with "Overture 1383", to remind his fans he can still do it all without vocals. "Anguish and Fear" and "On the Run Again" continue the high standard that has already been set. “Soldier Without Faith”, “Caught in the Middle”... I just love every single piece of this album. And look, If I was to critically assess this album and the material it contains, I don’t disagree that I could find parts of how it is written and recorded that might appear a little cheesy, that the rhythm might all sound a bit samey and that it really only acts in most cases as the platform for the guitarist and vocalist to showcase their own skills. That perhaps the lyrics are not terrifically exciting, that maybe the album sounds dated and anchored to the date of its release. But I don't want to do that, because I have been listening to this album pretty much since its release in 1985, and it is a part of the furniture of the album, and each piece makes up the brilliance of the whole. Personally, I love these songs, lyrics and all. The best part of them for me is that they are almost anthemic in their theme and performance. And when you are in your teenage years, sitting around listening to this album with a few beers, there is nothing better than singing, "I'll see the light tonight! Flashing through the sky!" and "Nobody knows who's the disciples of hell!" and "I am a Viking! I'm going off to war!". They are just great songs, which you sing at the top of your voice, before sitting back and listening to Yngwie and his guitar weave a spell through the midsection of the songs. I don’t know how Yngwie wrote these songs, whether by riff or bridge or lyrics. I know he always seems annoyed when people ask him about why his albums don't seem to be well planned. I would argue that it appears everything is planned, from opening riff to introductory vocals, then solo spot, where keyboards and guitars sometimes trade riffs, and sometimes harmonise together. They tend to be different from a normal song structure, but what is so wrong with that? Yngwie has always done things on his terms, and that applies here as well.
I have had this album on again for this review, and it has delighted me for days on end once again, as it always does. It is a mood lifter, it makes everything else tolerable for 45 minutes. For me this album has little or no weak points. Building on the strengths that came from the first album, and making it more accessible to the masses by having lyrics on the majority of songs here, this is a showcase of talent. Jeff Scott Soto soars on vocals, emoting in all of the right places to make songs such as "I'll See the Light, Tonight" and "I Am a Viking" such brilliant pieces. The brothers Jens Johansson on keyboards and Anders Johansson on drums are also perfect, combining together to help contribute to a wonderful album. And of course Yngwie, who just shreds on guitar in a way no one did before he came along. His rolling guitar riffs can both send a song careering along at a fearful pace or sedately move from intro to conclusion without missing a beat.
“Marching Out” represents to me one of the peaks of Yngwie J. Malmsteen's career, and always holds a place close to my heart from the era it came from. And the memories it evokes are just as important and enjoyable as the album itself.

710. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force / Rising Force. 1984. 4.5/5

Yngwie Malmsteen – whose name has the best running joke from a comment in an interview with David St Hubbins from Spinal Tap during the recording of the Stars project, where he said “I like how he has put a J in Yngwie J Malmsteen, in order to make sure he doesn’t get confused with all of the other Yngwie Malmsteen’s out there (classic) - came to the United States from his native Sweden in order to make his fortune. He joined the band Steeler, led by Ron Keel, and played on their debut album. After personality issues and concerns about the seriousness the band was taking, Malmsteen was recruited to join the band Alcatrazz with Graham Bonnet and again recorded their debut album “No Parole for Rock and Roll” in 1983, as well as touring to promote the album. This led to the live album “Live Sentence” being recorded in Japan, but it was around this time that Yngwie again found problems with the clashing of egos with bandmates. Bonnet had been the big name lead vocalist recruit for the band, but Malmsteen’s performances on stage were quickly becoming the main act for concert goers, which fuelled Bonnet’s disapproval and not doubt further fuelled Yngwie’s own ego. A clash on stage led to Yngwie being fired immediately and being replaced with Steve Vai.
At the time Yngwie had been toying with doing a solo album away from Alcatrazz, one that would just be an instrumental album showcasing his talents. With his dismissal/departure from Alcatrazz, he now had the chance to go and do his project on his own, and not having to go along with the ideas and demands of another person. For the recording he recruited former Jethro Tull drummer Barrie Barlow and up and coming keyboardist Jens Johansson. Eventually, he also moved away slightly from this being an out-and-out instrumental album and brought in vocalist Jeff Scott Soto to lend his vocal cords to two songs of the project. They went into the studio in late 1984 to record the album, and in late 1984 it was released under the band name of Yngwie J Malmsteen’s Rising Force, with the album name simply being “Rising Force”, an apt title under the circumstances.

Reviewing an album that is almost completely full of instrumentals can be a difficult thing. Daunting even. Because my knowledge on how music is written and played is very minimal compared to my love of listening to music and knowing what I like. And this entire album is like that. And the art of making instrumental tracks that are the kind of experience that you keep coming back to time and time again is something that only the very best can do.
This album opens with two of the best when it comes to this. Both “Black Star” and “Far Beyond the Sun” are perhaps the two tracks that best define the genius that is Yngwie Malmsteen and his guitar playing. “Black Star” is the more introspective track, a more emotional playoff of Yngwie’s guitar harmonising, while “Far Beyond the Sun” is a true bombastic effort of the instrument, faster and heavier in both instances. That first ever playoff between guitar and keyboard in “Far Beyond the Sun” mirrors that of his hero Ritchie Blackmore and Jon Lord from the 1970’s Deep Purple albums, when those grand masters of hard rock and heavy metal used to trade solos on their instruments that were often the best parts of the songs. And while “Far Beyond the Sun” has its obvious major parts of the song concentrating on Malmsteen’s guitar, the middle part of the track where he duels with Jens Johannsen on keyboards is a delight. These are the two songs that have been a part of his set lists for the last 40 years, and as he himself has admitted, he will probably be playing them until the day he leaves our shores.
These are followed by one of only two songs on the album that contain vocals, “Now Your Ships Are Burned”, though they are very sparse with the guitar and keys still dominating the track. Jeff Scott Soto showcases the lower end of his vocal range in this song, to great effect.
The heart of the album is dominated by two songs based around classical compositions. For these two songs Yngwie has taken not only inspiration from the two compositions but has integrated them into his songs here. Firstly is “Evil Eye” which is based on Johann Krieger’s “Bourree”, which manoeuvres itself from the sublime of the original to Yngwie’s freewheeling additional guitar flair to liven the track up, including an added pace in speed to keep the fans interested in what he has achieved. Then comes the wonderful “Icarus’ Dream Suite Op. 4” based around Adagio in G minor, which I’m sure all of you musical aficionados out there will know exactly what I’m talking about. What I can tell you is that it is an excellent early example of the way Yngwie incorporates classical and complicated guitar riffing into his songs, and weaves his magic around them to create wonderful tracks
Following this, the second of two songs with vocals comes in, and in a big way. The opening organ of “As Above, So Below” sets the tone, before breaking into the opening riff, and the Jeff Scott Soto unleashes his amazing vocals na the range that he has become renown for since this album. While he kept things in check on “Now Your Ships Are Burned”, here on “As Above, So Below” he reaches for the heavens and gives us a stunning performance, suitably backed up by the keys and guitars of Johanssen and Malmsteen. The surprising subtle undertones of the rhythm under the vocals gives Soto his chance to shine without competing for air, and it works perfectly. Still one of the best Yngwie Malmsteen tracks.
Better yet, this careers into “Little Savage”, which like “Far Beyond the Sun” has a great fast tempo in the first half of the song with a terrific riff from Yngwie, before hitting the breaks and letting the centre of the track comprise the softer more melodic tones of his guitar work, and then another brilliant guitar solo to lead out the track. Awesome. And the album finishes with the short and sweet acoustic tones of “Farewell”, to complete a tremendous debut solo album.

When I first heard this album in 1986, I was blown away. It was unlike anything I had ever heard before in a guitar-oriented album. Probably because I'd never heard of Yngwie Malmsteen before at that time of my life. Everything about it was new, and those feelings of love for this album still exist for me today. It had been recorded for me on a C90 cassette by my high school heavy metal music dealer, with the Michael Schenker Group’s live album “Rock Will Never Die” on the other side. Man, that cassette used to get a workout. Two of the greatest guitarists back to back. I loved listening to that cassette, and especially this album. A few years later in mid-1990, I went out and bought my first stereo with a CD player, which of course then required me going out and buying some CDs. For work one day I had to take a car from my workplace in Kiama to get fitted out in Wollongong, and had a few hours to kill while waiting for it to be finished, so I walked up to the Wollongong Mall and down to Redback Records and started browsing. And I didn’t want to buy CDs that I already owned the vinyl of, so in some ways the choice wqas sparse. But what CD did I finally find, that became the first CD I ever purchased? Yep, this one. And when I got home and put it on for the first time, and heard with clarity what had become the less audible very stretched and overused cassette copy version that I had... I was simply awestruck. Sure the sound was better, but I was hearing things now that I had never really heard in so much greater depth. It was truly tremendous, and I still remember that afternoon clearly.
I’ve had the album – that same CD copy as it turns out, almost 35 years later – on again a few times over the last couple of days, and I was reminded all over again of its magnificence. The opening burst of those first two songs is still something that takes me back in time to those days of the late 1980’s. And listening to Jeff Scott Soto reach for the heavens in “As Above, So Below” is just as wonderful as it was the first time I heard it. Amazingly, “Rising Force” won the Guitar Player's award for Best Rock Album and was nominated for a Grammy Award for 'Best Rock Instrumental', reaching no. 60 on the Billboard album chart in the US. All of these things had Yngwie’s eyes bulging, with thoughts of a true commercial breakthrough fired by the success of this album. It led to a revamp of ideas for the follow up album, and for the next decade he chased that dream of commercial success.
In the course of the Yngwie Malmsteen discography, all 23 studio albums of it, this for me ranks as his second best album. As a debut album it is in the top bracket, and one of those releases I consider to be a 5/5 album. It was the start of a run of four studio albums that shaped the way guitar albums were conceived, as well as seeing the development and desire of Malmsteen as a guitarist and songwriter grow exponentially. As a fan, it was a great time to have found the one and only Yngwie J. Malmsteen.

567. Yngwie Malmsteen / Instrumental Best Album. 2004. 3/5

Wow! What an innovative idea! Yngwie Malmsteen puts out a best of album that contains just his instrumental work! Can you believe it?

Well – let’s look at it. He has spent the better part of three decades trying to become a commercial star, with the singles he released become more and more pop-rock oriented. When that doesn’t work, and in fact puts a big dent in his popularity, he decides (or his record company decides…) to try and buy back a little bit of the lost fans, and put together a compilation of his vocal-less work.

Anyway, the songs here showcase Yngwie’s guitaring to the hilt. There is lots of flash and lots of flailing. Whether you could actually say it is his ‘instrumental best’ when it doesn’t contain “Black Star” and “Far Beyond The Sun”, the two songs that made everyone stand up and take notice of Yngwie back in 1984. Still, if you want to listen to the man show off his stuff, then this is worth a listen.

565. Yngwie Malmsteen / Inspiration. 1996. 4/5

So this album is supposed to represent the Inspiration of Yngwie Malmsteen’s career. No problems there, it’s actually a pretty good idea to base a covers album around. With eleven songs recorded, you’d think that it would have a pretty fair range of artists to showcase what it is that has made Yngwie the guitarist that he is today.

Error.

Two songs come from the influential Jimi Hendrix, and that’s fine. He probably deserves two. Other songs come from UK (whoever they are), Rush, Kansas (and really – “Carry On Wayward Son” does seem to get a fair hearing from a lot of artists in regards to being covered, or cited as an influence – but I just don’t see it myself. I think the song is dull and uninspiring) and Scorpions (and there are a hundred better songs to do than “The Sails of Charon”, but that’s just me).
That leaves five more songs, which end up being four Deep Purple songs and a Rainbow song – all of which the original version feature one Ritchie Blackmore on guitar. So it’s fairly probable that Ritchie was a pretty influential person on Yngwie’s career! The Rainbow song, “Gates of Babylon” also appeared on Holy Dio: A Tribute to the Voice of Metal: Ronnie James Dio, and on the sleeve notes all Yngwie talks about is his love of Ritchie Blackmore, and doesn’t mention the subject of the tribute album at all! I guess that’s Yngwie though in a nutshell. Apart fro that – all great Deep Purple songs as well, and these versions are great, if perhaps a little overburdened by the guitar side of things.
The songs feature three main lead vocalists – Jeff Scott Soto, Mark Boals and Joe Lynn Turner, and each does a good job of their renditions. There is no argument with the musicianship and the quality of Yngwie’s guitaring. Like most cover albums though, eventually you just want the original rather than the re-recorded.

Well worth a listen – but as good a guitarist as Yngwie is, what this proves is that a great guitarist in one era is still a great guitarist in another, and the original guitarists in the original songs have lost none of their lustre.

521. Yngwie Malmsteen / I Can't Wait [EP]. 1994. 3/5

I Can’t Wait indeed. At a time when Yngwie continued his push for commercial success, this EP found its way into the record stores.
In almost all respects, this is the same old average stuff that Yngwie produced during the 1990’s – harmless fluff with the odd blistering solo thrown in to remind everyone that he can play guitar a bit.

It is the two live tracks which show up the difference. “Rising Force” sounds fine, but the vocals prove just how important it is to Yngwie’s work that, if he must have a singer on his tracks, he needs to be a good one. Vescara is shown up here – badly. On the other hand, the live version of “Far Beyond The Sun” is just brilliant, and a full reminder of the magnificent material he did release in the 1980’s. If only he had realised that there was no reason to change and chase commercial glory.

Rating: Nothing overly special to be found here. 3/5.

436. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / The Genesis. 2002. 1.5/5

I don’t know if it is just because of the sheer volume of albums that he seemed to release during the 1990’s that I had never heard until five or so years ago, or because his stuff just seemed to run to a similar pattern, but there is a growing tediousness about some of Yngwie’s work. Sure, there is little doubt that he is still a great guitar player, but there must be a question over his actual song writing ability.

Here is another collection of fairly average type of songs. There is a greater collection of instrumentals here, which should be considered a good thing, but they are basically ordinary. The songs that do have vocals have very very poor vocals, which drag the songs down even further. I was astonished when I first listened to this album. Some places had praised it glowingly, and yet I can’t see through the gloom.

Rating: This release has very little to offer to any fan. 1.5/5

380. Yngwie Malmsteen / Fire & Ice. 1992. 2/5

As I have mentioned on previous occasions, following the release of Eclipse I had given up on Yngwie ever doing anything great again, and stopped buying his albums. It wasn’t until more than a decade later that I drifted back, to see what had actually occurred during those dark days of the 1990’s. Some of it had been quite good, and I found myself regretting my absence.
One listen to Fire & Ice, the album that directly followed Eclipse is enough to somewhat thank my lucky star that I stopped when I did, or I may never have come back.

This is an obvious continuation of Yngwie’s desire for commercial success. Vocalist Goran Edman is still on board (the man who had so repulsed me when I saw him live in 1990) and still spinning the lyrics that he and Yngwie have come up with to promote their commercial advances. It is quite disappointing to see the songs of this band degenerate into this kind of formulaic hair-metal “I-want-you-girl” stuff. “Teaser” is the perfect example, an attempt to write a commercial hit which backfires terribly by being awful (apart from Yngwie’s solo, which people whom the song is aimed at wouldn’t like anyway!).

OK, it’s not all bad. The opening instrumental “Perpetual” is great, and there are another two or three songs along the way that make you smile and remember the REAL Rising Force when that’s what they were doing. But overall, you just can’t enjoy the album. Yngwie’s guitaring is still fantastic, his breaks and licks bring you out of you slumber whenever they appear. But as a package, this is just terribly lame.

Rating: Closer to ‘Embers and Lukewarm Water’ than Fire & Ice. 2/5.

373. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / Facing The Animal. 1997. 2.5/5

Yngwie Malmsteen keeps churning out the albums in the hope he can find something to inspire the next generation. And sometimes as a result of this his albums can be a bit hit and miss as many of his albums through the 1990’s decade were felt to be. Well, by the time this album was about to be released, his career could be categorised by the decade they were in. With most of his previous albums from the 1990’s, all of the songs had been fairly generic, power ballads and then guitar expositions where the structure of the song barely mattered over what Yngwie was actually playing.
On the other hand, his best album in years had been the one prior to this one. Titled “Inspiration”, it was full of cover songs that Yngwie loved, by bands such as Rainbow, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix and Kansas, and with several different vocalists such as Jeff Scott Soto, Joe Lynn Turner and Mark Boals, who had all been his vocalists on his best albums. So this new album was really up against it when it came to creating material that was going to better those songs and that manner of band members.
Yngwie has a history of pissing off his fellow musicians, and requiring replacements. Here on “Facing the Animal”, new lead vocalist Mats Leven is introduced, along with legendary drummer Cozy Powell to provide the backbeat. Also, for the first time, all of the writing of the songs is solely credited to Yngwie himself, something that could have been the making or the breaking of the whole project. And, in a time when Yngwie’s style of melodic hard rock and heavy metal was being overrun run by the advancing popularity of industrial metal and the like, one could only wonder if he still had a place in the music world outside of his native Europe where that style of music was still able to retain its popularity.

There’s no denying that Yngwie is a great guitarist, and his solos and licks are unmistakable. And those early albums were ground breaking in many ways. But eventually we all suspected that he would have to come to the realisation that the only people who are going to buy his albums are the ones who love his guitaring and appreciate his heavier work in song writing and his instrumentals, and not the attempts he makes at rock ballads and radio-friendly fare. At least, from my perspective, that appeared to be the best course.
Except that, once again on this album, he tries to go down that road, where radio-friendly fare as well as power ballads are the way he wants to go. The particular examples here that I am thinking of are “Alone in Paradise” and “Only the Strong”. Both are songs that turn me off his work completely. Indeed, songs like these were the reason I went over a decade from listening to any more of his new albums – which included missing this one on its release, and not picking it up until a few years later. They have a typical Yngwie solo break which is always enjoyable, but the ‘slow and mushy’ tone of the songs and lyrics really does stuff up an otherwise fair album. And you know what I’m talking about, the songs that change the momentum of the album, and really go down a path that is better left unwalked.
The tempo of this album is very different to what has come on some of the earlier work as well, mainly because of the style of Cozy Powell. There is little to no double kick, on which much of Yngwie’s best work follows. But that is not the criticism it sounds like, because Cozy’s drumming here is as powerful and enjoyable to listen to as always. It was one of his final recording moments before the tragic accident that took his life, so there is always a touch of melancholy for me listening to it. Mats Leven gives a solid performance on vocals, though this is the only studio album he appeared on.
The album is saved by songs such as “Braveheart”, “Enemy”, “My Resurrection” and the particularly excellent “Poison in My Veins”, but they don’t compare to his work in the 1980’s. And again that is not a fair comparison to make given the obvious excellence of those albums.
On a completely different note, the album can probably lay claim to having one of the worst covers of all time. It’s got to be a difficult to promote an album that has that photo as the cover art. It may as well be in the used section of old 1940’s albums that no one looks at in the second hand record stores.

As I mentioned here earlier, this album came out during the time when I had blacked out all Yngwie Malmsteen releases. The last album I had purchased of his was the “Eclipse” album back in 1990, the year he first toured Australia. Now while I had enjoyed pieces of that album, it did not inspire me to follow him any further, and it wasn’t until the “Unleash the Fury” album in 2005 that I bought another Yngwie album. And that one was well worth it, I must add. So I went back and discovered all of the albums I had missed in the preceding 15 years, to find out if they match the enjoyment I had gotten from that 2005 release. And a couple did have some good stuff on it. And the same applies to “Facing the Animal”. There are some very good songs here. Sure they may not have the ferocity and energy and passion of his earlier work, but they are enjoyable with some nice vocals and supporting guitar shredding from Yngwie.
I did initially review this for my old album review blog (still out there if you are interested in checking it out) and was fairly scathing of it at the time. And I wonder if that was still the scars of the feelings I had back in 1990 when I swore off his work. For the last two weeks I have had this going around and, while it may not be the album that is the stand out of those that are in my current listening bundle, several songs keep making themselves noticed, and the odd Yngwie guitar lick still brings music to the ears. So it isn’t as ordinary as I had thought when I first reviewed it over a decade ago. But it is the same old story, that if I am in the mood for Yngwie Malmsteen, then the albums I am generally going to reach for are from the decade of the 1980’s and not the 1990’s.