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. 2.5/5

I've had my ups and downs with Yngwie Malmsteen albums. The great stuff has been ingrained in me for years, and never ceases to amaze me even when I put them on today. The ordinary stuff came along hard and fast once the 1980's had left us, surprising in its sudden drop in quality and likeability, and began to repeat itself over time. So when it came time to revisit the albums from the 1990's that I virtually ignored through that time period, it was with mixed feelings as I approached. I wasn't sure if I had been burned too many times for a recovery to be made.

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 though, it is spectacular throughout. In fact, in many places it is the equal of anything he had produced up until this time. The problem lies in the fact that there is a "song" being composed around it, and the magical guitar pieces are often not enough lift this beyond the average. Michael Vescera, formerly of Loudness and many other projects, once again lends his vocals to this album, and the format and style push the majority of these songs towards a radio friendly market, though the amount of radio play the album received is probably negligible. There's no doubting the quality of his voice, but it really is a commercial rock kinda voice, and when the chorus of background singers come into it, and the keyboards flatten out any influence of Yngwie's guitar, it comes across as really average soft rock stuff.
Unfortunately 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. Also 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 wrong. You get a really wussy rock song that sounds like it is sugar and treacle coated, and then try to inject tat Malmsteen solo into the middle, and it just doesn't work and can't save what is already a bad mix. And it is a real shame, because some of the stuff here, like "Vengeance" and "Voodoo" are really good songs. Even the very Eclipse-era sounding "No Love Lost" sounds OK 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.

When comparing the songs that Yngwie's band released during this decade with those that they released in the 1980's or the 2000's, there is a massive difference in the style they propagated. Is the vocalists who made the difference? Or was it just that Yngwie tried to move with the times to create more of a showcase for his songs? I really don't know the answer, because this is another of the string of albums that for the most part don't interest me in the slightest because of their style. There are sequences of guitaring on this album where Yngwie proves he has lost none of his amazing powers. If fact, there would be pieces in every single song on this album where he showcases his genius. It's just that, unfortunately, it can't hold out for the entire song. And thus the album.

Rating:  Slowly but surely we're planting the seed.  2.5/5

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

Riding on the crest of the wave following his critically acclaimed debut album, Marching Out brought Yngwie Malmsteen and his Rising Force team back with an album more focused on lyric-driven songs backed by his famous guitar work, and ticked almost every box to be catagorised in the top shelves of albums.

Some tend to be critical of the lyrics, but to be honest, are lyrics the be all and end all of a song? Not everyone can write meaningful lyrics, or want to make a statement with their songs, be it political or empirical. 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.
Some tend to be critical of the structure of the songs, not focusing on the lyrics, but on the way the song is structured and put together, with guitars and vocals and other instruments lacking a formatted wherewithal, in essence feeling as though they are all over the place. Some may argue that this is artistic licence. In my opinion, that has never bothered me, even while I can see why some people would not enjoy it at all. I'm not sure 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 seemed 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.

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.
If I was to critically assess a song like "Soldier Without Faith" I could probably hack it to pieces and find all the things that would be wrong with it to the casual listener. 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 piece of the framework, just part of the furniture of the album, and each piece makes up the brilliance of the whole. "Caught in the Middle" hails from Yngwie's days in the band Steeler, while the album concludes with the instrumental piece and title track "Marching Out", allowing Yngwie to take centre stage for the finale of the album.

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.

Rating:  Is this your idea of destiny? 'Cause if it is, just set me free.  5/5

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.

262. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / Eclipse. 1990. 2/5.

Yngwie Malmsteen’s popularity and commerciality had grown considerably over the previous five years on the back of his debut studio album “Rising Force”, followed by the excellent “Marching Out” and “Trilogy”. The recruitment of Joe Lynn Turner as lead vocalist following these releases had brought with it the album “Odyssey” n 1988 which had also involved bass guitarist and composer Bob Daisley. The world tour to promote it had taken the band around the world and filled concert venues. “Odyssey” reach #40 on the US charts, #27 in the UK and #75 in Australia, on the back of the single “Heaven Tonight” which had also done well on the charts. Everything seemed on an upward trend, and the long battle for commercial recognition seemed but a fingertip away.
And then - the Yngwie thing happened. The Rising Force band dissolved, or imploded, or just plain fell apart following that tour. Jens and Anders Johannsen who had been long time band mates and collaborators with Yngwie, were moved on. Bob Daisley moved onto his next project. And Joe Lynn Turner, whose honeyed vocals had given the band the commercial sound that Yngwie had craved, was also gone, the two main focal points in the band unable to find a compromise where they shared the spotlight rather than crave it for themselves. On the verge of the true success that he had been searching for, Yngwie was back at square one.
Though he could well have played almost all of the instruments himself for any new album, if he was to play live, he was going to require a band, and so he went about rebuilding from the ground up. His first port of call was to find a new lead vocalist, someone who could not only try and provide the kind of vocals that he was looking for but could hopefully also be the final link in reaching that gold chalice of commercial success. His choice was to recruit Goran Edman for the role. Edman had sung on Europe guitarist John Norum’s solo album in 1987 and thus had the pedigree that could be what Yngwie was hoping for. Now all that had to occur was to write an album that could hold a candle to the success that “Odyssey” had provided, and also of course see if the band could remain together for any length of time before invoking the wrath of Yngwie Malmsteen.

The opening track on an album should always be one that is making a statement, that sets you up for what is to follow. And, obviously, in a good way, because that’s what you want from an album. “Making Love” is the opening song here for yet another new era in the Yngwie Malmsteen story, and it is... an extremely generic way of fishing for the commercial influence. It was also the lead single from the album, so you know where it is heading from the start. And if you are looking for a soft rock type of type of anthem, then you’ve come to the right place. Even Yngwie’s solo break through the middle of the song is especially designed for the soft rock scene, not the hard rock to metal neo-classical style that he had favoured in the past. It isn’t a terrible song, but it is a very different song from almost everything that had been produced before this. “Bedroom Eyes” is also the third single released from the album but has a much better feel to it immediately. There is more attitude, there is a harder riff throughout, and Edman gives us a vocal with a bit of push behind it, not a croon like the opening track. The lyrics are of the same style, and Yngwie’s solo is much more enjoyable than the opening track. To the point that when you first listen to the album, you believe that there may be some hope for it after all.
The comes “Save Our Love”, which was the second single from the album, and yes in a way you should be concerned that all three singles that were released are the first three listed tracks on the album. “Save Our Love” is a soft rock ballad of the worst kind. Now Yngwie has done these before. “Dreaming (Tell Me)” from the previous album is the best example. But Turner made it listenable. And while that’s not a criticism of Edman here, he just can’t make what is essentially a really average song any better than really average, whereas as Joe would have made it tolerable. Barely. Whereas the opening two tracks are written by Yngwie and Goran, this is solely on Yngwie’s back, and someone should have tried to talk him out of it. Maybe they did, I don’t know. “Motherless Child” bounces back in the same way that “Bedroom Eyes” did, Edman’s vocals finding the high range for the first time on the album, the music finding a far better upbeat tempo, and everything just sounds better and more like a true Yngwie track. “Devil in Disguise” drops back into a slow and moody tempo and has touches of earlier work from Yngwie in the guitaring. It’s a song that moves away from the style that has come before on this album, sets itself apart and as a result is one that keeps the interest retained throughout.
“Judas” stays in a monotone rhythm throughout, such that it could probably have just been programmed into a drum machine and synth. Nothing changes throughout the song, apart from the two Yngwie solo breaks that provide something slightly out of the box. Even Edman’s vocals barely show any change in tone or feeling. And then the same occurs again in “What Do You Want”, that same autonomous drum and bass rhythm that sticks its course over the almost four minutes of the song length. Did Yngwie just run out of ideas here for the middle of the album, and sit at home with a metronome and just find a riff that went with it? As much as the opening to the album might have caused some indecision about the album, the middle does nothing to improve it.
“Demon Driver” finally adds a bit of colour and flavour back into the album, the rise in tempo and run of keys to play off against Yngwie’s guitar bringing back the best aspects of the band’s music. Edman nails his vocals playfully, and the combination of keys and guitar gives this song the ability to bring the album back to life. Then we crash into “Faultline” which despite its descendance back to the slower groove tempo does manage to inject some great energy from Edman’s vocals, taking on the role to push through the doomier parts of the track to provide a little light to mix in with it. I didn’t ever expect Yngwie Malmsteen to be providing a track that may not be exactly doom metal but certainly has an influence of it incorporated into his neo classical state, but it is actually done reasonably well. “See You in Hell (Don’t Be Late)” once again brings back the best values of the Malmsteen sound, that faster tempo with bright vocals over the top and the keys vs guitar attack on once again. It really is a mystery that even though this must surely be the ultimate style of songs that the majority of his fans want from him, that we only get a bare few examples of it on this album. “Eclipse” closes out the album with a fairly typical Yngwie Malmsteen instrumental to finish with, and in the end the back third of this album rescues what was a quite ordinary middle section in comparison.

I have been a fan of Yngwie Malmsteen since 1986, when my heavy metal music dealer furnished me with a copy of the debut album “Rising Force” on a C60 cassette. That album was reviewed on episode 3 of this podcast back in December of 2024. Check it out, it's a cracker! The album... and the episode.
And like most other fans of the man, I adored “Odyssey” when it was released, and I listened to it for months and months. It felt like he had finally cracked the code, of heavy songs, guitar songs, commercial tracks. Perfect! Then came the dissolution, and the new band. No matter! I was really excited when this album was released. I was looking forward to what the new band was going to offer, and given the four great albums that had already been released, this one would have to be at least their equal.
Well, no. And it would be too simple an answer to just say ‘it’s the new singer’s fault!!’, which I think was actually one of the things I said at the time the album was released. Because Goran isn’t the problem here. He co-wrote four songs on this album, two of which are the better tracks here and two of which are fine. No, when it comes to an Yngwie Malmsteen album, there can generally be only one person who can take the credit when it is due and the blame when it is not. And that is the case here.
There are some reasonable songs here, but not one of them matches up to the great songs from albums of the past. None. And given his desire for success that must have been a bitter pill to swallow. The single releases were obviously designed to be exactly that, and hope that they drew new listeners into the album. But perhaps he should have been more concerned about keeping the fans he had. Because for me, the style of this album, and the initial huge disappointment I felt in it, convinced me to not buy nor listen to another Yngwie Malmsteen album for over a decade. I just gave up on him. If this was what he was going to produce, I had no interest in putting my hard earned money into buying it.
My friends and I also saw Yngwie Malmsteen live touring on this album later that year. Now Yngwie was amazing, don’t get me wrong. But they played five songs off this album, only one of which I was remotely interested in hearing. Goran Edman was extremely interested in himself, to the point that it looked as though he'd have been happier being in a menage-a'one. And although overall that concert was amazing, it was the last time that I thought I would see him play or hear other music from. That didn’t end up being the case, but it was a long time between drinks for both.
I’ve had this album out again over recent days, for one of the few times since then to be honest. I did initially have the vinyl that I bought on this album’s release, but it was lost in the flood of 2001, and I have only just recently bought the CD version to replace it. And I will say this – the album sounds terrific when you put the CD into your stereo. The songs styles may not be to my liking, but it does sound terrific. And I can tolerate this better than I could as a 20 year old who wanted something different from what was offered. Listening to it without an agenda has been fun again. But it is hard not to notice the holes, and while Yngwie will always be an amazing guitarist, sometimes his songwriting isn’t up to that task. “Eclipse” is one of those times.

181. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / Concerto Suite For Electric Guitar And Orchestra In Flat Minor Op. 1. 1998. 4/5.

The hiring of orchestras must have gotten extremely cheap at around this time. Deep Purple had of course done it as far back as the late 1960's, but would revive it again very shortly. Scorpions not only went acoustic, they also took part in an operatic symphony. For goodness sake – even Metallica had a go at it!!

Of course, these were all performed live on stage and recorded for their release.

Yngwie went another way. He wrote his own concerto, and took everyone into the studio and recorded it. It is original, gives you further scope to appreciate the wonderful talent of Yngwie, both in writing and playing. This is of course more a classical release, but when you listen to Yngwie's stuff (especially his early work), isn't that all classical guitar as well?

Rating : An excellent and original release from one of the finest guitarists ever. 4/5.

115. Yngwie J. Malmsteen / The Best Of 1990-1999. 2000. 3.5/5

You will never convince me that Yngwie's best decade was NOT the 80's. His best albums are from that time, and as I have probably documented elsewhere, after Eclipse I lost interest for a decade.

This just looks like another money spinner from the outside. I mightn't be an expert on what Ynwgie did in this decade, but I know he had better songs than these on his albums, and they don't make an appearance here. The album is fine, don't get me wrong. He is still great at what he does. But let's face it – when a 'greatest hits' package is lifted by the appearance of two songs, one being Rising Force, which he wrote and released in the 80's (yes, the live performance is from the 90's...) and the other is a live performance of a cover song (Rainbow's brilliant Gates Of Babylon), you'd have to start thinking that they were clutching at straws.

Rating : It's OK, and most of the material is good. But I can't get past those two songs I mentioned. The best two songs on the album, and realistically they shouldn't be there!! 3.5/5.

83. Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force / Attack!! 2002. 4/5

Another Yngwie album means more of the same thing. Great guitaring, including riffs and solos. A great vocalist, who suits the written songs to a T. A teriffic band around him, who are great musicians themselves.

Earlier in his career, Yngwie longed for commercial success, and began to write songs with verses and choruses. To a degree, and it is here in this effort, he has gone back to guitaring, and writing guitar pieces, and fitting in the vocals to the gaps. It still works, but sometimes the songs feel like instrumentals with lyrics thrown in to make it a 'song'.

This is another great album from Yngwie, who seems to have grown more comfortable with himself in recent years, and just keeps pumping out great material.

Rating : Excellent stuff. 4/5.