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.