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