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