Album Reviews : Yngwie Malmsteen – High Impact

When will the hurting stop? Seriously, this is a low blow to Yngwie Malmsteen fans. At first I thought it was going to be old material rearranged in the same tradition as “Angels of Love”, but it’s clearly just a shoddy put together best of album, and not very best at that. Yet, there are a few minor exceptions.

The main bulk of material is from Malmsteen’s catalogue of albums during the early to late 90’s, with some additions like ‘Arpeggios From Hell’ which was taken from a Japanese special Malmsteen did for Young Guitar. The track is a guitarist’s wet dream, influencing Malmsteen’s trademark arpeggios and mind melting sweeps which I’m sure will inevitability fill the pants of any amateur guitarist.

What I found odd was the addition of songs like ‘Caprici Di Diablo’ and ‘Magic City’ which quite honestly aren’t considered Malmsteen’s greatest work, as they are taken from Malmsteen’s previous full length album “Perpetual Flame”, which was only released about 8 months ago.  The tracks don’t need to be on the album and could have easily been removed without effecting the entirety of the album.

There are some minor live tracks like ‘Far Beyond the Sun’ and ‘Trilogy Suite’ which do justice to the album, or compilation, or whatever you want to call this, but are short lived to be quite honest.

The only major leap the album has taken is a tribute to the late and great Micheal Jackson, with Malmsteen’s rendition of ‘Beat It’. The song is tough as nails and sounds pretty solid. Ripper Owens vocals seem a little out of place, yet still fit into the scheme of the song for some strange reason.  If your a Micheal Jackson fan, I’m sure you’ll appreciate this little number as it does the pop king justice, as well as Eddie Van Valen respectively.

To be honest, this album is seriously for the die-hard Malmsteen fan at best. If you’re somewhat of a part time Malmsteen fan, I urge you to steer clear of this release as I’m sure you’ll find better alternatives if you look. It’s good, but not great.  6/10

For fans of: Marty Friedman, Jason Becker, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai

Band: Yngwie Malmsteen
Album: High Impact
Year: 2009
Genre: Neo-classical, heavy metal
Origin: USA
Label: Rising Force Records/Riot! Entertainment
myspace.com/yngwiemalmsteen

Tracklisting:

1. Caprici di Diablo
2. Brothers
3. Blitzkrieg
4. Trilogy Suite (Live)
5. Red House (Live)
6. Finale (Live)
7. Magic City
8. Arpeggios from Hell
9. Far Beyond the Sun (Live)
10. Cantabile
11. Blue
12. Overture 1622
13. Fugue
14. Beat It (Micheal Jackson cover)<- Reviewer’s choice