When I first heard Yngwie J. Malmsteen was going to release another album after his last borderline attempt, ‘Unleash the Fury’ I wasn’t that overly excited since it seemed he was losing his touch, then again many people would say he lost his touch after the initial hype of the ‘Rising Force’ days back in the 1980’s.
For the many people who don’t know of Malmsteen’s work, he is a pioneer of the guitar world who played a large role in the 1980’s with the introduction of neoclassical power metal, which many people believe he was the main influence behind the genre.
Unleashing wave after wave of technical and guitar wankery onto the world with his band Rising Force. Much in the same vain as Jason Becker, but incorporating his own unique blend of magic to each album and song, finally admitting him a place as one of the worlds leading and foremost guitar virtuoso’s.
Now, 30 years on with several albums and recommendations from the music world under his belt, this guitar legend from Sweden is still going strong and continually reinvents the neoclassical power metal genre which he conceived at the birth of the 1980’s.
The new album ‘Perpetual Flame’ came as quite a shock to me, at first I was expecting nothing more then a burnt out guitarist wanting one more try at the lime light to bring back his glory days. I was sorely mistaken though when I got my first full listen of the album. Not only is Perpetual Flame a vast improvement on the previous Malmsteen studio album, but is probably his best work to date, more so with ex Judas Priest and Iced Earth frontman Tim “Ripper” Owens at the helm.
Ripper Owens is a great addition to the Malmsteen camp, not only does he vastly improve the sound of the band, but also incorporates a hint of aggression in the vocals which gives the songs alittle more of a punch, more so then previous vocalists who have had a much more higher vocal range, Joe Lynn Turner comes to mind.
Each song has a distinct similarity as the album’s fundamental core is very 80’s, with the sound and mixing having a cliche and reminiscent styling of the 1980’s, which may not be to every one’s taste, yet does the album a great deal of justice. Having said that though, the album offers a major leap in terms of production and musicianship from the previous releases with Malmsteen on production duties, which may indeed redeem Malmsteen’s stance in the metal world with his last failed attempt “Unleash the Fury” to the metal masses.
With every Malmsteen album you’ll always come across a plethora of instrumental tracks which do a great job of mixing up the albums structure, and with Perpetual Flame you’ll get just that. Oddly enough though most of the instrumental tracks are at the tail end of the album, which don’t really justify the album at all, and in turn make the last 2 - 3 tracks of the album a great big guitar wank fest. Yet, there is light at the end of the tunnel with the track “Magic City” which is put in between these instrumentals, in which we see Malmsteen contributing not only to guitars, but vocals as well. I’ve always thought of Malmsteen as a one man army, not only having the gift of melting people’s faces with his unbelievable guitar work, but also incorporating some pretty decent vocals, yet his vocals are more suited to ballads and slow numbers, which clearly fits Magic City quite well.
The album slowly picks up however with things settling back to normal pace and Ripper back on the helm with the melodic track, “Eleventh Hour” and finally finishing the album off with yet another instrumental “Heavy Heart”. The over all feel of the album is great, but at times it will feel abit repetitive to fans wanting alittle more then just solos upon guitar solos. To be honest though I quite enjoyed this latest endeavor and could easily put it in my top 10 for 2008.
Strangely though there are quite afew mistakes and spelling errors on this album. To name afew, the track “Eleventh Hour” is spelt 3 different ways throughout the entire album, only 1 of the 3 instrumental tracks have been actually labelled as instrumental tracks on the album and a track entitled “Tied of Desire” has strangely been put in the booklet, with lyrics included but is not on the final cut of the album. Not only that the front cover artwork is quite hilarious, with Malmsteen pulling off one of his patented moves which to me is very similair to the cover of his past release” Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra”.
Aside from the front cover which is clearly drizzled with cheese, and numerous errors in the booklet…this album is quite an achievement for Malmsteen. Not only does it have him along side one of the metal worlds most well known and great singers, but it also brings Malmsteen back into the light, which I’m sure many fans will be happy with, both new and old. 8/10
For fans of: Jason Becker, Marty Friedman
Band: Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force
Album: Perpetual Flame
Year: 2008
Genre: Neoclassical Power Metal
Label: Rising Force Records
Origin: Stockholm, Sweden
http://www.myspace.com/yngwiemalmsteen
1. Death Dealer
2. Damnation Game
3. Live to Fight (Another Day)
4. Red Devil
5. Four Horsemen (Of the Apocalypse) <- Reviewers choice
6. Priest of the Unholy
7. Be Careful What You Wish For
8. Caprici di Diablo
9. Lament
10. Magic City
11. Eleventh Hour
12. Heavy Heart
Reviewd by Anwar Rizk