Yngwie Malmsteen - Wolrd On Fire (2016)

Despite being such an icon and being acclaimed as one of the most influential guitar players ever to have lived, more or less a living legend, I was actually pretty indifferent about Yngwie Malmsteen releasing another record. There are certainly a lot of reasons to why I felt that way, but the main reason was pretty straight forward, the man has not put out anything spectacular lately, it has just been more of that neoclassical guitar wanking goodness that he has perfected throughout his 30+ years in the business. Nothing wrong in itself, but it is not something one would get overly excited over.

Yngwie took his sweet time to record his next installment, taking a total of 4 years, which is the longest time between two Yngwie records ever. Sadly, it seems like he had not used up his time well, because not only is the title really bland (possibly stolen from Slash), but the song material is nothing too special, which is kind of a let down since his last album, "Spellbound", at least had some fresh ideas.

Once again, Yngwie presents us a album that is more of a pure solo effort than a band effort, especially since Yngwie himself takes on a ton of work, including the vocal duties. This does not necessarily have to be a bad thing (after all, this is his band), but I feel like he would benefit with some help, someone to take off some of that weight from his shoulders. At least get a singer, because it is fairly obvious that he is not all too comfortable in that role, seeing as there are only three tracks that includes vocals, and all three of them are really basic, so this could as well have been an instrumental album, something I would have been totally fine with. The vocal additions on this album are more or less unnecessary, even if they are some of the better tracks in this album.

As for the instrumental parts of the album (which there are a lot of), they do very little to impress. The guitar lines are typical Yngwie Malmsteen work, and you can easily hear that he has recycled a lot of them, from the structure of the solos to the mood that they are trying to express. It is of course impressive that Yngwie can pull of this much out of a guitar, but we already know that he could do that, this simply is nothing new to us, nor him. As for the rest of the group... well... I cannot say anything too specific about them because they simply do not get enough room to shine on. It is solid work all the way through, but it is extremely obvious that the guitar is in front, and never leaves the center stage for the entire record.

The only redeeming quality "World On Fire" has is that the technical execution is at a high level, which is far from a big surprise. There aren't many songs in here that are good or memorable, but out of the three songs with vocals in them, "Soldier" is the one that strikes me the most with its epic and emotional moments, making it one of the more unique song in this album. Among the instrumental songs, "Top Down, Foot Down" stands as a good contender with a good, solid execution on a lot of levels. I also enjoy the change of pace in "Largo" and the power in "Abandon (Slight Return)", but they (and every other song on this record) gets tiresome rather quickly.

Never in my life have I heard something that sounds this fast, this thrilling, this flaming, and this boring all at the same time. We get it, Yngwie Malmsteen can take a guitar and set it on fire just by looking at it, but this guitar wankery has almost gotten out of control. "World On Fire" is just more of the same old everything, nothing new or innovative comes out of this album, which once again, is disappointing since "Spellbound" at least tried to bring something new to the table, hinting that the Swede were on his way towards a new destination, but nope, he did a U-turn and went home again to safer ground. "World On Fire" is technical and shows once again that Yngwie is still one of the greater guitarists out there, but this album makes me wonder if he is a one trick pony when he handles all of the work by himself. Hope he isn't...

Songs worthy of recognition: Soldier, "Top Down, Foot Down"

Rating: 4,5/10 Largos

Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Spellbound (2012)

I wonder why the swedish guitar virutuoso Yngwie Malmsteen even bothers to put the words Rising Force in his project any more. This is more of a solo album to me, not an album by a band. Yngwie writes all his music himself and he even sings on this album now that Tim "Ripper" Owens (Ex-Iced Earth, Ex- Judas Priest) has left Rising Force. Anyhow, "Spellbound" is Yngwie's 18th studio album and the first album with yours truly on vocals. A wise decision? I am not sure. Yngwie is not a terrible singer but he does not have the same strengths in his voice like Owens have. But one pro with Yngwie being a singer is that we may finally have some continuity when it comes to the vocals. The singer that lasted the longest was Doggie White and he lasted only 6 years (about 1/6 out of Yngwie's musical carrier).

But do not expect Yngwie to wear himself out on the vocals. Just like in "Relentless", the instrumentals has the majority of space on this record. A pretty big majority. Only three out of the thirteen songs have lyrics in them. In other words, Yngwie is letting the riffing do the talking instead of the vocals. A seemingly good decision since Yngwie is not so familiar with the singing. But I got to say that he does a really good work on the singing section, especially on the slow and delicate "Let Sleeping Dogs Lie". His voice is ruff at some spots but with some work I think that Yngwie will master that too. The other two songs ("Repent" and "Poisoned Minds") are good but nothing really special.

Well, how good are the instrumentals then? They are what you would expect from Yngwie. A solid mix of crazy ass shredding and slower, but more well composed, song structures. And the sound is, as usual, a neo-classical sound. A sound that Yngwie masters extremely well. But overall there are 3 instrumentals that is standing out from the rest. The title track has probably the best and unique riff in the entire album and the speed on that song is nice. Then we have "Majestic 12 suite 1, 2 & 3", a nine minute long epic that holds surprisingly well for a song of its size. Otherwise instrumentals that is around this length tends to be pretty boring and repetitive. The third and last instrumental on "Spellbound" that deserves a recognition is the album closure "Requiem For The Lost Souls". This song ends the album in a brilliant way with its beautiful sound and well organised structure. But there is one more instrumental that I would like to point out. "Iron Blues" is something I wish was never even in this album. I mean really? Blues? You may have taken a bit more than you can chew Yngwie. Please, no more of that kind of music in the future.

All in all I feel that "Spellbound" is the best album Yngwie has done since "Perpetual Flame". "Spellbound" has some really interesting instrumentals and the fact that Yngwie made literally everything for himself makes this album even more impressive. It is not a fantastic album but clearly above average. But for next album I would like to see less instrumentals and more of Yngwie's voice (if he is going to sing more in future albums).

Songs worthy of recognition: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie, Requiem For The Lost Souls, Spellbound

Rating: 7/10 Repents