Rising Force
Yngwie is supposedly billed as Lars Y. Loudamp on the track "Burn" on the newest Deep Purple tribute album BLACK NIGHT: DEEP PURPLE TRIBUTE: ACCORDING TO NEW YORK (1995 Japan?). He was also seen recently on Swedish TV (bearded and overweight) praising old Deep Purple albums. He was also seen backstage at the Rainbow concert in London recently.
Malmsteen's Militia replied:
"Power and Glory" was a limited-edition promotional mini-CD put out by Pony Canyon to promote both Yngwie's album "Seventh Sign" and his appearance at the World Wrestling Federation event in Tokyo where they played the theme music Yngwie wrote for Japanese wrestling champion Takada. The mini-CD had three cuts on it: Full-length version of Takada's Theme, Stadium edit version of the theme, and "The Seventh Sign" from the 7th Sign album. Our Web page has the cover of Power and Gloryscanned in under the Discography section, with its label and release date info.
In talking to Jens Johannson I discovered that he cowrote a lot of material that Yngwie never credited him. I asked him to list which parts. -IgOK, this is from memory. Some of these Anders had a hand in as well. Note how we kinda wisened up around the third album... ;) the "trilogy suite" part was an "slip" on my part as I vowed *never* to have a piece of music ripped off again. The stuff after that was older riffs used in newer songs.
The interviews are not very informative on this tape. But the most important is the music itself. And it really kicks ass.
Although Yngwie has said to me that words can never describe music, the music of Yngwie is my job nowadays and I am trying to put it on the words. :) So at this moment I don't tell more about this video or something. If you have a possibility, see and hear it yourself! In a meantime let's wait for the next albums Yngwie is going to release.
. First things first: a new record has been set because this is the third official Yngwie release in a row that features the same lead vocalist! Former Obsession and Loudness singer Mike Vescera made his Yngwie debut on 1994's 'The Seventh Sign', then on the 'I Can't Wait' mini-album, and now 'Magnum Opus'. (There might also be a Japanese live album with Vescera, too, so this would mean FOUR straight Yngwie albums with the same singer!!!!! I think this is one of the signs of Armageddon.)
But how's the music? In a word: EXCELLENT. One thing about Yngwie is that he makes consistently good albums and he doesn't follow trends. Don't come here looking for grunge or "90's" metal (whatever that is)--come here looking for amazing guitar dexterity, fist-pumping metal anthems, and tasty instrumentals.
Tracks 1 and 2, "Vengeance" and "No Love Lost", make up the best 1-2 punch I've heard in a LONG time. Both are uptempo numbers that showcase some killer fast guitar playing. "No Love Lost" also features some cool vocal counter-melodies, something kinda new for Yngwie. Track 3, "Tomorrow's Gone", is an obligatory Yngwie plodder; go ahead and skip this one. Next up is a commercial gem, "The Only One". This is as catchy and cool as "Heaven Tonight" from 'Odyssey' and "Teaser" from 'Fire & Ice', but it rocks hard as well. Killer track. This is followed by "I'd Die Without You", obviously a ballad. While Vescera can scream with the best of them in heavy/fast tunes, his ballad singing isn't the greatest. This is still a decent enought ballad though. Track 6, "Overture 1622", is the first of two instrumentals on the album. Track 7, "Voodoo", starts off with a volume-swell sounding kind of thing, but then it kicks in and features a cool whispered chorus. It degenerates into a sludgy Yngwie mosh at the end, but if you overlook this part it's another killer song. "Cross The Line" comes next and has a cool groove. It's followed by kind of a boner track, "Time Will Tell", but track 10, "Fire In The Sky", picks up the pace again quite nicely. The final track on the U.S. and European versions is another instrumental, "Amberdawn", named after Yngwie's wife; it's a cool mellower tune. The Japanese album has a bonus track, another instrumental called "Cantabile, Op. 10 No. 3, RV428 'Il Gardellino'", which is a Vivaldi piece; but clocking in at only 2:03 means it's WAY too short to be a worthwhile bonus track.
Overall I'd give this album an 8 out of 10. I suppose some people might say this music sounds dated because this album easily could've come out between 1989 - 1992, but when it's this good, who cares? The production is great, new drummer Shane Gaalaas is a monster, and of course, Yngwie rules as usual. If it ever comes out in the U.S., pick it up!
Of course by now it has :-) -Ig
Truly his previous album "The 7th Sign" was a step in a right direction. Although it was rather "rough" (uneven), with mellow ballades coexisted with a pompous attempts to write "socially concerned" (and pathetic lyrics, and imitate Kirk Hammett's "staircase" on "Cheops" (why the hell Yngwie tried to imitate the guy who doesn't have even 1% of Malmsteen's talent?), still "the 7th Sign" featured a step to a right direction.
This was reflected in a new Yngwie's release "Magnum Opus", which was generally devoid of deficiencies of "The 7th Sign", and which featired an excellent vocals of Vescera (probably, he shaved off his idiotic buccaneer-style beared and it really helped him to explore his talents as a vocalist - sarcasm on/off), traditional Yngwie flashy guitar work, and evolution in his songwriting.
Surprisingly enough, Yngwie gave more space to Vescera on this album, they together (not Malmsteen himself) wrote a lettle bit better lyrics, and the quality of this album closely approached the greatest thing Yngwie ever did - "Odyssey" (with Joe Lynn Turner).
In conclusion, I must say that 1995 was a good year for metal. It was a great year of tremendous comebacks. It all started with another mighty release from The Ultimate Metal Band of the 90th - Martin Walkyier and Skyclad "Silent Whales of the Lunar Sea". After that our socially concerned friend Mr. Steve Duran emigrated to England, wrote song "Goodbye America", and released "Still not Black Enough" (scared to death - I don'r wanna die...). The greatest day in 1995 was when John Osbourne kicked everyone's arse in his "Ozzmosis" - his finest effort in his 25+ years of heading Metal movement around the world. (I see Iommi, Dio and their ilk crying in their misery). And now Malmsteen again demonstrated himself as an ultimate and greatest guitarist ever born on this tiny little planet. WELL DONE, GUYS!!!!!
But the songs they played (not in order except the first and the second ones):
Last November I was listening to Yngwie live in Helsinki. It was absolutely the best gig of Yngwie I had ever seen or heard (and it was 5th time I saw him live). Everything worked so well. He was playing well, and I loved to hear background vocals sung by many players. Well I can't say Yngwie has lost his touch.. He might have lost it when he made Odyssey. But Eclipse was already better, then Fire and Ice.. But after that I could hear the Seventh Sign and IMO the same _old_ touch could be heard.
Average guy goes to work, gets into a conversation with others about music, 8 out of 10 say Alternative rules, so naturally hes going to say, "Oh ah...ya...Alternative's cool". Weather he likes it or not. Its this simple people...
"Either you like what the majority of people in your genre likes, or your looked at differently".
We need more people to be individualist's. To walk into an Alternative or Rap discussion and tell them who you like. Im into Yngwie. Usually they would say, "Whos that?". Youll have to forgive them, they are currently following Acid heads who shoot themselves to gain immortality, and dress like demonic welfare beasts.
Remember, Bruce? The Boss? Boy did he come and go.
Thats one reason Yngwie holds the foreign market in such high regards. The Japanese culture to this day hold Yngwie in high respect, weather he currently has a hot selling CD or not. The way it should be.
Another example is Dream Theater. Much like Yngwie, they are musical engineers. Masters. Technical prowess at its apex. But do they hit the top 10 either? Hell no, when you crank it up, it doesnt thump your trunk lid.
In closing... Dont get me wrong. I know how easy it is to read something, and not get the correct conveyance. I like all kinds of music...I prefer Yngwie. Not all Yngwie, I will grant you that. Just 98%. I just find it asinine that people judge music simply by if you can dance to it, or if every body else likes it. Its like, I thought MTV teaches you to be your own person, do your own thing, ...and then subliminally they have on the screen..."Listen only to what we tell you".
Collected from a few of Philips posts -IgYngwie has never repeated anything after the first Rising Force album - if anything he seems to try to keep things more or less around like what the third Rising Force album was like. But there is less emphasis on the keyboards which I think differentiates his solo (Eclipse and afterwards) from Rising Force (if the Johansson bros. aren't on it, it's not Rising Force and isn't the same as Yngwie solo. In fact if you notice they don't really sound the same either even though Yngwie still writes all the stuff).
Another thing is that none of Yngwie's albums really repeat like you say. Rising Force 1 was all instrumental except for two songs and baroque music style. Marching Out was standard mid '80s metal but good. Trilogy was a more pop style mixed with metal evenly balanced. Odyssey was a continuation of Trilogy but more overtly pop. The live album is just stuff from those. Nothing much in common there. Eclipse seemed to be a mix of Odyssey and Marching Out back and forth. Fire And Ice was just bad. That's unique in itself. And The Seventh Sign was heavy metal more like Loudness, Iron Maiden, etc. I think you can always tell which album each song came from, as opposed to say bands like AC/DC after Back In Black or Over Kill with Bobby Gustafson where a lot of stuff sounds the same over and over.
I never asked my teacher to teach me how Yngwie played. I asked him to teach me classical guitar because I found out that a lot of the best metal guitarists studied classical guitar or violin (and having been a longtime violin student helped me here too).
Baroque music tends to have a lot of tendency to sound like discipline work. It's the nature of the beast. Especially considering that Bach was a huge influence on Yngwie, this shouldn't be a surprise because a lot of Bach's works were pedagogical although I'm sure he'd be flipping out if he knew that a lot of those works that he used to student etudes are now used for concert performances.
I think I have an interview where Yngwie says he plays the blues because he can relax more and not have to worry so much about discipline. Blues would seem to be such a direct opposite of the stringent baroque style that in a way it would be natural that when he's not playing baroque-influenced metal he'd be playing rock and roll and blues.
I find that usually 1/4 of his albums tend to be rock and roll / blues. I also find that those are the ones I generally don't listen to unless I'm listening to the whole CD.
I don't watch instructional videos usually. I do pay a lot of attention to musicians in concert, but for some reason I've never been into videos like that. Probably because if I'm doing something wrong it's not like the guy on TV can see that and tell me I'm screwing up.
This album is what every neoclassical metal fan craves. The pieces are well chosen, the arrangements are fresh, and the playing at times made me question Kevin whether he played it in real time or sped it up (Bumble Bee, for example). But Kevin performs these live to a recorded orchestra as well. My favorite is the second movement of the Sarasate. I think that piece works VERY well. Another great one is the Caprice in Am, I've included that in the Rising Force Collection tape. One improvement for the future would be a more authentic sounding orchestra; the current one sounds too synthesized. I look forward to hearing more from Kevin. -IgMail order $12.00 plus whatever they are charging for shipping. To order, call 1-800-269-6344 or (in case the 800 number gives you trouble) 1-(503)-227-5000. For more information, call Local's Only @ (503)-227-5000, email [email protected] or [email protected], or write: DeBone Music, P.O. Box 1646, Beaverton, OR 97005
I started doing concerts here in Portland at the end of November. The 3 concerts given so far have helped especially with the Oregonian picking the concert as the "Best Bet" for that Saturday night.
What is a "Concept CD" you may ask ?? It is a special limited run- CD for Maelstrom fans... which is meant to be more interactive, let the fan become a part of the band so to speak. With interactive video and Karaoke being so popular these days, this special release CD feature 8 songs (only one of which has vocals). The vocals for the other songs are intentionally missing. This allows the following... 1) Listening to it as just a crunchy guitar instrumental album or.... 2) Allows singers or anyone else who is interested to create their own words and become "the lead singer". Titles include..
This selection.... "Eye of the Storm" is the most "neoclassical" and "Yngwish" sounding on the first CD.........it is a dedication to Malmsteen much as "Bedroom Eyes" was Yngwie's homage to Hendrix. The idea for the brief arpeggio before the solo is indeed a blend of Yngwie Songs {including Rising Force, Liar, and Demon Driver}, although the actual chord progression is different. The solo section is actually 4 parts..
Well, these might be all gone, sorry for being late. Hopefully Rising Force Online will help keep news current. The original place where this file was available is gone, so I''ve put it for you here -Ig
I believe Uli Roth is one of the rare species of excellent musicians a n d brilliant technicians! He plays his self-made guitar (which has got about 30 frets or more) with such a virtuosity that it sometimes sounds like a violin. I once saw him in concert in the mid 80s. It was amazing and by the wheelchairedjesus it w a s heavy!! All the guitarists in the audience (and there were quite a lot of them!) ended up with their mouths hanging open; but it was not only the way he plays his guitar it was his music as well.
The song "Amadeus", by the way, is sort of Mozartesque. As far as I know Mozart (and Uli Roth) there's no citation of a special melody of Mozart. The style, however, is what is called "Mozartesque". I believe Uli Roth is one of the rare species of excellent musicians and technicians and this song is really great! He plays his self-made guitar (which has got about 30 frets or more) with such a virtuosity that it sometimes sounds like a violin. I once saw him in concert in the mid 80s. It was amazing! All the guitarists in the audience (and there were a lot of them!) ended up with their mouths hanging open, but it was not only the way he plays his guitar it was his music as well.
And you can read it here. -Ig
Ron Thal recorded a Chopin piece on a Shrapnel compilation that some of you heard on the Rising Force Collection tape. -Ig
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