Rising Force
VII
Jun 19, 1994
Just in time for summer, I'm back with The Seventh Issue. Apologies for
the delays, but I've gotten no response to my pleas for assitance, so I'm
doing the best I can. Some of you may recall a tab list I was going to put
together. Interest was pretty low, however, and all I have are 3 MacAlpine
tabs. If you're interesed in those tabs, mail me, and I'll mail them out
next time I fly home.
--Yngwie: The Seventh Sign----
From: Vadim [email protected]>
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS : the author has to express his deep
gratitude to all the members of Yngwie's net "fan-club", who provided
him all the necessary directions, which made possible for him to
track down "the 7th sign" yesterday in one of Urbana, IL, record
stores. Also, as usual, I have to express my warm feelings to my
Japanese friend Kazuhiza Miyata (currently a Chemistry Grad Student in
the Un. of Tokushima, Japan), a huge Yngwie's fan, who supplied me
about a year ago with YJM's concert videotapes, and who was the most
enjoyable discussion partner on YJM I've ever met.
DISCLAIMER: The author is an old and truly dedicated Manowar
fan. I wrote it here to prevent some questions like ("for each note
I now play be the Black Arrow of Death, goes straight to the heart of
all those, who play False Metal..."). If you ask me , is YJM a poser,
the answer is "Yes". However, one has to be a very narrow-minded person
to listen only to one band, which he consideres "true", and not
to listen to anything else. Not only YJM is very dear to me, I also
like Beatles, Genesis/Gabriel, and some other non-metal bands.
Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (born 30/06/63, Stokholm, Sweden in the
family of the colonel of the Swe. army). Learned how to play guitar
before learning how to walk. Organized his band ("Rising Force") in 1976.
After that joined The Steeler. In 1983 - in Alkatrazz with G.Bonnet.
1983 - "No Parole for Rock'n'Roll" - cool start.
1984 - "Alcatrazz Live in Japan" - rather raw, but generally a high-
quality concert tour. Strong influence (as usual) of R.Blackmore.
1984 - left Alcatrazz, organized again "Rising Force".
1984 - "Rising Force" - FANTASTIC instrumental album, the best
instrumental guitar album I've ever listened to. By far surpassed
Vai, Satriani. The weakest part of the album - 2 vocal parties of
J.S.Soto, especially "Now your ships are burned".
1985 - "Marching Out" - a step back. 8 "evil" lirics and not at all
"evil" tunes + 3 instrumental. Looks like, that tried to
imitate "Heaven and Hell" (in "format, at least").
1985 - concert tour in Japan. Very good and dynamic.
1986 - "Trilogy" - a big step forward with M.Bowls. That was his first
album for me. I was completely "absorbed" from the first
excellent tune "You don't remember - I'll never Forget" until
the last. 9 outstanding songs. Commercial sound, but what a
great sound - no weak points, total harmony.
1987 - car crash.
1988 - "Odyssey" - another step forward - his best album ever, in
my opinion. 12 excellent songs. Great vocals by Turner (his best
vocalist ever). Unsurpassable tunes like "Rising Force",
"Hold On", and my personal favourite "Dreaming".
1989 - concert tour in Moscow/Leningrad - I attended the Moscow
concert. It was great. His finest hour.
1990 - "Eclipse". I remember my feeling when I sat down and listened to
for the 1st time. Another lineup. First song - "Making Love" ??
The second - "Bedroom eyes" - just ugly. That was the moment I
got scared.- I never expected him to fall so low. But then
everything goes to places - "Save Our Love" was unbelievably
great, and songs which followed ("Faultline", "Judas"...)
made the album remarkable. A Little step back from "Odyssey"
1992 - "Fire and Ice" - the same story as with "Eclipse" - again
second song ("Teaser") went ugly. Severl tunes were
good (esp. "I'm My oun Enemy", "No Mercy", "Fire and Ice"...).
another little step back from "eclipse".
1994 - "The 7th Sign". New vocalist (Mike Ventura/Loudness). 48 minutes.
12 songs. What the hell did he do??? First - if you're
classically trained and know better than anybody how to write
"love/reject" type of stuff - stick to it and do not try to
imitate Metallica (J.Hatfield style vocals on "Pyramid of
Cheops"). You may allow pseudo-evil lirics, but why try to write
a pseudo-evil music? That made me sick.
Second - when you open the cover - take a look at traditional
Malmsteen-type ego-glorifing photoes - with his Ferrari, with
his guitar, and you may, if you're not tired to death, read
another bunch of acknowledgements - to his second wife (will it
be the 3rd on next album?), to a couple of living and a huge
bunch of dead people. Do not try to read lirics - it's senceless
(as usual) and also make you sick. Just listen to Music.
Third - despite all the above - He did not die. The quality
is still here. Listen to "Forever one", "The 7th sign"...anothe
songs (I do not remember names - they are #9 and #11), and to
his instrumentals (## 6 and 12) - they are not worse than before.
However, this is his, probably, worst album ever, rather
raw, and the number of bad songs approaches 50%. What's next?
I, personally, want him to find some way out, buit I do not
know what this way can be.
In the end - he still saved my love for him...
From: [email protected]>
FINALLY!! Yngwie Malmsteen's "The Seventh Sign" has finally made it to
the USA!! I haven't gotten through all of it yet, but it's not too bad
so far. Michael Vescera is a really good fit at lead vocals. As a whole,
the album has more of a mainstream feel than "Fire and Ice" did, which I
feel is a mistake. I think that is why everyone I have heard compares
this album to "Marching Out". As far as the songs go, the first
instrumental, "Brothers", is really lame and disappointing. "Seventh
Sign" is kickass with a beautiful "F&I" style opening. "Pyramid of
Cheops" was good, but it doesn't live up to the hype I have heard about
it. "Meant To Be" is a great hard rock song which might not do too bad
if it got airplay. All in all, Yngwie fans should get this album and
others who like heavy guitar rock may want to consider picking it up. It
is on a minor label (CMC International) but I found it at many stores.
And gee, since I just went back and listened to it, i'll plug "Forever
One", one of Yngwie's better power ballads.
From Hardrock Mailing List: [email protected]>
Found a copy of Yngwie Malmsteen's new album 'The Seventh Sign'
this week. I'm not sure when it's due out in the states, but the price
was decent so I got the import. After a few listens I'd say it's on par
with Malmsteen's last album 'Fire and Ice.'
The instrumentals, "Brothers" and "Sorrow", are curious in that
they're both slow, emotional pieces. Yngwie has been criticized for
years as being "all technical, no feeling", but these pieces show
otherwise. There's also some pretty heavy stuff here, like "Never Die"
and "Pyramid of Cheops." New drummer Mike Terrana is quite good. The
keyboards have been toned down on 'The Seventh Sign', leaving the guitar
to do most of the work. And Mike Vescera (ex-Loudness vocalist) does a
respectable job singing. Unfortunately, what he sings is the low point
of the album. The lyrics are, in most cases, rather boring. Yngwie's
new wife wrote the lyrics to "Prisoner of Love" and though I think it's
touching of Yngwie to use his wife's lyrics in one of his songs, he
should have thought better of it.
Of course, who buys a Malmsteen album for the lyrics? As usual
Yngwie does some amazing guitar work and once again shows he's about as
fast as they come. The classical influences, though subtle, are still
there. If you like Yngwie's earlier instrumental work, this obviously
isn't the album for you. But if you like his later albums, this really
is no let-down. Some of it is quite impressive, some a bit bland, but a
solid effort from a guy who's doing what he wants to do despite what the
charts and radio programmers say is "in."
--Yngwie misc----
From: Kalle [email protected]>
Somebody wrote that YJM prefers the right side of the stage, do you
know if he meant the left side (the right side from the point of view
of audience), because that's what I remember from previous gigs?
[I meant the right side from the point of view of the audience. -Ig]
--Neoclassical roots----
From: Dmitri [email protected]>
OK, I've been thinking of doing a little project: to write
a history of neoclassical guitar, in particular, to search for the
style's roots e.g. to find out who was the first to play a piece of
classical music on electric guitar with distortion.
[Janell's book should be able to help you! -Ig]
Anybody who knows any history knows it was _not_ Yngwie Malmsteen. A band
called Episode Six recorded a track back in 1969 called Mozart vs The
Rest which is in effect Mozart's Turkish March (is that what it's
called?) arranged for a rock group. Guitarist Tony Lander sounds very
neoclassical. Other than that, the only thing to note about this group is
that Ian Gillan and Roger Glover were in it before they joined Deep
Purple.
However, if I were to name the creator of the neoclassical style it
would be Maestro Ritchie Blackmore. For although he flourished as a
guitarist in 1970-1978, he recorded some very neoclassical sounding
passages as early as 1968, on Deep Purple's first two albums. In one of
the recent issues of Guitar World there's a list of 100 most important
men in rock guitar. They included jerks like Kurt Cobain but left out
Ritchie. Yngwie is in it and in particular the article says that he
founded the neoclassical style and popularized scalloped fretboards. I
choked with resentment when I read that, for both of the above are
Blackmore's inventions and that's how Yngwie got it. One can argue about
the neoclassical style but not about scalloped fretboards: there's hard
evidence.
All this is not to imply that I don't like Yngwie. I admire him greatly
(otherwise we wouldn't be having this conversation, right? :-) but I'm
still pissed at the big shots in the music press who refuse to do
justice to those who deserve it.
BTW, another pre-Malmsteen neoclassical player is Gary Moore, check out
his Dirty Fingers album.
From the net: [email protected]>
You can play fast without losing the melody though. Have you ever
listened to anyone play anything by Franz Liszt (I know this is piano
though)? I think Yngwie is very talented. It sometimes seems that when
people that CAN'T play tough songs, they start saying things like "Oh he
just plays fast scales, he is not anygood" Also, it would take more than
a million Mark Knopflers, Chet Atkins, Stevie Ray Vaughns, and Randy
Rhoads to measure up to 1 fat old Andres Segovia!!!!!!!!!!
I think the best electric quitarists in the world is Steve Morse.
I saw him perform with his bass player Dave Larue in a small (60 people)
club. He played classical guitar for most of the night and he was nearly
as good as Parkening. Then he played electric guitar and blew away
anyone I have ever seen.
I personally hate Knopfler and Atkins. I do like Stevi Ray and Randy
Rhoads though. Another note on someone that is fast but is definately a
GREAT guitarist is Al Di Meola. Have you ever heard Flamenco music ala
Paco De Lucia? Talk about fast.
--Dream Theater----
From the net: Rich [email protected]>
Go to your CD player. Put in _When Dream And Day Unite_. Put on Ytse
Jam. Listen to Kevin's keyboard solo. Listen to John P's guitar solo.
If you can listen to these two solos and tell me that neither is
enormously influenced by Malmsteen (or in the former case his old
keyboardist Jens Johansen) then I will have to assume that you have never
heard any Malmsteen music before.
From the net: Timo [email protected]>
I don't think that one is such a good example. A lot better one would be
"Only a Matter of Time" somewhere around 2:35 would be a lot better one.
I'd rather call it baroque influence though, because that's where Yngwie
ripped it off. :)
From the net: Rich [email protected]>
Thanks for the tip, but I think it's a pretty good example. John's solo
especially is unbelievably derivative of Yngwie. The phrasing, the
scales; he even copies Yngwie's extremely wide and unique sounding
vibrato. And Kevin's solo uses the exact same lick at one point that
Yngwie's keyboardist has used. The example in "Only a Matter of Time" is
influenced by the same thing that Yngwie is influenced by, whereas the
solos in Ytse Jam are clearly influenced directly by Malmsteen.
From the net: [email protected]>
No doubt that sounds a lot like Malmsteen. John P. has even JOKINGLY
said in interviews that his early playing was basically an inferior
Yngwie imitation (John's words-not mine). However, even in these early
days John P. is 10 times the songwriter Yngwie ever was or will be.
From the net: Philip <pw15@columbia>
Did you listen to the first Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force album?
That is most certainly the equal of Dream Theater. Yngwie does have
talent in writing good music. The problem is that he seems so obsessed
with being a pop star and Jimi Hendrix that since then his albums tended
to be half awesome and well written and half cheese crap, resulting in
vastly average albums. Except Fire And Ice which bored me compleatly (and
"Teaser" made me laugh till I cried, it was so bad), and Eclipse, which
comes close in my opinion to being as good as the first album (though the
singer, though a good singer, is inferior to Jeff Scott Soto, as if I had
to say that. Haven't heard the Vescera album yet but intend to since
Eclipse seemed so promising and the one song off Fire And Ice I liked
seemed so promising).
--Helstar----
From the net: "Buzzy Bellew" [email protected]>
Helstar, "NOSFERATU" definitely deserves honorable mention. It's
fantastic music. It doesn't involve much keyboard work at all, really
but it DOES feature some greatly classically-influenced acoustic gui-
tar work and some piano as well. The singing is superb, very meticu-
lously crafted. Half the album is concept, based on Bram Stoker's
"Dracula" (no kidding... :> ) and the other half is just very cool
material. Definitely high points on the album are "Baptized in Blood"
"The Curse Has Passed Away" and also "Aleria and Everron"(sp?).
--Michael Angelo----
From: [email protected]>
He is (was ) in a band called Nitro. The band isn't good, but the guy.
I got an instructional video tape with him. His picking ability is
amazing. He can do that with both hands(!) And his speciality is a
double neck guitar, but being composed from a regular and a lefthand
guitar. And he hammers on both at the same time. Very impressive.
I don't know what he is doing now. He mentioned in the video that he is
doing clinics. He might be the fastest picker. Very precise, too. Wasted
talent in a shitty band.
--Dave Uhrich----
From Hard Rock: Tim [email protected]>
My vote for Favorite Unknown Guitarist goes to Dave Uhrich. He's
based out of Chicago, has a self-titled album out nationally, and has a
second one called Fretnotized coming out (hopefully) next month. His
first album's songs are all instrumentals, and they remind me of Joe
Satriani with a few Yngwie-like runs here and there. His style runs the
gamut from hard rock to blues to southern rock, and it all sounds
natural, not forced. I've had the pleasure of talking
with him a couple of times at gigs here in Chicago, and he's one
of the genuine "nice guys" of rock. He has an excellent back-up band and
I highly recommend his live show to fans of instrumental hard rock. He
should be touring in support of his new album this summer. He recently
opened for Kiss at the Blazefest concert here in Chicago, and I believe
he's either in the midst of, or just come back from, a short tour of
Europe. Check him out if he comes to your town!
--Mozart----
From: Janell [email protected]>
I just listened to the new CD by the LA group Mozart titled MOZART on the
Bachoven Musikwerks label. I didn't know what to expect, but was
intrigued by the name. It turns out to be metal (but not sure what
subgenre to put them in). The group seems to be influenced by Queen,
Malmsteen and the Cult, but not Mozart in any way. Here and there they
attempt neo-classical flourishes on guitar and keyboards. The singer's
look and manner remind me of the singer in the group The Cult. The Queen
similarities are probably due to the use of producer Roy Thomas Baker
(who produced some Queen albums). The songs are OK, but not outstanding.
One that seems out of place is a cover version of Sting's "Fortress
Around My Heart".
--Mekong Delta----
From: Janell [email protected]>
Anyone got details on the Mekong Delta album MEKONG DELTA CLASSICS? I
need year, label, number, track listings, classical sources. Also I need
details on classical covers on previous albums (EXCEPT for the first
one and for KALEIDOSCOPE and LIVE AT AN EXHIBITION). I have someone
named Tony working on this, but he can't check on his collection until
Christmas, and wondered if someone else could fill in before then.
--Rolling Stones----
From: [email protected]>
Mick sings on it, Keith loves the record and Ronny Wood was dissappointed
that he didn't manage to get on the record himself! _Symphonic Music of
The Rolling Stones is a must for any fan of the group or classical music
or both. You should be able to find it at any local record store. Or,
call 1-800-888-8574 to order _Symphonic Music of the Rolling Stones_
(selection # 09026-62526-2 from RCA Victor).
--Farewell----
Chances are the next issue will take a while, so please be patient. And
any offers of assistance will be appreciated! Also, if you are missing
back issues, please let me know and I'll send them out as soon as I fly
home. Meanwhile, enjoy the new album!
