Yngwie may be known for his fast shredding solos but he could write a good riff and a solid hook. He's got a lot of catchy cool music on his albums, and I respect him a lot for that. I haven't listened to his latest output but I've enjoyed all the albums from Fire and Ice and before - Eclipse was really good.
I will never ever ever forget the first time I heard Yngwie. I was already a huge Randy Rhoads fan …. also Tony Iommi, Jimi Hendrix, Richie Blackmore they were my idols as a kid. So I was 12, been playing for a few years and my neighbor one day tells me “oh Joe you gotta check out this new rock Guitar Player. He sounds more classical than Randy Rhoads.” As a kid I’m thinking … that’s impossible. We go into his house , he pulls out this album with a guitar 🎸 being held above fire 🔥. We had no idea how to pronounce the name. So he drops the needle on “As Above, So Below” and the song sounds cool , a quicker Maiden-esq gallop , singer sounded great … then the guitar SOLO hits … I was standing there in shock , jawed dropped , in amazement. I couldn’t even comprehend was I was listening to. Was this even a guitar ? What was this ??? I’ve been a huge fan ever since. Yes , there have been many imitators … but the permanent mark this man has left on the world of guitar will be felt for generations. Proud to say I’ve met Yngwie a few times now , even got to perform once right before he went on (no pressure ! lol ). It was surreal speaking to him … 12 year old me was in amazement once again.
I bought his first 3 albums as they came out. To this day I still think he's a better song writer than he's given credit for. Definitely underrated in terms of his compositional talent.
Saw yngwie open for AC/DC in 1985 !!! I was really stoned , but he put on a hell of a show , especially opening for ACDC, he really rocked never forget it, AC/DC was great Loud as hell the Canon still got my ears ringing to this day
I first heard Yngwie on a sound page from guitar player magazine. It was the song black star and I was blown away. He spawned the whole neoclassical movement. Tony Macalpine, Vinnie Moore, Paul Gilbert, Jason Becker, just to name a few.
First time I was made aware of the existence of Yngwie was when I joined my second band (thia was about 1986)with a guitarist from my college. I was on bass (thankfully lol) and he and the other guitarist in the band wanted to do "Black Star" which is the first track on Rising Force. Luckily, another guitarist friend of mine had the tab for both guitar and bass from a magazine otherwise I would've had zero chance of learning any of it! My favourite track on that album is Icarus Dream Suite: Opus 4. A phenomenal tune! One of my Favourite metal riffs of all time is on the second album, Marching Out. The main riff from Disciple of Hell is an absolute monster!
Everyone now (and to a certain extent then--1983 to 1985) focuses on the speed and technical aspects of his playing, but the greater truth of Yngwie's impact was that he sent everyone to the woodshed to learn their scales and theory, even to learn to read standard notation. He made learning everything about music cool, beyond merely playing the guitar!
Right ! When i thought Eddie & VH now had told the whole story, with Rising Force i was blown into the Stratosphere, and something COMPLETE different showed up, a new art (to set the guitar on fire), already perfect in its debut...
He was superhuman early on, no kidding. Saw him in a pre war large, ornate movie theater where the big up and coming Z Rock acts were featured. No novelty there at all. He was the new top teir in Rock.
When I heard YJM the first time I thought "Now THATS how I envisioned neoclassical metal should be played!". Not like uli roth or blackmore, schenker or even Randy Rhoads. I had already been listening to Mahavishinu orchestra, Return to Forever and Dixie Dregs for over 5 yrs already when I first heard him so his precise alternate picking wasn't what impressed me. It was the fusion of metal and classical played with shred, real shred i.e. alternate picking, ability and the great hooks. Everything he did upto including Vengeance album was mindblowing and inspirational
My introduction to Yngwie was the original broadcast of an Alcatrazz show in Reseda, CA. I was listening because I was interested in what Graham Bonnet was up to. Having said that, I was really blown away by the guitar player (Yngwie, obviously). I also lived in a place where I could find an original import version of his first Rising Force album, which verified what I heard before that, and since.
I first heard of Yngwie in Mike Varney's Spotlight column in Guitar Player magazine. Then I bought the Steeler album when it came out. It has a blistering unaccompanied guitar.solo track. I love the Alcatrazz no parole from rock and roll with Grahm Bonnet. Malmsteen is on fire. I did see him support his Rising Force record with Jeff Scott Soto with Billy Sheehan's old band Talas. Yngwie's stage volume was massive.
Cool! Yeah, I was right on it, those first two albums. I even saw Jeff Scott Soto at a local party up around the North Glendale, California area-in Tujunga. Close to where Chris Holmes and Lita Ford lived in the 80s, lotta rockers from the area. So I went home, grabbed the two albums, and brought them back to the party. It was like a big family birthday party, and they knew Jeff-so he was there. Anyway, he signed both my albums. Still trying to catch up with him, I think we’ve been in the same place a lot of times, around Hollywood. So, I told one of my friends that knows him, to make sure to introduce me next time… in case I don’t even recognize him anymore, ha ha.
I read this article when it came out. Before this we saw Yng in Guitar Player Magazine's Spotlight Column, and many of my crew sought out the Steeler album at the import record store before Rising Force was released. That Magazine enabled us to see him and many other of the new greats coming. Before Yng there was DiMeola. But Yng was the first to bring top tier technique to Rock/Metal with excellent composition, and a fair share of style borrowed from Uli Jon Roth. He sent all of us back to the woodshed. But no one has achieved what Holdsworth had by 1982.
Although I regret it now. in the mid eighties I went to a Ronnie James Dio concert. I was a little late but was able to see the last twenty minutes of the opening act which was Yngwie Malmsteen. I was so blown away by him, that when Dio finally came on with all his dragons and laser beams I just decided to leave the show. I regret it now because i love Vivian Cambel, but I just didn't see Dio living up to what I had just experienced watching Yngwie Malmsteen. He forced everybody from the eighties to step up their game and I don't think that many of the technical musician you here today would even exist were it not for him. Awesome musician!
He was a burnin' fire wheel, with feeling, passion, and sheer infinite speed, yeah it felt that way those early years...when i heard Live in Leningrad, i was SMASHED! He destroyed all shyness, sloppyness, and...all other guitarists incidentally...He was bound to go to the strat-oz-phere & beyond, when time had come he would get out of scale-an'fretboardprison and invent something all anew, a magic music, like speeding fractals, dancing with Black Holes, strange Nebulas, Schrödinger and his cat... Mandelbrot playing a congenial keyboard... But, unfortunately, that dream didn't come true... He became a slave, over the decades, (though he tried hard for some time not to), of his skills, of scales and fretboard... Oh, i know, they say, he improvises a lot live, but in what small frame ? In my inner vision i see a circus pony, doin it's 3,4 tricks over and over again, but it was to become a Cosmic Pegasus when it was young, and you begin to think about your own life and destiny. Nevermind: He made his Giant Footsteps, and i will forever love his first albums and the vision he gave to me... May the Rising Force be forever with Him and with Us all ! 🔥🎸🔥
Yngwie is good for sure. I bought all of his early albums, but after a while the constant excessive speed tends to grate on you. That being said he's best when he has a vocalist, and he does have some pretty good songs. In fact I think his songwriting is actually underrated.
Yngwie's two first album was released in Japan and exported to the rest of the world and it seems like they made a limited edition of it. They became a rare colector item. You still dont find any new release on them and they are not to found on Spotify.
It was a shifting of the gears in so many ways! No one played as clean,picked as fast or had a relatively clean (no fx) tone! I'm not die hard yng fan by the way but it was and still is untouchable even by today's standards
Yes he has impact on me when I heard him I was like how hell he playing like that then brought guitar world man there he was on the cover I read the interview billions time what read he taught himself too play I said too myself he did so can I I did have two cd out now oh by the way then discovered classical music so I see where get it from
Those first half dozen or so albums really stood Yngwie apart. No one, no one, could play with such relentless, expressiveness. Icarus Dream Suite etc.. Has anyone bettered that, in context?
Yeah you can appreciate him and respect them after the third album is like forget this yeah Tony macalpine Vinnie Moore Jason Becker they took it a lot further Yes he started the craze
If anyone didn't know the Steeler or Alcatrazz albums they didn't know the Young Wee Rising Force album existed at all. Let's keep a buck! "as the cool kids are saying these days"
It's because these virtuoso guitar players sink virtually 'all' their time into becoming great players...They'll NEVER have the song writing ability of a 'Burt Bacharach' or a 'John Lennon' because thats a another lifetime to learn that..
Matching out Trilogy are his best I know you have to make a living I understand that believe but you have to draw the line between integrity and selling out I think he couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to be a composer or a rock star
Not a huge fan,,but to say He sucks like a lot of people like to say is just rubbish. He has produced just as many clones as Hendrix, EVH, and others have.
I like his beginning as himself, not steeler or alcatrazz (boring singers). Yngwie could more if he went more heavy.....try listen to death metal, gorguts is a lot more weird and complex and this i like ☝️🤪
As good as Malmsteen was he couldn´t touch the best classical musicians, as far as technique and precision is concerned. He certainly had the talent to become a great classical musician, but he wouldn´t have made the splash that he did had he chosen to do so.
At time metal had a bad name in society. Ozzy biting heads of bats story Judas priest being in court on charges There has been and still exists that music was for the fortunate hence bach and other great musicians of classical music all going around impressing the state power of it's time 1700 1900s There has always been some snobbery with classical music Malmstein very intelligentust have realised that nobody has dominated the electric guitar with Paganini mostly and other great pieces of classical work. To bring the orchestra with electric guitar to the masses Not being the first to do this but realising bring the past forward is what made him so fortunate in wealth is really really great for thinking outside the box. I didn't come across malmstein until 1987 time as then I was just a metalhead buying vinyl every week Buying anything that was either 2nd hand 50s onwards. I came across his first album Around same time come across Joe satriani. As a metalhead I think malmstein attitude is two-faced hence he was already playing metal as you shown Alcatraz album. But he said the truth on dire straits guitarist. The main reason is the playing stays safe and just basically stays in pentatonic position and not moving outside and add in the extra notes when changing from chord to chord. A bit like Gary more classic parasaine walkways though a classic still sticks inside the rules of what is known as playing safe. It' gets tediously borring when playing the same five notes over and over again to the artist and gets bored with playing. Hence why some don't like the basic blues even though it's the backbone of most western music. It's the excitement of breaking outside the this that influenced metal throughout the 80s up to present day. If you have not heard of a band called dragon force then check out this band just to see how much influence was learned from this master The best talented skill that malmstein uses is the noise gate pedal which is not mentioned anywhere but really helped with those resonance of notes. Makes me laugh today we rate Eddie van Helen and he wasn't in the top 5 lmfao Not even Dave Murray ? Randy rhoades? Press is always out of touch and it seems like the top 5 was English even though it was posted by us today at time. Even still today his remarks in this article saying about metal music has lost respect of the metalheads in general I think if he said I just like those that play guitar instead showed no respect Where if you mentioned his name most look at you as the devil in the music scene all this down to classical snobbery.
I’ve liked him ever since I first heard him when Island in the Sun was released. His tone and sense of melody is great. I found him much more enjoyable live then when I saw Vai and Satriani (left their G3 gig early and went to the pub as it was ***king boring… although Satriani was fun when I saw him play with Spinal Tap!)
Yngwie may be known for his fast shredding solos but he could write a good riff and a solid hook. He's got a lot of catchy cool music on his albums, and I respect him a lot for that. I haven't listened to his latest output but I've enjoyed all the albums from Fire and Ice and before - Eclipse was really good.
I will never ever ever forget the first time I heard Yngwie. I was already a huge Randy Rhoads fan …. also Tony Iommi, Jimi Hendrix, Richie Blackmore they were my idols as a kid. So I was 12, been playing for a few years and my neighbor one day tells me “oh Joe you gotta check out this new rock Guitar Player. He sounds more classical than Randy Rhoads.” As a kid I’m thinking … that’s impossible.
We go into his house , he pulls out this album with a guitar 🎸 being held above fire 🔥. We had no idea how to pronounce the name.
So he drops the needle on “As Above, So Below” and the song sounds cool , a quicker Maiden-esq gallop , singer sounded great … then the guitar SOLO hits …
I was standing there in shock , jawed dropped , in amazement. I couldn’t even comprehend was I was listening to. Was this even a guitar ? What was this ???
I’ve been a huge fan ever since. Yes , there have been many imitators … but the permanent mark this man has left on the world of guitar will be felt for generations. Proud to say I’ve met Yngwie a few times now , even got to perform once right before he went on (no pressure ! lol ).
It was surreal speaking to him … 12 year old me was in amazement once again.
That is a great story!
"No pressure" indeed! That is really cool.
I bought his first 3 albums as they came out. To this day I still think he's a better song writer than he's given credit for. Definitely underrated in terms of his compositional talent.
Saw yngwie open for AC/DC in 1985 !!! I was really stoned , but he put on a hell of a show , especially opening for ACDC, he really rocked never forget it, AC/DC was great Loud as hell the Canon still got my ears ringing to this day
I saw that tour too. Yngwie was more memorable than AC/DC.
I first heard Yngwie on a sound page from guitar player magazine. It was the song black star and I was blown away. He spawned the whole neoclassical movement. Tony Macalpine, Vinnie Moore, Paul Gilbert, Jason Becker, just to name a few.
First time I was made aware of the existence of Yngwie was when I joined my second band (thia was about 1986)with a guitarist from my college. I was on bass (thankfully lol) and he and the other guitarist in the band wanted to do "Black Star" which is the first track on Rising Force. Luckily, another guitarist friend of mine had the tab for both guitar and bass from a magazine otherwise I would've had zero chance of learning any of it!
My favourite track on that album is Icarus Dream Suite: Opus 4. A phenomenal tune! One of my Favourite metal riffs of all time is on the second album, Marching Out. The main riff from Disciple of Hell is an absolute monster!
Everyone now (and to a certain extent then--1983 to 1985) focuses on the speed and technical aspects of his playing, but the greater truth of Yngwie's impact was that he sent everyone to the woodshed to learn their scales and theory, even to learn to read standard notation.
He made learning everything about music cool, beyond merely playing the guitar!
I have been fortunate to have met him 5 different times lovely guy very generous with his time.
That first solo album was a game changer for sure.
Right !
When i thought Eddie & VH now had told the whole story, with Rising Force i was blown into the Stratosphere, and something COMPLETE different showed up, a new art (to set the guitar on fire), already perfect in its debut...
Iff you ever seen him live in 1986, you have to respect this man!
He was superhuman early on, no kidding. Saw him in a pre war large, ornate movie theater where the big up and coming Z Rock acts were featured. No novelty there at all. He was the new top teir in Rock.
When I heard YJM the first time I thought "Now THATS how I envisioned neoclassical metal should be played!". Not like uli roth or blackmore, schenker or even Randy Rhoads. I had already been listening to Mahavishinu orchestra, Return to Forever and Dixie Dregs for over 5 yrs already when I first heard him so his precise alternate picking wasn't what impressed me. It was the fusion of metal and classical played with shred, real shred i.e. alternate picking, ability and the great hooks. Everything he did upto including Vengeance album was mindblowing and inspirational
Amazing vibrato too!!
My introduction to Yngwie was the original broadcast of an Alcatrazz show in Reseda, CA. I was listening because I was interested in what Graham Bonnet was up to. Having said that, I was really blown away by the guitar player (Yngwie, obviously). I also lived in a place where I could find an original import version of his first Rising Force album, which verified what I heard before that, and since.
His 3rd album "Trilogy" is my absolute favorite. Mark Boals is an incredible singer.
Just saw him recently, still on top-40 years later!!!
Hardest working guitar player in show business. He’s just incredible.
I first heard of Yngwie in Mike Varney's Spotlight column in Guitar Player magazine. Then I bought the Steeler album when it came out. It has a blistering unaccompanied guitar.solo track. I love the Alcatrazz no parole from rock and roll with Grahm Bonnet. Malmsteen is on fire. I did see him support his Rising Force record with Jeff Scott Soto with Billy Sheehan's old band Talas. Yngwie's stage volume was massive.
Cool! Yeah, I was right on it, those first two albums. I even saw Jeff Scott Soto at a local party up around the North Glendale, California area-in Tujunga. Close to where Chris Holmes and Lita Ford lived in the 80s, lotta rockers from the area.
So I went home, grabbed the two albums, and brought them back to the party. It was like a big family birthday party, and they knew Jeff-so he was there. Anyway, he signed both my albums.
Still trying to catch up with him, I think we’ve been in the same place a lot of times, around Hollywood. So, I told one of my friends that knows him, to make sure to introduce me next time… in case I don’t even recognize him anymore, ha ha.
I was hit by an 18 wheeler the first time I heard Yngwie in 1984.
Alcatrazz!! Hear his lethal dexterity. Still amazing.
He was great on that album. Too bad graham couldn’t make it work
I read this article when it came out. Before this we saw Yng in Guitar Player Magazine's Spotlight Column, and many of my crew sought out the Steeler album at the import record store before Rising Force was released. That Magazine enabled us to see him and many other of the new greats coming.
Before Yng there was DiMeola.
But Yng was the first to bring top tier technique to Rock/Metal with excellent composition, and a fair share of style borrowed from Uli Jon Roth.
He sent all of us back to the woodshed.
But no one has achieved what Holdsworth had by 1982.
Although I regret it now. in the mid eighties I went to a Ronnie James Dio concert. I was a little late but was able to see the last twenty minutes of the opening act which was Yngwie Malmsteen. I was so blown away by him, that when Dio finally came on with all his dragons and laser beams I just decided to leave the show. I regret it now because i love Vivian Cambel, but I just didn't see Dio living up to what I had just experienced watching Yngwie Malmsteen. He forced everybody from the eighties to step up their game and I don't think that many of the technical musician you here today would even exist were it not for him. Awesome musician!
He was a burnin' fire wheel, with feeling, passion, and sheer infinite speed, yeah it felt that way those early years...when i heard Live in Leningrad, i was SMASHED! He destroyed all shyness, sloppyness, and...all other guitarists incidentally...He was bound to go to the strat-oz-phere & beyond, when time had come he would get out of scale-an'fretboardprison and invent something all anew, a magic music, like speeding fractals, dancing with Black Holes, strange Nebulas, Schrödinger and his cat... Mandelbrot playing a congenial keyboard...
But, unfortunately, that dream didn't come true...
He became a slave, over the decades, (though he tried hard for some time not to), of his skills, of scales and fretboard...
Oh, i know, they say, he improvises a lot live, but in what small frame ?
In my inner vision i see a circus pony, doin it's 3,4 tricks over and over again, but it was to become a Cosmic Pegasus when it was young, and you begin to think about your own life and destiny.
Nevermind:
He made his
Giant Footsteps,
and i will forever love his first albums and the vision he gave to me...
May the Rising Force be forever with Him and with Us all !
🔥🎸🔥
Yngwie is good for sure. I bought all of his early albums, but after a while the constant excessive speed tends to grate on you. That being said he's best when he has a vocalist, and he does have some pretty good songs. In fact I think his songwriting is actually underrated.
Yngwie's two first album was released in Japan and exported to the rest of the world and it seems like they made a limited edition of it. They became a rare colector item. You still dont find any new release on them and they are not to found on Spotify.
It was a shifting of the gears in so many ways!
No one played as clean,picked as fast or had a relatively clean (no fx) tone!
I'm not die hard yng fan by the way but it was and still is untouchable even by today's standards
Malmsteen never did anything for me , it was and still is EVH and Rhoads for me .
He was great on the no
Parole for rock and roll record.
EVH is #1 but Yngwie is in top 4 for me!
Yes he has impact on me when I heard him I was like how hell he playing like that then brought guitar world man there he was on the cover I read the interview billions time what read he taught himself too play I said too myself he did so can I I did have two cd out now oh by the way then discovered classical music so I see where get it from
Rock star movie I thought the vocals where from Miljenko Matijevic of Steelheart?
They are.
Those first half dozen or so albums really stood Yngwie apart. No one, no one, could play with such relentless, expressiveness. Icarus Dream Suite etc.. Has anyone bettered that, in context?
Rising Force was great, his best record.
that guy could (can) fly
Yeah you can appreciate him and respect them after the third album is like forget this yeah Tony macalpine Vinnie Moore Jason Becker they took it a lot further Yes he started the craze
Yngwie would instantly rise to greatness again if he would bring back Jeff Scott Soto
100% agree
If anyone didn't know the Steeler or Alcatrazz albums they didn't know the Young Wee Rising Force album existed at all. Let's keep a buck! "as the cool kids are saying these days"
My friend saw him with Alcatraz. There's no doubt he's got talent, but his music just didn't do it for me.
It's because these virtuoso guitar players sink virtually 'all' their time into becoming great players...They'll NEVER have the song writing ability of a 'Burt Bacharach' or a 'John Lennon' because thats a another lifetime to learn that..
Matching out Trilogy are his best I know you have to make a living I understand that believe but you have to draw the line between integrity and selling out I think he couldn't make up his mind if he wanted to be a composer or a rock star
⭐⭐⭐⭐1/4
That's album came out 84 not 85 85 yngwie seconds album came out marching out
Yongwie malmsteen was a big influence on a generation of guitarist.. lol yngwie..
I seen him at a bar in Tampa in the early nineties,you know who want playing in bars then? All the other guitarists on that list lmfao
Not dead yet.
Not a huge fan,,but to say He sucks like a lot of people like to say is just rubbish. He has produced just as many clones as Hendrix, EVH, and others have.
I don't think he influenced as many as Hendrix and EVH but he's clearly up there as far as influencing people .
Donuts ...
Original
He was a big deal because he was shit hot. 🔥
The end.
Hope this helps.
I like his beginning as himself, not steeler or alcatrazz (boring singers). Yngwie could more if he went more heavy.....try listen to death metal, gorguts is a lot more weird and complex and this i like ☝️🤪
How do you beat SRV? Young Wee could never play anything SRV played.
th-cam.com/video/vznSu-BHyVA/w-d-xo.htmlsi=mZfpzuaGiUVcpJ8m
Evh who?
Edward Van Halen the undisputed King .
@EDDIE-c7f8y wrong
Mahavishnu n holdsworth
N demeola are!
I can understand why he left Sweden , it was the future socialist European immigration friendly distopia.
As good as Malmsteen was he couldn´t touch the best classical musicians, as far as technique and precision is concerned. He certainly had the talent to become a great classical musician, but he wouldn´t have made the splash that he did had he chosen to do so.
Yngwie likes to create and improvise in much of his music. As a classical musician it's playing other people's music.
@@JoseFuentes-fn3dl Yes, that´s true.
At time metal had a bad name in society.
Ozzy biting heads of bats story
Judas priest being in court on charges
There has been and still exists that music was for the fortunate hence bach and other great musicians of classical music all going around impressing the state power of it's time 1700 1900s
There has always been some snobbery with classical music
Malmstein very intelligentust have realised that nobody has dominated the electric guitar with Paganini mostly and other great pieces of classical work.
To bring the orchestra with electric guitar to the masses
Not being the first to do this but realising bring the past forward is what made him so fortunate in wealth is really really great for thinking outside the box.
I didn't come across malmstein until 1987 time as then I was just a metalhead buying vinyl every week
Buying anything that was either 2nd hand 50s onwards.
I came across his first album
Around same time come across Joe satriani.
As a metalhead I think malmstein attitude is two-faced hence he was already playing metal as you shown Alcatraz album.
But he said the truth on dire straits guitarist.
The main reason is the playing stays safe and just basically stays in pentatonic position and not moving outside and add in the extra notes when changing from chord to chord.
A bit like Gary more classic parasaine walkways though a classic still sticks inside the rules of what is known as playing safe.
It' gets tediously borring when playing the same five notes over and over again to the artist and gets bored with playing.
Hence why some don't like the basic blues even though it's the backbone of most western music.
It's the excitement of breaking outside the this that influenced metal throughout the 80s up to present day.
If you have not heard of a band called dragon force then check out this band just to see how much influence was learned from this master
The best talented skill that malmstein uses is the noise gate pedal which is not mentioned anywhere but really helped with those resonance of notes.
Makes me laugh today we rate Eddie van Helen and he wasn't in the top 5 lmfao
Not even Dave Murray ? Randy rhoades?
Press is always out of touch and it seems like the top 5 was English even though it was posted by us today at time.
Even still today his remarks in this article saying about metal music has lost respect of the metalheads in general I think if he said I just like those that play guitar instead showed no respect
Where if you mentioned his name most look at you as the devil in the music scene all this down to classical snobbery.
Easy answer he wasn't popular in US.
Rik Emmett is really not a good guitar player.
I’ve liked him ever since I first heard him when Island in the Sun was released. His tone and sense of melody is great. I found him much more enjoyable live then when I saw Vai and Satriani (left their G3 gig early and went to the pub as it was ***king boring… although Satriani was fun when I saw him play with Spinal Tap!)