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Reviewer:
Iluvthe80s
Yngwie
Malmsteen is arguably the most technically accomplished hard rock
guitarist to emerge during the '80s. Combining a dazzling technique
honed over years of obsessive practice with a love for such classical
composers as Bach, Beethoven, and Paganini, Malmsteen's distinctively
Baroque, gothic compositional style and lightning-fast arpeggiated
solos rewrote the book on heavy metal guitar. His largely instrumental
debut album, Rising Force, immediately upped the ante for aspiring
hard rock guitarists and provided the major catalyst for the '80s
guitar phenomenon known as "shredding," in which the music's main
focus was on impossibly fast, demanding licks rather than songwriting.
Malmsteen released a series of albums over the course of the '80s
that, aside from slight differences in approach and execution,
were strongly similar to Rising Force, and critics charged him
with showing little artistic progression. He was also reviled
as an egotist whose emphasis on blazing technique ultimately made
for boring, mechanical, masturbatory music with no room for subtlety
or emotion. Malmsteen responded by insisting that since he was
already playing music he loved, he had no desire to develop any
further, and that his love did come through in his playing. He
also vehemently insisted that it was his imitators, not him, who
reduced songwriting and composition to merely generic vehicles
to show off the guitar player's amazing technique. Toward the
end of the decade, Malmsteen fell out of favor with metal audiences,
and even some of his musician fan base seemed to tire of him and
the incredible amount of practice it would take for them to emulate
him. Following a series of personal setbacks, tragedies, and even
injuries, Malmsteen eventually resurfaced on small, independent
labels and then recorded at a prolific, rapid pace, continuing
to play the music he loved in his patented neo-classical style.
Yngwie (pronounced "ING-vay") Malmsteen was born Lars Johann Yngwie
Lannerback in Stockholm, Sweden, in 1963, later adopting his mother's
maiden name following his parents' divorce. He was an unruly child,
and his mother tried without initial success to interest him in
music as an outlet. However, when seven-year-old Yngwie saw a
television special on the death of Jimi Hendrix featuring live
performance footage of Hendrix setting his guitar on fire, he
became obsessed with the guitar, learning to play the music of
both Hendrix and favorites Deep Purple. Through Purple guitarist
Ritchie Blackmore's use of diatonic minor scales over simple blues
riffs, Malmsteen was led toward classical music, and his sister
exposed him to composers like Bach, Beethoven, Vivaldi, and Mozart.
He spent hours practicing obsessively until his fingers bled,
and by age ten, his mother allowed him to stay home from school
to develop his musical talents, particularly since he was considered
a behavioral nightmare. Also at age ten, Malmsteen became enamored
of the music of 19th century violinist/composer Niccolo Paganini,
as well as Paganini's flamboyant style and wild-man image; this
would provide the blueprint for Malmsteen's synthesis of classical
music and rock. By the time he was 18, Malmsteen was playing around
Sweden with various bands attempting to find an audience for his
technically staggering instrumental explorations, but most listeners
preferred more accessible pop music; frustrated, Malmsteen sent
demo tapes to record companies overseas. When Mike Varney, president
of Shrapnel Records — a label synonymous with the term "shredder"
— heard Malmsteen's tape, he invited the guitarist to come to
the United States and join the band Steeler in 1981.
Steeler recorded one album with Malmsteen on guitar, but dissatisfied
with the band's rather generic style, Malmsteen moved on to the
group Alcatrazz, whose Deep Purple and Rainbow influences better
suited the guitarist's style. Still not quite satisfied, Malmsteen
formed his own band, Rising Force, with longtime friend and keyboardist
Jens Johansson. The new band's first album, also called Rising
Force, was released in 1984; it was a largely instrumental affair
spotlighting Malmsteen's incendiary guitar work and Johansson's
nearly equally developed technique. The album was an immediate
sensation in guitar circles, winning countless reader's polls
in guitar magazines, reaching number 60 on Billboard's album chart
(no mean feat for an instrumental album), and receiving a Grammy
nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. Malmsteen's
subsequent albums, Marching Out and Trilogy, also sold quite well
and consolidated his reputation and influence as a composer as
well as a soloist. However, on June 22, 1987, a speeding Malmsteen
crashed his Jaguar into a tree; in breaking the steering wheel
with his head, he received a blood clot in his brain which nearly
killed him and extensively damaged the nerves leading to his picking
hand. In the course of recovery, he learned that his mother had
died and that his manager had swindled him out of his earnings.
Undaunted, Malmsteen regained the use of his hand and recorded
Odyssey, his most accessible, radio-friendly collection to date;
the single "Heaven Tonight" widened his audience beyond a devoted
core of guitar fans and helped push the album into Billboard's
Top 40. Following a world tour including the then-Soviet Union,
the Rising Force unit disbanded, and Malmsteen formed a new band
in his native Sweden for 1990's Eclipse. The album was a success
in Europe and Japan, but stiffed in the U.S. without much promotion.
An angry Malmsteen left PolyGram and, prior to the release of
1992's Fire and Ice, he was married to and divorced from a Swedish
pop singer. Fire and Ice debuted at number one on the Japanese
charts, and Malmsteen toured the world again. However, disaster
struck frequently over the next two years. Hurricane Andrew destroyed
Malmsteen's Miami property; his manager of four years died of
a heart attack; Elektra dropped him from their roster; a freak
accident left the guitarist with a broken hand, in addition to
frequent bouts of tendinitis caused by his lightning technique;
and in August 1993, Malmsteen's future mother-in-law, opposed
to his engagement to her daughter, had him falsely arrested for
holding the woman hostage with a gun. The charges were quickly
dropped, and Malmsteen secured a deal with the Japanese label
Pony Canyon after his hand had healed completely. He returned
to recording with a vengeance, releasing The Seventh Sign in 1994,
as well as two mini-albums (Power and Glory and I Can't Wait),
and then Magnum Opus in 1995 and the all-covers album Inspiration
in 1996. While his popularity has largely faded in the U.S. due
to a backlash against the excesses of '80s shredders, Malmsteen
still finds audiences in Europe and is more popular in Japan and
Asia than ever. — Steve Huey
SOURCE:
AllMusic.com
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