Yngwie Malmsteen - Perpetual Flame
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Free Music Notes for Perpetual Flame
Free Music Review: Ripper Owens helps Yngwie Return to Form!
Hit: 4 Stars
Yngwie Malmsteen is a legendary guitar player. He is easily one of the best guitar players of all time. For whatever reason, his last couple of discs were somewhat lackluster. Such is not the case with Perpetual Flame. Tim "Ripper" Owens' (Iced Earth, Judas Priest) voice compliments Yngwie Malmsteen's neo-classical shredding. The end result is one of the best CD's by Yngwie since the Jeff Scott Soto, and Joe Lynn Turner days.
I didn't expect this CD to be much, and I love it. A nice surprise in 2008!
Free Music Review: Solid CD by Yngwie !!!
Hit: 4 Stars
To keep it short, Yngwie is still the man when it comes to Neo-classical metal. Ripper Owens is great as usual. The instrumentals are great on this CD as well. I would say this CD is on par with Unleash the Fury. Very good CD by Yngwie!!!Free Music Review: Yngwie is Yngwie (Déjà Vu)
Hit: 3 Stars
With Yngwie Malmsteen's "Perpetual Flame", you get what you would normally expect from an Yngwie album -- an uncompromising set of songs filled with neoclassical shred that Yngwie has been delivering for well over twenty years. In a nutshell: it is more of the same. It will be left up to the listener whether this is a good or a bad thing.
The album's opener "Death Dealer" is a powerful and ferocious number, reminiscent in the manner that "Never Die" started The Seventh Sign album. While the album starts out strong, it quickly drops off after that. The opening riff to "Damnation Game" sounds a little too similar to "I'll See The Light Tonight". It's cases like this where Yngwie is perhaps rehashing his own style a little too much where his material does not sound vibrant and fresh. With the exception of the brilliant "Live to Fight (Another Day)", the first half of this album contains mostly tired sounding songs which will likely be forgettable numbers in Yngwie's large catalog.
"Caprici Di Diablo" is another mind-boggling display of fretboard mastery, in the same vein as songs like "Baroque & Roll" or "Magic & Mayhem". Where this song gets interesting is actually in the following song "Lament", which seems to have a similar theme as "Caprici Di Diablo", but much slower and melodic. This is the key turning point in the album where Yngwie brings out his guns and truly shows what he can create. "Magic City" sounds similar to "Cherokee Warrior", especially with Yngwie on vocals again, but the true gem is the extended solo at the end. "Eleventh Hour" is the keystone for this album, a song so amazing and powerful that it could easily be equated to Rainbow's "Stargazer". This album concludes with "Heavy Heart", which is a beautiful instrumental, that easily could be placed in the ranks of songs like "Marching Out" or "Eclipse".
Despite that the favored method for music distribution is increasingly leaning towards digital downloads, I still enjoy buying CDs for the physical format and the linear notes. Once again, the album cover features an image of Yngwie (albeit a painted version), but it still lacks the imagination that graced the covers of "Trilogy", "Alchemy", and "War To End All Wars". The linear notes do include the lyrics, however someone should have spent a few minutes to check for spelling and grammar errors (which there are several, such as the misspelling of "Carburettors")
Yngwie has proved that he has the creativity and talent to craft excellent songs, but considering that nearly half of this album falls flat, it might do Yngwie some good to have another person to act as a filter -- "Sure, Yngwie, that's good, but it's not great. You can do better than that." Overall, Perpetual Flame is good, just not great. However, there are several shining moments on this album that make it enticing enough to purchase this album. Perpetual Flame is a welcome addition to Yngwie's discography, but it is not likely to be as memorable as his earlier works.
Free Music Review: Sorry, maybe a non-useful review for YJM unconditional fans. :-(
Hit: 3 Stars
Firstly, I admire Yngwie. He pioneered the 80's neoclassical movement and he has the flawless guitar technique ever. And he's not only about speed, I know! He does play with his heart. His tone, his rhythmic sense and his vibrato are amazing too. He has also signed several mandatory albums in the history of metal guitar: "Rising Force", "Marching Out", "Trilogy", "Odyssey", "The 7th Sign"...
Secondly, "The Ripper" is a great singer and does rip here. I specially liked "Priest of the Unholy", "Four Horsemen (Of the Apocalypse)" and "Eleventh Hour" because they got close to my idea of what Yngwie would do with Tim Owens in his line-up...
However, this new album falls short respect to my own expectations anyway. I did know Yngwie was going to play somehow the same recycled ideas and more of his cheesy stuff, but I was also hoping he would use Tim "The Ripper" Owens to push the borders a little more.
Sad but true, this didn't happen. With this well-respected full-metal vocalist in his band, Yngwie just missed the opportunity to go for a darker, "thrashier" style and for an overall more aggressive mood... After all, *that* was the idea behind hiring "The Ripper", right? You know, some Judas Priest and Iced Earth fans will show up, they would want to listen to a more "metallic" release, and then you bet they would see what kind of fury Malmsteen is capable of unleashing!
But no; Malmsteen put The Ripper to sing some predictable Malmsteen-esque vocal lines, even if some do sound more aggressive than usually -- though still recycled Malmsteen-like melodies, nothing new there... :-( In few words, what a waste! You see the point?
To be fair, this album is not bad if you isolate it from the rest of Yngwie's catalog. The instrumental pieces "Caprici di Diablo", "Lament" and "Heavy Heart" are quite good -- though nothing new there. Also, the song "Magic City", sung by Yngwie himself, is pretty interesting. It contains some cool Hendrix influences. The extended solo at the end is very expressive and Yngwie manages graciously the vocal duties -- you bet he can sing!
Nevertheless, the whole thing still is more of the same -- and I find YJM's "same" quite boring at this point. So, sorry Yngwie: you are one of the best ever, but this album isn't, in spite of its high quality. 3 rather pale stars for you this time. :-(
Free Music Review: It's a Monty Python thing
Hit: 3 Stars
Malmsteen is one of those brutally honest characters who totally owns up to his influences. A string of classical music guys for starters, Blackmore and Hendrix for seconds and - outside the musucal realm - Enzo Ferrari and Monty Python. And it's an obscure Monty Python sketch that came to me upon listening to this album, one where a droning monotone declares 'here comes another one/just like the other one.... here comes another one/here comes a bunch of 'em...'
In short this album is consistent Malmsteen. All music + lyrics written by the master blaster fretman. A bunch of instruments like bass and sitar played by him and he does lead vox on Magic City. The mixing + engineering and production are by him with a bit of a hand from Keith Rose and Roy Z. And ultimately I guess if its your name on the cover then you might as well have the gazongas to shoulder most of the work. So respekt. As for his guitar playing itself it's still brilliant within the mans limited hard rock neoclassical moats 'n' moors milieu. My fave displays of mind bending virtuosity are to be foind on the tunes Red Devil and Priest of the Unholy though truth be told the guy seems to have been somewhat inspired on this release as he revisits biting soloing styles more reminiscent of his best works from the '80's.
Of course the songs are still mostly 2nd rate speed metal. Few real riffs as per usual, teflon coated production and a song about his Ferrari (yes really!). Malmsteen has publicly stated that Dougie White did a great job on the two previous studio efforts but for this album he wanted a more powerful singer to be able to get over the songs he'd written for this album. Therefore this weeks vocalist is Tim 'Ripper' Owens who is a quality vocalist but seems mixed a touch back. But fair play to the guy - he does a good job of sounding like most other Malmsteen singers.
If you like Malmsteen then buy this album because just like Facing the Animal it's a constant song based effort and this one has better solos.
Oh yeah and speaking of consistency he still hasn't tired of putting himself on the cover. What's that - 15 out of 16 albums or something like 18 out of 21 releases or whatever it is?