Yngwie Malmsteen – Perpetual Flame

When Yngwie Malmsteen first burst onto the international music scene, he took the world by storm. His amazing prowess and showmanship earned him a legion of worshippers, who were completely floored by take of classic music. Of course the idea of Neo-classical music was not absolutely new, but until than exponents of the idea had not explored the concept to such extremities. 

Since his first emergence, thousands have guitarists have appeared on the scene, and even more have disappeared from the scene. But, Yngwie has managed to rough it out and has survived all sorts of changes in the music industry and has always managed to hold his own in the world of shredding. On his most recent endeavour- Perpetual Flame, Malmsteen teamed up with vocalist Tim Owens and keyboardist Derek Sherinian, two of the finest musicians in their respective fields of expertise.

The album is exactly what one can expect from the Neo-classical wizard, a standard Ynwgie Malmsteen album, which would comprise medieval themes, great vocals and of course accelerated guitar work. A stand put point for the album would be Yngwie’s increased focus on song structure, rather than just plainly relying on mindless shredding to put together an album. Songs like Live To Fight (Another Day) and Priest of The Holy, are compositions of a great quality and make it evident that there is great musical mind behind their creation.

There are three instrumental tracks on the album; all composed by Yngwie himself which are definitely some of the strongest tracks on the album. Lament, as the title would suggest has a very sad and eerie feel to it. Heavy Heart includes an acoustic intro and outro, to balance out the track, which bares hints of more traditional bluesified-rock in between the obvious classical arrangement. Caprici Di Diablo is an up-tempo piece, which features Yngwie at his fleetly best.

The usual pattern one finds on Malmsteen album’s is that the rest of the band gets lost behind Malmsteen’s outward playing style, but Tim Owens like always has stood firm on this album without being eclipsed by the flaming Stratocaster. On Be Careful What You Wish For, Tim’s vocals are awe-inspiring, as he effortless crosses the bridge between high and low without any fuss.

An interesting quality of this album is that it is aimed at a much wider in audience without being abused by the terminology of a commercial album. In the sense that the album would hold the interest of people other than the shred loving audience also. Songs such as Damnation Game and Red Devil are more straightforward metal numbers, mixed with a tint of Malmsteen’s expertise.

Perpetual Flame, is easily one of the best albums to be created by the Swedish guitar god. A tight and solid work of music by world class musicians.