A few days after the release of 'Chapter III' of 'Lost Symphony', 'Yngwie Malmsteen' continues to release albums after 'World on Fire' in 2016 and 'Blue Lighting' in 2019 which consisted of covers. So we find this neo-classical hard-rock born in the 70s with a certain 'Ritchie Blackmore' who was the precursor in the matter to mix classical music with hard-rock. Since then, Yngwie has taken over and his first album 'Rising Force' from 1984 is already far away but he continues to offer us new albums regularly, 'Parabellum' being his 21st, released in July 2021, in which the guitar solos follow one after the other with always the same virtuosity and on the 10 compositions, only 4 contain sung parts ('Wolves At The Door', 'Relentless Fury', 'Eternal Bliss' and '(Fight) The Good Fight') the first formation that comes to my mind is of course 'Rainbow'. Some will denounce a certain weariness when listening to these albums which follow one another and inevitably begin to resemble one another, and one can indeed deplore that virtuosity often takes precedence over the emotion released but Yngwie does not hide from it and has always put the execution before all the rest. On this point one can only recognize that he is always the master in the matter and by listening to this fusion between classical and his guitar solos in 'Presto Vivace in C# minor' or '(Si Vis Pacem) Parabellum' or 'Toccata' or 'God Particle', one can only greet the performances which offer to the classical melodic lines a second youth. We can also cite more classic compositions with the energetic mid-tempo 'Relentless Fury' which still brings us back to the time of 'Rainbow', the super classic ballad but so effective 'Eternal Bliss' or 'God Particle' with its introduction to the acoustic guitar without forgetting the final 8 minutes of 'Sea of Tranquility' (the sea is not so quiet as that finally) which summarizes all the guitar work of the Swede.
In summary, even if we did not expect a major revolution in 'Yngwie Malmsteen', the Swede continues to release albums highlighting his legendary virtuosity which has, over the years, forged his reputation what destines 'Parabellum' to an audience of informed who is a fan of neo-classical hard rock and long guitar solos... | |
