The celebrated guitar pioneer and stratmaster extraordinaire YNGWIE MALMSTEEN will release his new album “Parabellum” on July 23rd via Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group.
The ultimate guitarist’s guitarist has released 21 studio albums over a forty-year career, always striving for new standards of excellence.
“I always try to push myself on every album I do, and attempt things which are more extreme than previously.” he says.
“But what has helped this time is that I wasn’t able to go on the road because of the pandemic. It meant I could take much longer in the studio, both to write and record. Because I am usually always on tour, which is great, I haven’t had the luxury of spending a lot of time working on new music for more than 20 years. But I suddenly had no pressure at all on that front. And I feel the album has benefited enormously as a result…”
He also confirmed there are NO keyboards on the album: “I can assure you that, while it may seem as if there are keyboards, everything has been done by myself on guitar. Even what sounds like a piano intro to ‘Wolves At The Door’ (the opening track) has been played on guitar.”
“Wolves At The Door” is an ectoplasmic neoclassical cobweb of precipices, glissades and needle-sharp perforations. It’s Paganini & Lipiński in an ice bar and they both get dizzy from kirschwasser cocktails. So, yes, this has an icy sheen and spicy exuberance, but it also has message and purpose.
“Presto Vivace” (soon turns lively) is baroque-rock that comes faster than the flapping of a hummingbird’s wings. But there is also an easy swing, forceful waddle, and wonderful swagger that will please fans in the world of metal… as well, of course, as the connoisseurs of Carulli & Giuliani.
“Relentless Fury” (shared below) is a burst of magnificent ’80s-style triumphs, with impregnable voices, muscular riffs and unwavering rhythms. And when the fervent guitar solo hits, it brings whip-smart electrical shocks and bolts of cosmic energy.
The album is rounded off by the magnificent “Sea Of Tranquility” — a speckled 8-minute creation of penetrating capes, drift away pinnacles and vocalized adagios. This evokes the same sense of emptiness, out-of-this-world technicality, and a travelers’ intimate relationship with loneliness that grand space rock and (perhaps even) woozy stoner rock can do. Yet this is so supremely accomplished and abundantly eloquent that you are never more than two steps from Paganini. Amazing!
File alongside: Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow
Cover art: David Banegas
Words: @neilmach 2021 ©
Link: https://www.facebook.com/officialyngwiemalmsteen/
Parabellum is out July 23rd via Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group
pre-order link: http://smarturl.it/Yngwie_Malmsteen
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