SilentScream213 Yngwie begins the new decade with his most mainstream release yet. It’s a pretty smooth transition from Odyssey – the AOR and simplicity turned up a bit. It starts off pretty dull, and a good portion of the tracks are unmemorable anthems. The lyrics are quite poor, though they’ve never been great.

It’s not all bad, though – Eclipse is the first album where Yngwie uses his guitar to start layering simple yet effective melodies in almost New Age style. They play off keys and vocal harmonies, and there are some moments where all the sound comes together in really nice ways. Vocalist Göran Edman actually steals most of the songs, as for once Yngwie doesn’t do a whole lot of shredding and soloing. I won’t lie, these songs are about as uninspired and passionless as radio pop, but Göran certainly doesn’t lack ability, and he’s got a few fantastic hooks here. The album also ends with a string of really strong material, meaning it leaves a poor first impression, but a much stronger lasting one. I liked it more with each listen.

Overall – some of his worst, but also some of my favorite material from Yngwie.

Stephen Early 90s displayed a significant change to many musicians and that theory also applied to the neoclassical shredder, Yngwie Malmsteen. "Eclipse" marked his first collaboration with session singer, Goran Edman, and together they wrote all of the songs here. The concept of this album is a bland mixture of heavy metal and commercial hard rock. For any hard rock fans or newbie, "Eclipse" can be a good entrance, but for hardcore or heavy metal fans, "Eclipse" on the other hand, is like a bipolar opposite where they condemned this as a sell-out album with too many pop metal influences. To me, this album is right in the middle and I still consider this quite enjoyable and nostalgic since this is my first experience with Yngwie's material despite of couple weak fillers and average tracks.

"Making Love" and "Judas" are two monsters tracks racing in middle tempo speed and still showcasing the Malmsteen's mighty shred. "Motherless Child" and "See You In Hell" shown an aggressive tempo infused with awesome chorus. "Eclipse" is another orgasmic instrumental classic that should be loved by old fans. Edman's cry of "let's make right all that went wrong" moisturized by Yngwie's delicate melody in the radio-hit, "Save Our Love", proved that Yngwie has a vast collection of wonderfully-written ballads throughout his career. "Bedroom Eyes" has an interesting funky groove but should have done better otherwise I think it's quite boring while both "Devil In Disguise" and "Faultline" are passable fillers.

"Eclipse" is an acceptable release with "Judas" and "Save Our Love" stand out as the diamond of the album. If you like melodic heavy metal with commercial moments but still not lack of the necessary killer solos, "Eclipse" is a good option.