AtomicCrimsonRush “Inspiration” is definitely one of my favourite Yngwie Malmsteen albums featuring wonderful cover versions of classic rock and some incredible vocals and special guests. It begins with Kansas’ classic ‘Carry on Wayward Son’ with a heavy treatment of the killer riffs and terrific vocals by Jeff Scott Soto, an old fave singer of Malmsteen’s from the early years. ‘Pictures of Home’ is a metal verision of Deep Purple’s seminal rocker, with vocals by Joe Lynn Turner who also sings lead on ‘Demon’s Eye’, both excellent covers with inventive reimaginings of the lead breaks. Malmsteen is a shredding genius.

The amazing ‘Gates of Babylon’ is an outstanding cover here, with the majestic style captured and fret melting lead work. Hendrix is a major influence on Malmsteen who according to his website was born the day Jimi died. ‘Manic Depression’ is one of my favourite Hendrix tracks and it is a joy to hear Malmsteen launch into that riff and scorching fiery lead break. Mark Boals is the vocalist on this and sounds terrific.

In the Dead of Night’ is a slower song but memorable for its catchy chorus and keyboards of Johansson. Whitesnake’s power blues of ‘Mistreated’ follows and is absolutely brilliant, the riff, the lead break, and the vocals of Soto are outstanding making this a highlight. It is nice to hear Malmsteen’s Rush influences here too with a cover of their ‘Anthem’ sounding bright and heavy.

The piece de resistance of this album though is the astonishing cover of ‘Child in Time’ featuring Malmsteen smoking on the lead break. In fact this lead break is utterly ingenious, with super fast arpeggios, hammer ons, speed sweeps, piercing string bends, adagio and even the odd speeded up scale up and down the frets. I have heard this track the most of all on the album, and it is the best cover of the song without a shadow of a doubt. This is one to get hold of to check out Malmsteen at his most ferocious, he simply takes off into the stratosphere on the Fender strat. When the lead break finishes shredding fiercely there is a stunned silence for a few seconds, before the quiet organ returns, and I always draw out a breath of amazement here every time. It is simply breath taking guitar. The song has some wonderful keyboards too from Johansson and Turner’s vocals are top notch.

“Inspiration” is a sensational cover album and showcases Malmsteen at his absolute best. It is great too as an introduction to the many bands being covered, many of which I had not heard a lot from when I first got hold of this album. I think Malmsteen has paid generous respect to songs and artists that have inspired him over the years, and he poured out all his energy and adoration towards these artists onto this album to create something very special.

AtomicCrimsonRush Yngwie J. Malmsteen is of course a legendary guitarist along with Joe satriani and Steve vai that were all the rage in the 90s. I remember this album well back in the 90s as everyone was getting hold of it and I had it on cassette back then. It is a pleasure to finally get the CD but it is not hard to find in bargain bins so it appears many decided to ditch it. Understandably this is very dated and sounds like the 90s neo-classical period.

There are very poppy moments such as 'Teaser' and overall the Whitesnake style power metal, merged with melodic soft rock. I was into it at the time but have since grown completely out of the style. It is not complex music, apart from the lead breaks by maestro Malmsteen. The prog on this is rather hard to find, though occasionally there are interesting orcestrations such as the intro to 'How Many Miles to Babylon'. This is a definitive highlight of the album. The flute and violin with acoustics is quite enchanting. The problem I always had with Malmsteen's albums is the choice of vocalist. On this occasion Goran Edman is actually quite good, adequate at the least but he is always staying on that typical metal note. He can reach a high falsetto and sounds great on the heavier songs.

The best moments for me are the instrumentals such as 'Perpetual', a standout fast lead solo, 'Leviathan', an atmospheric piece with fret melting lead work, and 'Golden Dawn', an acoustically driven piece. Of all these I prefer 'Leviathan' especially the screaming lead break with the odd time sig and constantly shifting tempo. I remember seeing this on video and being amazed at Malmsteen's ferocity on the Fender. It kind of annoys me how the songs fade as Malmsteen continue to shred, it would be better to finish on a huge power chord.

Malmsteen is a genius guitarist and he shreds brilliantly. The lead breaks are incredible, creative and virtuoso as one might expect having a band named after you. He looks great on stage too, and I always enjoyed when tracks from "Fire and Ice" appeared on concert performances. The liner notes of the CD includes that the album was "dedicated in loving memory to Bjorn Malmsteen" which is a nice touch. A clue to his influences are in the personal thanks as Malmsteen mentions the likes of Erika Malmsteen, J.S.Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Jimi Hendrix, H.P.Lovecraft, Enzo Ferrari, Leo Fender, Dinsdale, and Monty Python's Flying Circus. An interesting line up there showing where the music stems from. Indeed the classical influences are prevalent among others. Listen to the intro of 'C'est La Vie' with Malmsteen on sitar for an example of Indian Raga.

There are fast metal moments such as 'No Mercy' with a traditional shredding rhythm, and then an orchestra plays Vivaldi or Bach-ian music for a while till Malmsteen performs a blistering lead break. He loves those high string bends and speed picking sweeps as well as massive hammer ons and arpeggios. The album songs are forgettable, indeed I had to listen to the whole thing to remember a single melody, but at the time of listening it is enjoyable. 'Fire and Ice' is a rather pedestrian hard rock song sounding more like glam. At 2 ½ minutes in though we are treated to a brilliant lead break with ferocious arpeggios and classical inlfuences. It leads to a wah-wah sound for a change and it fades out again.

There is huge diversity on the album such as the speed power metal of 'Forever Is A Long Time' which includes symphonic keyboards by Mats Olausson. Edman sounds great here and the violin section is appropriate to usher is another super fast killer lead solo. He trades of with some equally fast keys too and this is fantastic. Malmsteen loves his ballads and here is no exception with 'I'm My Own Enemy' giving Göran Edman a chance to shine though it lasts for 6 minutes and is hard to sit through. This is perhaps one of those lighters in the air concert moments and Malmsteen can relax on 12 string. The string section is a nice embellishment though. 'All I Want Is Everything' follows, and it is okay but the album is tending to drag a bit at this stage and needs a real kick in the guts to bring it up to standard. After the beauty of the acoustic section it ends with 'Final Curtain'. There is a cool riff to begin and thunder rolls across the heavenly striking violins. The pace is slow but the music is intriguing. The obligatory lead break hammers in once more and she is all over with a thunder clap.

This is a long slog to get through the whole album, especially as it sounds so commercial. It was the album that a lot of my friends had in the 90s and I ended up with it but I rarely played it due to the lack of interest in the neo classical feel, but it is a bit more enjoyable these days with the prog references. Though I admit I won't be returning to this often as there is so much better out there, that leaves this outdated music for dead.

UMUR "The Seventh Sign" is the 7th full-length studio album by Swedish heavy metal/power metal artist Yngwie J. Malmsteen. The album was released through Pony Canyon in May 1994. After releasing what is arguably one of his weakest albums in "Fire and Ice (1992)", Yngwie was in a situation where he had to prove himself again and he certainly delivers a bounce back album with "The Seventh Sign".

...not all is perfect on "The Seventh Sign", but the album features some of Yngwie J. Malmsteen´s most kickass material in the opening power metal "fist in your face" type track "Never Die", the beautiful neo-classical (with a slight springle of the blues) instrumental "Brothers" and the epic power metal title track. The bluesy, hard rocking and funky "I Don´t Know", which reminds me quite a lot of Extreme (the band), is also a nice surprise. The album ends on a high note with the brick heavy "Pyramid of Cheops", the neo-classical themed power metal track "Crash and Burn" and the short and beautiful instrumental "Sorrow". The rest of the material is a bit up and down in quality (with the lowpoint being the saccarine power ballad "Prisoner of Your Love") but the brilliant musicianship, strong vocals by Michael Vescera and a powerful, clean sound production make "The Seventh Sign" an overall very enjoyable listening experience. Even the least memorable or least interesting tracks feature guitar licks and amazing solo work by Yngwie that save the day.

Everyone knows that Yngwie is one of the fastest guitar players, or maybe even THE fastest guitar player, in the world, but not all mention how much feeling he actually puts into the notes he plays. As a child, before venturing into the world of neo-classical heavy metal/power metal, Yngwie played the blues, and it´s audible. His love for Paganini is also very obvious with the high pitched notes that follow fast shredding runs and the combination of his different influences works like a charm when he plays solos (listening to the solo in "Never Die" is a jaw-dropping experience every time). It´s too bad that the core of his music sometimes comes off as a generic Rainbow/Deep Purple clone, but no one should take away from him how talented he is when playing a guitar.

It´s not all Yngwie J. Malmsteen´s albums that I would call worthy purchases but "The Seventh Sign" is definitely one of his better albums and certainly worth a purchase. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is warranted.

ydewata As a fan of the Odyssey record, it is a no brainer that I am also a fan of this live disc from Yngwie and co. Some said the tension in the band was at the peak during this tour, but profesional wise it did not show here. Yngwie blasted through his Fender Stratocaster as usual. Singer Joey Lynn Turnes --even though at times his voice was stretched-- gave his touches here and there. The instrumentals might be the highlight, but tracks like "Heaven Tonight" or "Dreaming" did steal the show from the chubby guitarist. And also you could tell Mr. JLT was not really comfortable doing non Odyssey songs. A recommended release for any Yngwie fans. Or like me, get this if you love Odyssey!

UMUR "Fire & Ice" is the 6th full-length studio album by Swedish heavy metal artist Yngwie Malmsteen. The album was released in January 1992 by Elektra Records.

"Fire & Ice" features Yngwie Malmsteen´s characteristic blend of traditional heavy metal, power metal and equilibristic guitar solos. Yngwie Malmsteen´s strong love for Deep Purple and especially Rainbow is as evident as always. The heavy metal style played on the album features lots of keyboards and generally belong in the softer end of the heavy metal spectrum. The most soft tracks can even be tagged AOR ( albeit of the heavy kind) IMO. The musicianship is as always excellent but most of the time the band is just used to back up Yngwie Malmsteen´s fiercely fast-paced neo-classical guitar shredding or the melody lines sung by Goran Edman. It´s quite a shame that the band are not given more room and opportunity to show off their high level playing skills.

The production is rather weak and thin sounding and I miss bite and depth. But that´s not the worst. The songwriting on "Fire & Ice" is rather generic compared to the best output by Yngwie Malmsteen and I´m even tempted to call most of the material on "Fire & Ice" the most bland output ever by the artist. The fact that the album is 68:42 minutes long means that it´s quite the trial for me to get through the full album when the material is as generic as it´s the case here.

So overall I don´t enjoy "Fire & Ice" one bit. It´s only during the solo sections that I´m at times reminded of how great an artist Yngwie Malmsteen actually is. His guitar playing is of course phenomenal. If you´re new to Yngwie Malmsteen I suggest you pick up just about any other album release by him than this one. Preferably the stunning debut album. I´ll play nice and give a 2 - 2.5 star rating but I really can´t recommend this album.