10

Unleash The Solo

Petrucci. Hetfield. Adrian Smith. They're names that usually come up in guitarist debates, and they're often followed by Yngwie Malmsteen. His use of new and innotive guitar trickery, rushing up and down scales and dashing through arpeggio after arpeggio has left him with a notorious reputation. Throughout the last few years Yngwie has released album after consistent album of exceptionally fast guitar works. He's composed entire concerto suites for an orchestra to be lead by electric guitar, and overall has paved the way for hundreds of other solo guitar albums.

"Unleash The Fury" is an accurate description of what Yngwie has done for this album. Sweden's solo master has added a new layer of power to his guitar. No, there's no crunchy chords or simple tunes here. There's still 60mph soloing and nothing short of it, but it just feels that Yngwie is injecting a new level of energy into his playing.

However, there is one limiting factor with Yngwie; the album is ultimately very limiting in it's appeal. Yeah, you can listen to this with great enthusiam if you play the guitar. You can enjoy it if you know a lot about the technicality of music, or if you really really like guitar solos. But after listening to it a few times it becomes repetitive and dull very quickly. This album doesn't have the lasting appeal that the Orchestra Suite did, and that's a big shame. Yngwie is an exceptionally talented man, and if you haven't got a single album, get your hands on one of them. Any of them. But once you've got one, it's almost as if you've got them all.