YNGWIE MALMSTEEN – World On Fire [Japan SHM-CD] (2016)

Legendary Swedish guitar hero YNGWIE MALMSTEEN will release tomorrow his new studio album, “World On Fire” via his own recording label, and today in Japan on SHM-CD format through King Records including a fan sticker.

As happened lately, Malmsteen plays most the instruments and recorded the whole thing in his own studio.
“I spent two years on it, touring, recording, touring, recording. And that’s much, much better actually, in a way” says Yngwie.
“Back in the day I would write the songs then rehearse them with some musicians, then go and do a backing track and we’d record it, mix it, learn the songs to go play them on tour, then do it all again. That way isn’t necessarily conducive to making the best music, y’know what I mean?
So in a very, very backhanded way this weird twist of fate in the music industry has actually made it a more inspiring environment, for me at least. I can write any time and record any time. My recording studio is always open, 24 hours. I can just record when I want and it’s a beautiful thing.”

Except the drums, performed by Mark Ellis and keyboards by Nick Marinovic, Yngwie play all guitars – including some nice flamenco parts – bass, keyboards, cello and sitar.
Since his last couple of albums, Yngwie has been criticized for not hiring a professional vocalist for his band, taking himself the vocal duties. Here he sings again…

The good news are Yngwie is singing better, and most of the material is instrumental.
So we have the heavy opener title track ‘World on Fire’, the groovy ‘Lost in Machine’ and the slow (not ballad) ‘Soldier’ as the only vocal tracks, and as are placed separately in the tracklist, work pretty well.
The other welcomed news are that Malmsteen has composed quite good new songs harking back his glory ’80s days.
There’s dynamic numbers in ‘Sorcery’ where the rhythm guitar take an important role giving it a hard rocking feel, while ‘Largo / EBM’ explores some beautiful acoustic passages.
Also ‘Nacht Musik’ bring back to the fore Yngwie’s more melodic side, with clean, quite inspired phrasing.

While me – and I am sure most of his fans – still wants a new Yngwie Malmsteen album with ‘song format’ hard rockers, this “World On Fire” is the best record he released in years.
Production is pretty solid, he has recaptured the magic of his celebrated ’80s compositions, and fortunately there’s not metallic / noisy songs in sight.
Fine.

01 – World on Fire
02 – Sorcery
03 – Abandon
04 – Top Down, Foot Down
05 – Lost in Machine
06 – Largo – EBM
07 – No Rest for the Wicked
08 – Soldier
09 – DUF 1220
10 – Abandon (Slight Return)
11 – Nacht Musik

Yngwie J. Malmsteen – All Guitars, Vocals, Bass, Keyboards, Cello, Sitar
Nick Marinovic – Additional Keyboards
Mark Ellis – Drums

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www.cdjapan.co.jp/product/KICP-1779
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