By John Sullivan
Being a longtime fan of Yngwie’s, it pains me to write an article like this about him. When you take the Yngwie of the ’80s to mid-’90s, very few guitarists could touch him in terms of his technique and playing ability. What we get now is sloppy playing to drum machines and horribly mixed and produced albums that he deems ‘masterpieces.’
So what went wrong? Is it pure laziness? Is his ego getting in the way? Yngwie influenced everyone at this magazine to play guitar as kids. His Polydor albums are some of the best music in his genre. Yngwie has had some of the best vocalists in rock and metal. Jeff Scott Soto, Mark Bowls, Joe Lynn Turner, Goran Edman, Michael Viscera, Mats Leven, Doogie White, Tim Ripper Owens. Let’s not forget the Johansson brothers were instrumental with YJM’s Polydor releases. Of all of the names mentioned above, you can search Google and see for yourselves what happened between them and YJM.
Yngwie’s longtime ex-girlfriend Tallee Savage, who was instrumental in bringing him over to the US from Sweden, everyone who knows Tallee knows what a nice and sweet person she is, was sued by Yngwie and April back in 2017 for ‘libel and slander’ over an interview she did with us about how the people YJM surrounds himself with these days isn’t helping his career. Of course, a Miami-Dade Circuit Judge threw out the lawsuit as frivolous. The Malmsteen camp likes to send cease and desist orders through their lawyers for any press outlet that writes about him in a negative way.
Yngwie’s forthcoming album is yet another example of a horribly produced and mixed album that he refuses to hire the appropriate personnel to make a great album that we know he’s capable of doing.
Yngwie has directed vocal duties to Nick Z.Marino for most, if not all of his classic songs. Nick is a talented musician, but he’s no Jeff Scott Soto, Mark Bowls, or Joe Lynn Turner. Let’s be honest.
Yngwie owes it to his longtime fans to put out an album that continues his legendary Polydor releases with a band made up of competent musicians. It would probably help him pay his mortgage seeing his Miami Shores home is in foreclosure status.
Everything you’ve written is sad, but true. I wish he didn’t burn his bridges with his former vocalists. I was shocked, but not surprised about reading on this site about the lawsuit against Tallee. I knew it wasn’t going to fly and I’m happy that the judge dismissed such a dumb and frivolous lawsuit. Perhaps, he and April should stop wasting money on frivolous legal activities and use it to pay back Deutsche Bank.
If he would spend his time focusing on putting a decent album out than trying to cancel people in his life that helped his career by suing them, burning bridges, he’d be better off. He likes his KMART backing band he pays minimum wage while his house is in foreclosure.
I wish Malmsteen would stop being an parody of the guitar hero show off! I swear the comedy writes it self. I loved his stuff in the past but the ego hasn’t landed.
It has been way to long since he has put out a decent album.