Yngwie Malmsteen - Relentless
January 27 2011 at 11:31:49 PM
Relentless. As the tower of toys 'n' junk torn open in junior's spoiled rotten mitts, the latest from Yngwie and crew is loaded up with countless spectacular ornaments. No swipe of the strings leaves the showroom without its own custom tweak, making for another flashy parade-ready vehicle to showcase the Malmsteen's wide selection of aftermarket doodads. The scrooge-types who question the necessity of paying extra for "undercoating" will find a surprisingly elegant, dependable chassis under all the bells and whistles. Easy to deride this with old chestnuts like “wankery” and “Hickory Farms Cheese Ball Combo Gift Box.” Just as easy to overlook restraint the Maestro displays throughout, and has done since days of yore, in his relatively unadorned rhythm playing and his wise strategy of alternating full blown Christmas Miracles with more down-to-earth pageants featuring a mortal human voice.
Ripper Owens dives in there like a true merc, bringing solid Heavy Metal anthems to a fuller life while dutifully executing the Maestro's half-baked plan to bestow extramusical drama (he's got an AXE TO GRIND, see?) on proceedings that don't always wear the nutty lyrical coating so well. But the songs are there, under all the tinsel 'n' shit, and Metal (demi)God ® Owens dips into his magic sack to hang his shiny balls on every other branch. Yngwie himself puts a little Mike Patton stank on track 4, and to these ears it don't smell half bad. At times you will be convinced that a shameless showcase of guitar prowess can also be an album of good songs. You might even come to celebrate the fateful day a little Swedish child was born to shred out this tribute to Paganini, even if it sounds to the common folk more like a bunch of old Christmas carols souped up on nitrous. You can't have everything, you little shit.
[Marcus Garvey]
Yngwie J. Malmsteen
Relentless
Universal Music
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Howeva...I picked up an old vinyl copy of Gary Moore's Victim of the Future yesterday. Holy Crap!!! By Side 2, with Gary busting into his cover of Shape of Things, spraying shards of commando-esque shrapnel all over Jeff Beck's original solo, my 4 year old son is jumping off furniture, throwing air guitar poses, and yelling "I Love This Record, make it Louder!!!"
That's some real rock and roll folks.
David, I agree. With all of it. I came to Beck through that awful Rod Stewart song and my uncle was like, Jesus Harold Christ, and hooked me up with a bunch of 8-tracks. Then he introduced me to Cream. MAKE IT LOUDER.