MORE is MORE

Yngwie Malmsteen takes his neoclassical shred to new extremes on Parabellum.

- MARK McSTEA

WHEN YNGWIE MALMSTEEN spoke with Guitar Player earlier this year to reveal how he composed “Far Beyond the Sun,” his signature song, it was clear that his love for the 1984 track was practically eclipsed by his enthusiasm for his latest creation, Parabellum (Music Theories Recordings). “It is extremely neoclassical,” he said of the new album. “People will think I’ve lost my mind. It is like my Concerto” — 1998’s Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E Flat Minor Op.1 — “but metal. I went totally over the top.”

Malmsteen has often liked to joke that as far as he is concerned, “more is more,” and the new album exemplifies that philosophy in spades. “What is exciting is when something comes to me, makes me think, Wow! and then I go straight to record it,” he says. “The new album is full of those moments.”

Now that Parabellum has been released, it’s clear that his enthusiasm was not misplaced. For fans of the neoclassical metal style Malmsteen pioneered, if not downright invented, Parabellum is the album of their dreams, packed with the Swede’s trademark arpeggios, pedal tones and insanely fast scale runs, but without ever letting technique take precedence over musical content. The album will not convert non-believers, but Malmsteen is only concerned with the integrity of his music. The global shutdown of live music in 2020 allowed him to bring an intense focus to the recording process, and that has resulted in him delivering one of the strongest releases in his catalog.