While many of his peers spent their careers wailing along with distorted, booming, effects-filled guitar riffs and solos, Yngwie Malmsteen molded his music with crafted classicality that rocks.
Over the past 43 years, Malmsteen has become a renowned and respected virtuoso. And with an appreciation for the great rock, blues, country and other guitarists before him, he also readily gives classical composers such as Paganini (also a guitarist), Bach and Vivaldi credit as his chief musical influences.
Yngwie Malmsteen
Saturday, Jul 24, 8 p.m. $32.75-$58.75
Ruth Eckerd Hall
1111 McMullen Booth Rd., Clearwater
rutheckerdhall.com
And some of those classical influences will be centerstage when Malmsteen—a 2015 inductee into the Swedish Music Hall of Fame—plays Clearwater this weekend.
The 58-year-old’s first studio album, 1984’s Rising Force, was named “Best Rock Album” that year in Guitar Player Magazine and nominated for a “Best Rock Instrumental Performance” Grammy.
Since then, Malmsteen has released 21 more studio albums, with a new one—Parabellum—due July 23, a day before his Ruth Eckerd Hall show. Malmsteen said the effort was written and recorded with a sense of spontaneity as a “single piece of art.”
“It was allowing it to happen. I always found the best stuff I’ve made is spontaneous. I had the gear in the studio, so I just captured what I thought were the best parts. It was completely undiluted,” Malmsteen told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay, speaking from a convertible Ferrari in Miami Beach, where he currently lives.
Because of what Malmsteen—born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck in Stockholm, Sweden—said was one of his most “pure” albums with “no distractions,” the Parabellum tour and shows are both freeform and exact in the performances.
“It was my soul coming into the music, that’s all it was. The origin was very spontaneous but it became very detailed as well, the arrangements and stuff. You can hear that,” added Malmsteen
As for his shows on the current Parabellum tour, Malmsteen—along with his bassist, drummer and keyboardist—said although the current shows feature Parabellum tracks, some older material would “maybe” be played for fans drawn to his more melodic material.
The origins of those melodies can be traced to Malmsteen’s love of classical, particularly from the baroque period. Citing classical composers as influences, he said he neither embraces or disdains his “neoclassical” label.
“I’m just a composer and a performer. What comes out of me naturally is going to sound pretty neoclassical but I really don’t label things like that,” he said.
Always looking to broaden his stylistic repertoire, Malmsteen said he works to make his music interesting and challenging and doesn’t mention any direct influences in the world of rock and roll.
“When you turn up a Marshall stack or whatever I use and you have a double-bass drum set, that sound, I like,” added Malmsteen. “It’s all just a choice of notes. I got tired of the 5-notes-per-octave in the blues-rock vein. I didn’t want to do that for myself. As a composer and performer, I need to challenge myself.”
When it’s all said and done and the amps are turned off and the lights go down, Malmsteen said he likes to see audiences leave not only satisfied but mesmerized.
“I want them to have a blown mind, a melted face and no hearing left,” he said and chuckled. “I put a lot of intensity into the show and they’ll see that.”
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This article appears in Jul 22-28, 2021.