He has released music under Yngwie Malmsteen, Yngwie J. Malmsteen and under Yngwie J. Malmsteen's Rising Force.
Born into a musical family in Stockholm, Yngwie was the youngest child in the family. At an early age, he showed little interest in music. It wasn't until September 18, 1970 when at age seven he saw a TV special on the death of Jimi Hendrix that Malmsteen became obsessed with the guitar. To quote his official website, "The day Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar-playing Yngwie was born".
Malmsteen was in his teens when he first encountered the music of the 19th-century violin virtuoso Niccolo Paganini, whom he cites as his biggest classical influence. It has been rumoured that Yngwie believes himself to be the reincarnation of the temperamental, often criticized, and widely misunderstood violinist from Genoa. Through his emulation of Paganini concerto pieces on guitar, Malmsteen developed a prodigious technical fluency. Malmsteen also cites Jimi Hendrix, Genesis, Uli Jon Roth, and Deep Purple as influences.
Malmsteen's contributions to the evolution of modern rock guitar, particularly his embracing of modal progressions and classically-influenced techniques not widely used in rock music, broke new ground and Malmsteen is often credited with the creation of the neoclassical metal genre, inspiring a new generation of virtuoso electric guitarists including Paul Gilbert and Tony MacAlpine.
1980s
In late 1982 Malmsteen was brought to the USA by Mike Varney of Shrapnel Records, who had heard a demo tape of Malmsteen's playing. Shrapnel is synonymous with the shred style of music. He had brief engagements with Steeler, for their self-titled album of 1983, then Alcatrazz, for their 1983 debut No Parole From Rock N' Roll, and the 1984 live album Live Sentence. He left Alcatrazz in 1984, replaced by Steve Vai, and began his solo career.
Malmsteen released his first solo album "Rising Force" (winner of Guitar Player Magazine's Best Rock Album and nominated for a 1984 Grammy for Best Rock Instrumental) which achieved #60 on the Billboard album chart. He was nominated for a Grammy and later Rising Force topped the charts at number 1. This was followed by "Marching Out" (1985). Jeff Scott Soto was the singer on the first two albums.
His third album, Trilogy, was released in 1986. In 1987, former Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner joined his band. That year, Malmsteen was in a serious car accident, smashing his Jaguar XKE into a tree and putting him in a coma for a week. Nerve damage to his right hand was reported. It was during his time in the hospital that Malmsteen's mother died from cancer.
In the summer of 1988 he released his fourth album, Odyssey. Odyssey would be his biggest hit album, mainly because of its first single "Heaven Tonight". Shows in Russia during the Odyssey tour were recorded, and released in 1989 as his fifth album Trial By Fire: Live in Leningrad. The concert in Leningrad was the largest ever by a western artist in the Soviet Union, and Malmsteen's record sales in Russia totalled 27 million.
In late 1988, his signature series Fender Stratocaster was released, making him the second artist so honored, after Eric Clapton.
Malmsteen's style "Neo-classical" became somewhat popular during the mid 1980s, with notable contemporaries such as Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman, Tony MacAlpine and Vinnie Moore all reaching prominence after Yngwie. However, only Paul Gilbert claimed Yngwie as an influence, with MacAlpine coming to the neoclassical/shred field by applying his classical piano training to his guitar playing and Moore arriving at a similar style because he shared Yngwie's major influences, Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Al Di Meola, American jazz fusion great of Return to Forever fame.
1990s
In the early 1990s he released the albums Eclipse (1990), The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection (1991), Fire and Ice (1992) and The Seventh Sign (1994).
Despite his early success, and continuous success in Europe and Asia, by the early 1990s the gratuitous over-the-top stylings of 1980s heavy metal had become unfashionable in the USA. This was displaced by the Seattle grunge movement, where technical ability was replaced by simpler, more emotionally-driven songs. The grunge rock movement may have arisen in part as a backlash to the overly technical metal inspired by Malmsteen and his contemporaries, which despite its often impressive technique was regarded by many as ponderous, bland and self-indulgent.
In the 1990s, Malmsteen continued to record and release albums under the Japanese record label Pony Canyon, and maintained a devoted following in Europe and Japan, and to a lesser extent in the USA. In 2000, he once again acquired a contract with a US record label, Spitfire, and released his 1990s catalog into the US market for the first time, including what he regards as his masterpiece Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra, recorded with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague.
2000s
After the release of War to End All Wars in 2000, singer Mark Boals left the band. Yngwie went on tour with former Ark vocalist Jorn Lande. Due to various tensions on tour, Jorn left before the recording of Yngwie's next album, Attack!!. He was replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Doogie White. White's vocals were well received by fans, and it seems that he has become a permanent member of the band.
In 2003, Malmsteen joined Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, with whom he toured as part of the G3 supergroup.
Yngwie released Unleash the Fury in 2005. 'As stated in an issue of "Guitar World" magazine, he titled this album after the infamous 'airline incident', which occurred on a flight to Japan for the 'Odyssey' tour. He was drunk and was behaving obnoxiously, until he fell asleep and was roused by a woman dumping water on him. Enraged, he shouted, "You stupid bitch! You've unleashed the fockin fury!" The audio from this moment was caught on tape by a fellow band member.
In 2007, Malmsteen was honored in the Xbox 360 version of Guitar Hero II. Players can receive the "Yngwie Malmsteen" award by hitting 1000 or more notes in succession. February 2008 saw the replacement of singer Doogie White with former Iced Earth and Judas Priest and current Beyond Fear singer Tim "Ripper" Owens, with whom Malmsteen had once recorded a cover of Ozzy Osbourne's song "Mr. Crowley", for the 2000 Osbourne tribute album Bat Head Soup: A Tribute to Ozzy. The first Malmsteen album to feature Owens is titled Perpetual Flame and was released on 4 October. On 25 November 2008, Malmsteen had three of his songs ("Caprici Di Diablo", "Damnation Game", and "Red Devil", all from this latter album) released as downloadable content for the video games Rock Band Rock Band 2 and later Rock Band 3.
In 2008, Malmsteen was a special guest on the VH1 Classic show "That Metal Show". On 10 March 2009, Malmsteen's label Rising Force released Angels of Love, an all-instrumental album, which featured acoustic arrangements of some of his best-known ballads. In August 2009, Time magazine named Malmsteen No. 9 on its list of the 10 best electric guitar players of all-time. Malmsteen recently released another album compilation entitled High Impact on 8 December 2009.
2010–present
On 23 November 2010, Relentless was released, the second album to feature Tim "Ripper" Owens on vocals. The US version featured a remake of "Arpeggios From Hell" as a bonus track. Yngwie appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon on 3 February 2011 to promote his album. On 6 August 2011, Malmsteen made another appearance in the United States, playing a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" before a game between the St. Louis Cardinals and Florida Marlins at Sun Life Stadium. Although rarely seen in his native country of Sweden, Malmsteen played one gig there in 2012. On 7 July, he ended the Getaway Rock Festival in Gävle, which he was headlining with Nightwish and Manowar. On 5 December 2012, Malmsteen released the album Spellbound. 2013 saw the release of Yngwie's official autobiography Relentless.
On 12 June 2014, Malmsteen kicked off his "Guitar Gods 2014 Tour" at the F.M. Kirby Center in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania alongside ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Bumblefoot and guitarist Gary Hoey. In February 2015, it was announced that Malmsteen was in the studio working on a new album.In April and May 2016, Malmsteen was one of five guitarists featured on the Generation Axe tour.
In 2018, it was announced that Malmsteen had signed with Mascot Records, with a new studio album expected the following year. In 2019, Malmsteen released Blue Lightning, featuring blues rock songs - mainly covers - with Malmsteen's virtuoso playing.
On May 8, 2021, Yngwie Malmsteen was reported to have launched the Parabellum album and video for the "Paganini-referencing" track "Wolves At The Door". Since COVID-19 restrictions prevented touring, Malmsteen had more time to record the album, and was "clearly delighted with the results."
Specialized guitar
Aside from technical prowess, distinctions of Malmsteen's guitar style include a wide, violin-like vibrato inspired by classical violinists, and use of such minor scales as the Harmonic minor, and minor modes such as Phrygian, and Aeolian. Malmsteen cites the Fender Stratocaster and the single coil pickups (of which he uses his custom design by DiMarzio, which are actually a vertically-stacked humbucker mounted in a single coil housing Malmsteen sought to combine the tone of a single coil with the reduced noise of a humbucker) as being instrumental to his unique tone. The Malmsteen signature model Stratocaster made by Fender is based accurately upon this combination.
The guitars he uses are recognizable by the addition of a custom scalloped fretboard. This is similar to a regular fretboard, but with wood 'scalloped' or scooped away to form a concave shape in between the frets. Malmsteen allegedly conceived this design as a teenager while working in a music store in Stockholm, Sweden when he came across a 17th century lute with a scalloped neck using the raised wood as frets. However, this can also be viewed as an influence from Ritchie Blackmore, one of his most readily admitted idols, who also favors scalloped neck Fender Stratocasters. Malmsteen himself has said he learned most from Ritchie Blackmore's guitar riffs and solos as a beginning guitarist. Also, jazz-fusion guitarist John McLaughlin used scalloped fingerboards long before Malmsteen came on the scene.
Even for the experienced guitar player, the scalloped fingerboard proves very difficult to perform on, as there is no surface contact between finger and wood to aid in the feel of the vibrato motion. The strings of the guitar, when fretted, are easily pushed sharp and out of tune. The highly accurate, delicate yet controlled touch required to play properly with Malmsteen's modified Stratocaster is elusive for most, and an integral part of Malmsteen's technique.
Enemy
Yngwie Malmsteen Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
You became to me
Lived a fantasy
An illusion
Built scenery
Played to the gallery
Never could agree
All the pain that I
Had to hide inside
Made me realize
I was starved
Tried so hard to be
Anyone but me
Everyone could see
So, I've opened my eyes
I'm no longer waiting for a miracle
Hold my head up high, the future's now
Though I was colorblind
I read the warning signs
And put the past behind
Down the gutter
Now I finally see
That the enemy
is both in you and me
Yeah, I've opened my eyes
I'm no longer waiting for a miracle
Both feet on the ground, my future's now
No use in waiting for a miracle
Hold my head up high, my future's now
In Yngwie Malmsteen's song "Enemy", the lyrics talk about the realization of painful truths and the acceptance of them. The singer talks about someone who became an enemy to them by living in a fantasy world, playing to the gallery, and never being able to agree. The singer had to hide their pain inside, and it made them realize that they were starved for something real. They tried to be anyone but themselves, but everyone could see through the facade. Finally, they opened their eyes to the truth.
The singer has stopped waiting for a miracle and has decided to hold their head up high because the future is now. They may have been colorblind to the warning signs in the past, but they have put it all behind them and are moving forward. They have realized that the enemy is both in themselves and the person they were singing about, and they have opened their eyes to this. They are accepting the truths they have learned and are ready to move forward with both feet on the ground.
Overall, "Enemy" is a song about acceptance, growth, and realization. The singer has learned some painful truths but is ready to move forward and face the future without waiting for a miracle.
Line by Line Meaning
What an enemy
The person being addressed is perceived as an enemy by the singer
You became to me
The singer once had a positive relationship with the person, but now sees them as an enemy
Lived a fantasy
The past relationship between the singer and the person was not based in reality, but in a fantasy
An illusion
The fantasy relationship was not real and did not have a solid foundation
Built scenery
The artist and the person put up a façade in their relationship to please others
Played to the gallery
Both the singer and the person acted in a way to impress others
like so many we
Their relationship was similar to many others in that it was based on appearances and not reality
Never could agree
The artist and the person never truly agreed on anything
All the pain that I
The artist experienced a lot of pain
Had to hide inside
The artist did not express their pain outwardly
Made me realize
The singer came to the realization that the relationship was not healthy
I was starved
The artist was not receiving what they needed from the relationship
Tried so hard to be
The singer put in a lot of effort to be someone that they were not
Anyone but me
The singer was trying to be someone other than their true self
Everyone could see
Others could easily see that the singer was not being their true self
So, I've opened my eyes
The artist has come to the realization that they need to be true to themselves
I'm no longer waiting for a miracle
The artist is no longer waiting for something unlikely to happen
Hold my head up high, the future's now
The singer is optimistic and ready to move forward
Though I was colorblind
The singer was unable to see the truth clearly
I read the warning signs
The artist recognized the signs that the relationship was unhealthy
And put the past behind
The artist has left the unhappy parts of their past behind them
Down the gutter
The past relationship is now over and unimportant to the artist
Now I finally see
The singer now understands the situation clearly
That the enemy
The artist realizes that both they and the person are not entirely blameless
is both in you and me
Both the singer and the person are at fault for the situation and need to take responsibility for their actions
No use in waiting for a miracle
The singer reiterates that waiting for something unlikely to happen is futile
Both feet on the ground, my future's now
The singer is firmly grounded in reality and ready to face the future
Hold my head up high, my future's now
The artist is optimistic and ready to move forward
Lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.
Written by: MATS LEVEN, YNGWIE MALMSTEEN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind