Yngwie Malmsteen - Hell Or High Water

Yngwie Malmsteen returns with Hell or High Water, his first studio album since 2021's Parabellum, written with the vinyl LP in mind.

Few guitarists have shaped a genre the way the Swedish virtuoso did when neoclassical shred exploded in the 1980s. Decades later, he still treats Bach and Paganini as natural allies of a cranked Stratocaster, and he has said he built this record to fit a single LP, nine songs and around three quarters of an hour of music. He handles lead vocals on several of them too.

Opener "Now Or Never" was the first taste, a fiery statement of intent that sets the pace. Instrumentals "Antikythera" and "Beyond Zeta Reticuli" take the fretboard fireworks into sci-fi territory, the latter arriving with its own music video, while the title track is folded into a medley with a classical-style caprice. The album closes on "Father," a heartfelt sign-off after all the speed and spectacle.

Expect lightning-fast runs and the kind of sweep picking that has kept guitar magazines busy for forty years. It is unapologetically Yngwie, maximalist and proud of it, and longtime fans will feel right at home. Turn it up loud, settle in for the solos, and keep a spare pick close by.