If there were a definitive list of things that should have been left back in the 1980s, I think even a large number of modern rock fans would agree that the concept of “Hair Metal” would be on it.
But at its best, ‘eighties “Hair Metal” was something whose technical spectacle was mind boggling. It could so easily be mocked, as the movie This is Spinal Tap demonstrated with the epitome of aplomb. And it could also rank among the most proficient displays of musicianship across any genre in that era. If you were fed up with buying albums on which the lead vocalist appeared at the top of the personnel listing, this one might provide the change you were looking for…
Noted by the time of this 1989 album for simultaneously using twelve amplifiers to record his guitar, Yngwie Malmsteen had started the mid to late ‘eighties trend of classically-influenced heavy rock. He came to significant attention as a member of the band Alcatrazz, but quickly moved into an even more focal position as a solo artist.
Malmsteen set a popular precedent, but did not like being copied. Indeed, in 1988 he described Vinnie Moore’s emulation of his style as “sickening” – finding himself especially annoyed by the fact that Moore didn’t credit him as an influence.
The Malmsteen cassette album depicted here is Trial By Fire – Live in Leningrad. In technical terms it’s very spectacular, but in many ways it lapses into territory that Malmsteen himself said he didn’t want to occupy. Self-indulgence, or “play and wank off” as Yngwie put it when interviewed by Guitarist magazine’s Phil Hilborne in the ‘eighties. There’s a lot of instrumental noodling, and you find it hard to work out whether he’s on a personal trip or just giving the audience what they want.
Malmsteen said that the reason his first solo album – Rising Force – was an instumental guitar project, was that his manager instructed him to make an instrumental guitar album. He asserted that he would not otherwise have made it an instrumental album. He also spoke about wanting to get away from idea of just appealing to guitar nuts, and connect with a wider audience.
So what happened between the time of that interview, and the Odyssey tour on which this album was recorded a short time later, I don’t know. He does overplay, and there was no way that this album was ever gonna connect with anyone who didn’t have an interest in either hardcore heavy metal or electric guitars.
It’s not so much that there’s a lot of guitar instrumental work – it’s that it’s all hammered out like it’s a race to see who can play the fastest. The problem is that most people’s brains can’t think as fast as he was playing, so it all meshes into an often meaningless machine-gun fire of notes. At his best, Yngwie Malmsteen could play some wonderfully memorable lead breaks, but most of this falls into the category of instantly forgettable.
The first track – Liar – does have impact. And if the programme had diversified from there I’m sure it would have made for a fantastic album. But it instead gets more self-indulgent and predictable, and by the final track – an over-elaborate version of Hendrix‘s Spanish Castle Magic – you’re ready to put the cassette back in the “Don’t play for another ten years” drawer.
The cassette, released by Polydor with the product ID 839 726-4, uses genuine chrome media, which delivers very high sound reproduction quality. The articulation and fidelity is excellent, and the bass truly thunders. Connoisseurs of ’80s metal would doubtless love it, and it’s of historical interest to guitar fanatics who want to hear the virtuoso playing one of his Dimarzio pickup-fitted Stratocasters. But an album for everyone this is definitely not.
Tape Tardis 