Artist: Malmsteen, Yngwie J.
Label: Universal Music Group
Release: 2005
Rating: 3/5
The unrivaled maestro of singular musical visions and dimensions is back, carrying on his musical preaching exactly where he left off with the previous release “Attack!!” (2002). The lineup is practically unchanged, with the legendary singer, the likable vocalist Dougie White (ex-Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow), as the biggest name on the bill. The tracks are built on simple metal riffs, no fuss, with a tight, compact rhythm, the music is as always a “shot straight into the vein”, and the record as a whole is once again tailor-made for every headbanger out there. Of course the whole thing is soaked in the obligatory “baroque” rattling solos and those transitional flourishes that crash and flash out of nowhere across every composition, which the guitar wizard shakes out of his sleeve like it’s nothing. This is the Yngwie who always takes your breath away. The bass on the record was also handled entirely by the boss himself, Malmsteen. The lyrics are all rebellious once again, and you won’t find any deep philosophy in them. The songs are steel, no softie ballads, snarling their rage sharp and uncompromising the whole way through and galloping unstoppably in all their fury. White sings with a lot of variety throughout, in places even bordering on what you could call “brutal” (the chorus of Cracking The Whip). Proof that Yngwie is in a constant state of full musical inspiration? 17 tracks, four of them instrumentals, which bring a nice dose of stylistic dynamics to the record. The riffing is poisonously alive in the production. The keyboards also lean on heavy “Hammond” sounds, adding even more metallic weight to the overall sound. Bogey Man stands out among the songs. Is that White with a thinner voice? Wrong. Malmsteen sings the lead vocals himself, “hook, line and sinker”, and he does it superbly, with no whining at all, which is to say very convincingly, with every last bit of breath spent and a full-on run-up.
Malmsteen obviously more than enjoys the hard’n’heavy formation he settled into long ago, and this time he follows it with laser focus, using all the musical inspiration he has at the moment. We often picture Malmsteen, an out-of-the-ordinary artist, as a guy who strives for exploratory detours and tries to cash in even more clearly on his poker aces of exceptional playing in the vein of the masters of classical music, which is what made him so famous. But at heart Yngwie is a classic rocker, and “Unlesh The Fury” is another bullseye, because it delivers exactly what his devoted fans expect. So, on “Unleash The Fury” too there are no sharp turns left or right, just the absolute dominance of the expected standard, that is, heavy metal clatter of exceptional melodic compactness, based on a polished and always expressive guitar riff that carries a truly uncompromising edge with class, perfectly balanced with the whole treasury of classical know-how, which Y.J.Malmsteen, as an artist of a special caliber, once again masterfully encodes into an expression that is entirely his own and unique.
Lineup
Dougie White – vocals
Yngwie J. Malmsteen – guitar, bass
Joakim Svalberg – keyboards
Patrick Johansson – drums
Production
Yngwie J. Malmsteen
Track list
1. Locked And Loaded
2. Revolution
3. Crackin’ The Whip (Invasion)
4. Winds Of War
5. Crown Of Thorns
6. Bogeyman
7. Beauty And A Beast
8. Fuguetta
9. Cherokee Warrior
10. Guardian Angel
11. Let The Good Times Roll
12. Revelation (Drinking With The Devil)
13. Magic And Mayhem
14. Exile
15. Hunt
16. Russian Roulette
17. Unleash The Fury
18. Paraphrase
Album length: 73:15
