Theoretically, I should have visited Yngwie Malmsteen’s third album, “Trilogy,” back when I visited the Emerson, Lake and Powell album. For a brief time in 1986, Yngwie supported ELP on their tour but eventually, he left the tour stating that he wasn’t happy with the fact that he didn’t have enough space leftover to set up his things after the headliners had set up theirs. I just thought that was one of the drawbacks to being a support band. Another amusing tidbit from Yngwie’s tour was that when he played the Marquee Club in London, a lot of Bruce Springsteen fans turned up because they thought it was ‘The Boss’ playing under another name and to these people, there couldn’t be anyone by the name of Yngwie Malmsteen.
What I like about “Trilogy” is that young Mr Malmsteen goes further into making more songs in the traditional sense, instead of just shredding away on the guitar, which he still does brilliantly on this album. In fact, the only two instrumentals on the album are “Crying” and the closer, “Trilogy Suite Op:5.” However that last one is the best one for the closer. It just takes the album out with lots of great guitar work.
Any thoughts that Yngwie can’t write songs are quickly dispelled with the first three tracks and in my mind, the three best songs on the album! The opener, “You Don’t Remember, I’ll Never Forget,” was released as a single and it’s probably the right one for that. Unfortunately, I don’t remember it getting any play on the radio or MTV, shame on them. The middle song, “Liar,” is my vote for hidden gem. It is just a powerful rock tune, where the vocals of Mark Boals, who replaced former lead singer Jeff Scott Soto, the guitar work of Mr Malmsteen and the keyboards of Jens Johannson come together to make a brilliant song. “Queen in Love” is a good, actually very good, a solid song with more of the above.
After the first instrumental, things go very hard with “Fury.” This could have been better if there was more rhythm guitar. It seemed that Yngwie wanted to show that he could shred a bass as well as a guitar, although he does play a good solo as does Jens on the keyboards. Power chords galore continue on “Fire.” It is one of those catchy type of metal songs. Another positive from “Trilogy” is that he does lend some of the spotlight to the rest of the band. The contributions of Boals and J. Johansson are heard plenty but it’s on “Magic Mirror” where Jens’s brother Anders is let go on the drums and he picks up the baton and runs with it very well.
One criticism which has been aimed at Mr Malmsteen over the years is that his guitar solos all begin to sound pretty much the same. Yes, I would agree that there might be some similarities in them but I just put it down to being his style. Besides, with his talent, he could play the exact same solo on every song and I wouldn’t get bored with it.
Track Listing:
- You Don’t Remember, I’ll Never Forget
- Liar
- Queen in Love
- Crying
- Fury
- Fire
- Magic Mirror
- Dark Ages
- Trilogy Suite Op: 5
Yngwie Malmsteen
Yngwie Malmsteen- guitar, bass, Moog Taurus
Mark Boals- vocals
Jens Johansson- keyboards
Anders Johansson- drums
By 1986, many metalheads were already citing Yngwie Malmsteen as the new guitar god. At the time, I wouldn’t have disagreed with them and even today, he’s definitely in my top 5. Saying that, he had his critics and not just because of his over inflated ego which was by this time, very apparent. So, in respect to this, I conclude the post with a riddle: How many Yngwie Malmsteens does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer in the next post which is: Raven- The Pack is Back
To buy Rock and Roll Children, email me at: tobychainsaw@hotmail.com
