YNGWIE J. MALMSTEEN: Trilogy

Produced by Yngwie J. Malmsteen

Released: 1986

Following two shred-heavy albums, Yngwie J. Malmsteen made a grab for commercial success on his third album and adopted a lot of the gloss and sheen of the pop-metal bands around him, maxing out the keyboards almost to the detriment of his own rhythm guitar tracks and focusing on songs rather than shredfests. He also decided that this was Rising Force no longer but simply a Yngwie J. Malmsteen album and even credits himself as "conductor" along with producer, composer, guitarist and bass player.

This new approach pretty much failed on almost every level, because he could barely write a decent song to save himself and in Mark Boals he found a singer who was really only average at best. Malmsteen is a classically-influenced heavy metal guitarist, not a pop songwriter, so his efforts here pretty much fall flat. That said, "You Don't Remember, I'll Never Forget" is really not too bad, a catchy and memorable slice of 80s pop metal only let down slightly by Boals' forced high notes. Most of the rest of the tracks are pretty ordinary however, rife with corny lyrics like "Queen in Love", juvenile attempts at Dio-like allegory ("Magic Mirror") or plain over-simplicity (rhyming "fire" with "higher" and "desire" like no one had ever thought of it before).

For all of its weaknesses, however, Trilogy has two things going for it. The first is "Crying", a synth-enhanced acoustic instrumental that actually displays some quite emotive playing that alludes to his classical influences. The other is "Trilogy Suite Op:5", in which Yngwie just does what he does best: shreds his fingers off for seven minutes. This is quite possibly the true high point of his career, a three-part epic instrumental that opens with a face-melting series of cadenza lines, blazing riffage and interplay with his own furious bass lines and Jens Johannson's synths. Later a slower acoustic section rises up before the whole thing finishes with more intense guitar madness. This shows what a truly stunning musician Malmsteen is and how magnificent he can be when he really puts his mind to it. It's also the last time he would do something like this once he realised he could simply live off his reputation and not bother putting too much effort in.

Trilogy gets most of its marks for this track alone, but it's also hard not to give Yngwie credit for that gloriously cheesy cover painting of him using his guitar to fight a three-headed dragon. Power metal bands all over Europe owe him a debt for this they can't possibly repay.

1. You Don't Remember, I'll Never Forget
2. Liar
3. Queen in Love
4. Crying
5. Fury
6. Fire
7. Magic Mirror
8. Dark Ages
9. Trilogy Suite Op:5

Rating: 50%