Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Trilogy (1986)^{Release ID: 7317}

I think it’s fair to say that Swedish guitar virtuoso Yngwie J. Malmsteen played a significant role in my teenage years. I can’t say that his brand of neoclassically inclined metal music ever really crossed over with my taste profile particularly but his dazzling chops were pretty much unequalled at the time & that was enough to keep this budding young shredder interested. I’d first come across him in 1989 when I discovered the track “Heaven Tonight” on the cover CD for the first edition of a monthly Australian metal magazine called Hot Metal. It left my jaw sitting on the floor to such an extent that I found myself purchasing the 1988 “Odyssey” album on cassette a short time later & followed it up by exploring all three of Yngwie’s previous albums, the last of which would be his 1986 third album “Trilogy”. I’d also invest in the guitar tablature books for all of those albums & would continue to follow Yngwie’s solo work religiously until 1995’s “Magnum Opus” when I’d decide that I had enough Yngwie in my life & moved on. It’s been many years since I’ve listened to “Trilogy” now though & I think it’s about time that I gave it a rating.

Yngwie’s 1984 “Rising Force” debut album was historically the one that I spent the most time with which was mainly due to the fact that I preferred a purely instrumental brand of guitar shred music at the time but several decades have seen my enjoyment of the neoclassical structures Yngwie employed earlier on waning a bit & I’ve eventually come to the realisation that I regard 1985’s “Marching Out” sophomore album as Yngwie’s best work these days. It saw him opting for a much greater ratio of vocal tracks & is more of a classic heavy metal album with neoclassical guitar solos than it is a genuine neoclassical metal album. “Trilogy” saw him taking that concept a little further by adding a touch more commercial accessibility with an all new line-up. Front man Jeff Scott Soto & bassist Marcel Jacob had both departed with Yngwie taking on the bass duties himself & future Ring Of Fire & Royal Hunt vocalist Mark Boals taking over the microphone. (Note: Scott Soto & Jacob would form hard rock outfit Talisman a few years later while Jacob would also pop up with progressive metallers Space Odyssey in the early 2000’s.) The Johansson brothers are still onboard & provide their usual high-class contributions with their jazz fusion-influenced styles providing a wonderful foil for Yngwie’s neoclassicisms, whether that be through Andres’ creative use of ride cymbal or Jens’ spectacular keyboard solo trade-offs with his band leader.

As with “Marching Out”, I struggle with the idea of labelling “Trilogy” as a “neoclassical metal” release as I don’t think it possesses anything particularly classical in the song & riff structures. It’s really just Yngwie’s solos that provide the neoclassical links & I don’t think that constitutes any need for its own distinct genre when the majority of the album is made up of traditional heavy metal song-writing. Lengthy instrumental closer “Trilogy Suite: Op 5” is the clear exception & it sounds quite similar to the material that made Yngwie an instant star with the “Rising Force” album. The other instrumental track “Crying” takes more of a new age approach that reminds me heavily of Marty Friedmann’s early 90’s albums before heading into a neoclassical hard rock direction during the second half. Neither of these instrumental tracks do much for me to be honest. They’re both very high on technique but quite low on musical substance. There are a couple of genuine power metal tunes on offer too in the fast-paced “Liar” & “Fury” & they provide further proof of just how influential Yngwie was on the early European power metal movement. The remaining five songs all fall into the heavy metal bucket & this is where I feel “Trilogy” is at its strongest with anthemic opener “You Don’t Remember, I Never Forget” & doomy Dio-era Black Sabbath sound of “Dark Ages” being the clear highlights of a tracklisting that’s not without blemish but where the wins comfortably outweigh the losses.

You won’t have to spend too much time guessing which decade “Trilogy” hails from because it sounds very much of its time. Yngwie’s thin rhythm guitar sound isn’t amazing while the drums have that distinctly artificial 80’s timbre & the keyboard work can sound pretty naff when used for atmospheric accompaniment. Boals’ vocal performance is excellent throughout & you can easily see why Malmsteen liked him given his lifelong obsession with Rainbow as Mark’s tone is very similar to Ronnie James Dio’s. Yngwie’s lead solos don’t offer anything drastically different from what we’d heard on his earlier releases however here we see him taking his trademark runs & signature arpeggios & combining them into ridiculously technical hybrids that see him jumping from one technique to another very quickly & with seamless efficiency. I often like to imagine Jason Becker, Marty Friedmann & Vinnie Moore sitting in one of their bedrooms getting high while listening to each new Malmsteen record. I picture them all & rolling on the floor in fits of laughter at the mind-blowing new level’s Yngwie was taking lead guitar to with each subsequent release.

“Trilogy” is another more than decent Malmsteen record but I do think of it as the weakest of his 1980’s solo albums. It was certainly a step down from the very strong “Marching Out” but compares more favourably when placed alongside “Rising Force” although it contains a little more filler & probably doesn’t include as many highlights either. I’d suggest that most fans would have jumped onboard regardless though & I don’t think “Trilogy” was done any harm by the attractive fantasy cover artwork as it was certainly a drawcard for geeky teenage shred wannabes. There will undoubtedly be those that hate on “Trilogy” for being too accessible but most of those people probably had no business checking out an Yngwie record in the first place in my opinion.