Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Odyssey (1988)^{Release ID: 7318}

1988’s “Odyssey” album represents my introduction to Swedish neoclassical guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen with my first experience being through a track that included on the cover CD from the initial edition of Australian metal magazine “Hot Metal” in 1989 (yes the same one that I spoke about earlier this week in my Ozzy Osbourne review). The song in question was an accessible & anthemic heavy metal number called “Heaven Tonight” that possesses some incredibly catchy vocal hooks & some truly transcendent guitar work. Despite my already having been converted to extreme metal in a major way, I couldn’t help but become a little bit obsessed with this song & it saw me purchasing the “Odyssey” cassette shortly afterwards which would subsequently see me exploring all of Yngwie’s back catalogue & each successive release right through to the middle of the 1990s. I’d soon find myself focusing most of my attention on the first couple of Yngwie records but in the back of my mind I’ve always held a strong passion for “Odyssey”. I’m not sure I realized just how powerful my feelings of nostalgia were for it until now though.

“Odyssey” sees Yngwie continuing to move in a more commercial direction than his earlier works with the focus being just as much on song-writing as it is on the band leader’s instrumental virtuosity. It saw Yngwie recruiting former Rainbow front man Joe Lynn Turner to front his Rising Force band with Joe putting in a stellar performance that I’d suggest even steals the show given that Yngwie’s solos tend to spend the majority of their time retreading old ground. This is highlighted in the fact that all of my favourite songs are those with strong & memorable chorus hooks. Anders & Jens Johansson are back once again & I’ve always enjoyed their jazzy & very musical contributions while former Rainbow & Black Sabbath bassist Bob Daisley also make a contribution by taking over the bass duties on a number of tracks.

The band explore a number of different sounds across the tracklisting from power metal (“Rising Force”, “Riot In The Dungeons”, “Faster Than The Speed Of Light”) to neoclassical metal (“Bite The Bullet”, “Riot In The Dungeons”) to progressive metal (“Krakatau”) to AOR (“Dreaming (Tell Me)”) to hard rock (“Now Is The Time”) but the major component of the album sits with classic heavy metal. In fact, it frustrates me that we so often see Yngwie's more vocal-oriented albums being labelled as neoclassical metal simply because of his lead guitar techniques. There really isn’t a lot of neoclassical influence in most of the song structures if you examine them closely. The tracklisting is pretty consistent with only the horribly dated hard rocker “Now Is The Time” failing to reach an acceptable level but it’s the mind-blowing singalong highlights that really get to me. “Heaven Tonight” is still my pick of the bunch but any time I hear songs like “Déjà vu” or “Crystal Ball” I inevitably find myself struggling to reach Lynn Turner’s range at the top of my voice & invariably make a dick of myself yet you’ll struggle to take the smile off my face. There’s an element of class about most of the remainder of the album too though & I’m not sure that I remember feeling as emphatically positive about an Yngwie tracklisting in all honesty.

“Odyssey” has definitely left me surprised at how strong my nostalgia is for it & I’d actually suggest that it’s my favourite Yngwie release these days. Who am I kidding? If this is a neoclassical metal record (which it’s not) then it’s the finest example that I’ve yet experienced. Apparently I don’t care much if Yngwie focuses on a more song-driven format & can even tolerate a little cheese in the interest of memorability. I’d strongly encourage fans of artists like Cacophony, Axel Rudi Pell & Alcatrazz to check “Odyssey” out while keeping an open mind as it’s a quality heavy metal release in its own right rather than simply being a platform for its illustrious band leader to stroke his ego.