Yngwie Malmsteen - Relentless

Release Date: November 23, 2010
Label: Rising Force Records

TRACK LISTING

1.  Overture
2.  Critical Mass
3.  Shot Across the Bow
4.  Look At You Now
5.  Relentless
6.  Enemy Within
7.  Knight of the Vassa Order
8.  Caged Animal
9.  Into Valhalla
10.  Tide of Desire
11.  Adagio B Flat Minor Variation
12.  Axe to Grind
13.  Blinded
14.  Cross to Bear
15:  Arpeggios from Hell

Total playing time:  68:25

Anyone know the difference between Yngwie Malmsteen, Yngwie J. Malmsteen and Yngwie Malmsteen’s Rising Force albums? No, this isn’t a joke. It’s a serious question. Yngwie’s 17th album drops the “Rising Force,” Roy Z. from mixing duties and keyboardist Derek Sherinian.  However, Relentless keeps Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens and drummer Patrick Johansson and adds a lot more instrumentals than the previous disc.  It makes from some relentless shredding but ultimately an album that doesn’t live up to its title.

Once past “Overture,” the standard Power Metal starts with “Critical Mass.”  Ripper does his thing and the guitars are augmented by heavy keyboards and sitars.  “Shot Across the Bow” is a blazing instrumental. The track has a great melody but the heavy shredding mid-section sounds rather messy and the track seems to drag on. Yngwie handles the vocals on the mid-paced “Look at You Now.” This was a mistake as his husky voice just doesn’t cut it and Ripper could have done much better with his range and tone. But the song is actually pretty strong and isn’t totally by rote. The title track is another instrumental that is mostly shredding. Well, there is a nice melodic hook that shows up every once in a while, but the main purpose here is to incinerate the frets.

“Enemy Within” starts with Georgian Chants but quickly unleashes the heaviest riff of the album. Built on a grinding groove and utilizing most of Ripper’s range, the song is easily the best of the disc. “Knight of the Vasa Order” has an identity crisis; the song is clearly meant to be a slow, classy instrumental but Yngwie’s shredding doesn’t gel with the majority of the track. “Caged Animal” is another heavy piece but is ultimately by the numbers.  “Into Valhalla” is the first instrumental to really return to Yngwie’s famed Neo-Classical style and feature much more restraint, ultimately making it one of the strongest moments of the disc.  “Tide of Desire” is also very strong when compared to the previous songs.  The use of keyboards greatly augments the track and teeters between Neo-Classical and Power Metal.  Yngwie’s melodies and solos are spot on and drummer Johansson actually gets to show off a bit.   “Axe to Grind” is very similar to “Enemy Within” in spots but Ripper soars above the undulant riffing and Yngwie whips out some better, more restrained shredding. The last vocal track, “Blinded,” benefits from a hurried pace and Yngwie’s best shredfest. “Cross to Bear” is a messy affair where a good portion of Yngwie’s soloing doesn’t match up with the underlying music and the keyboards are almost too hot in the mix.  “Arpeggios from Hell” closes out the disc is a blaze of beautiful six string savagery mixed with a nice underlying melody.

Unfortunately, the bulk of Relentless falls flat.  Most of the songs do not command your attention and some of the soloing, shredding and other harmonies from Yngwie just sound tired or tossed together. Ripper is sorely underutilized and a few songs he does appear on do not seem to be written with his range in mind.  And that is one of the biggest noticeable differences between Perpetual Flame and Relentless.  The previous disc made excellent use of Ripper, Relentless does not.  But what really drags Relentless down, even in the good spots, is the production. The guitar riffs sound like they are being played through a speaker covered by a furniture pad.  Some songs this is really noticeable, others not so much.  Sometimes the soloing is also marred by the muddy production and the bass and keyboards are either too hot or barely noticeable.  Yngwie handled all aspects of the production of Relentless and an outside ear would have really helped.

Is Relentless awful? No. But it’s pretty weak. And when compared to Perpetual Flame, it’s a drastic drop in terms of sound and song quality. Relentless feels a bit rushed and as if Yngwie only had one day to work with Ripper. Yngwie and Ripper fans will probably be the only ones to listen to the album more than a handful of times. Even then, most will just go back to spinning Perpetual Flame.  Only recommended to severe shredophiles.

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Reviewer: Rottenbucher

December 6, 2010

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