Guitar World archive: Yngwie Malmsteen Critiques the Playing of His Peers

[evil_lil]

He's definitely got his schtick. It's good for what it is and a lot of people have copied it. But then he says shit in interviews like he's more versatile than Eric Clapton because the scale he uses has 7 notes and Clapton's only has 5. That and he kept wearing the leather pants and frilly shirt open to the waist even after he got fat...it's just comical, dude.

[jhale667]

Haters will hate..

Amazing when people say things like "I could speed up my playing and it'd sound like Yngwie" - Uh, HIGHLY DOUBTFUL. The guy is a musical genius, love him or hate him - and his Rising Force and Marching Out albums are in a class by themselves as far as guitar shreddery. When he's on, the dude has impecible note selection, technique, phrasing and melody. Has he started recycling himself over the years? Sure. Can most of us mere mortal guitarists get in the parking lot of his ballpark to this day? Not likely...

While I can attest from personal experience he can be a mega-jackass or super cool depending on his mood, I can't find much to fault about anything he said in that piece...except his comments on Jeff Beck, as I think he intentionally bends notes out of tune from time to time for dramatic effect (my guitar teacher once told me "if you play with absolute conviction, even out of tune notes sound like you meant it that way").

[neuralfraud]

A very entertaining article and brutally honest. After listening to the songs that were critiqued, in most cases I agree with him... others, well, not so much because it just so happens that I like Death and Pantera, and so in that respect I disagree with him.

The most shocking were the satch and beck comments, and to be honest, he is absolutely right. That satch tune was painful to listen to.

oh and while i'm at it, this just pisses me off:

All he is is speed. Tiresome after about 1:30 minutes. No groove, no rhythm, no feel. I could record myself practicing my runs and then play it back at 8x speed and call it Yngwie.

Get off my lawn!

That is the most utterly and completely full of shit comment I've ever read; IMHO. It's perfectly fine not to like his music; I don't like his music. Yngwie is an amazing musican regardless of who likes his music or not. He's on a level of his own and very few can truly be called "peers".

Some think he's an arrogant douchebag, other's say he's down to earth, nice, whatever. I see both sides and quite frankly I have no problem with Yngwie J. Malmsteen or the guitar he plays.

Jesus H tap-dancing christ, people.

[evil_lil]

I don't really like his albums but his interviews are hilarious... albeit unintentionally

[ashstralia]

i don't believe he'd never heard 'cause we've ended as lovers'.
an outright lie, i tell you!
it's still better than ten of his viking canoodlings™

[Seshmeister]

If Gary Moore is 'sloppy' I don't know where that leaves the rest of us...

[sadaist]

His early work is good time metal.

Trilogy was the last Yngwie album I bought. Last tour I saw as well. Motherfucking SAXON opened up! Blew Yngwie the fuck off the stage. Crusader is one of the baddest mofo metal songs ever.

[Matt White]

LOL I remember that issue.....

THey had Yngwie do that on more than one occassion...he was usually BLASTED out of his mind when doing those reviews.....

I remember Mike McCreedy from Pearl Jam popping off back at him in a letter to the editor! Funny stuff!

People take the guy WAY too seriously.............

[ELVIS]

Dime offers Yngwie a Donut...

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[Panamark]

Donuts...

I can picture that ! He loooks like a donut lover

[ELVIS]

So what was in the baggie you sold him

Donuts...

[Mr Walker]

Yngwie is funny and he's a nice guy too...

I met him and he was a regular guy with big hair, leather pants and sunglasses at night...

This is how Butch Walker described his meeting him in his book. He also said the Y moves very quickly, as if he is always on the run from paparazzi or crazed fans that are nowhere to be seen.

[Panamark]

Yngwie is funny and he's a nice guy too...

I met him and he was a regular guy with big hair, leather pants and sunglasses at night...

So what was in the baggie you sold him

[Panamark]

Another point with Yngwie, he aint that great at riffery, he can play 12 finger harmonic minor runs with absolute precision,
but some metronome perfect riffage, he doesnt have that, but is happy to crtique others .. lol....

[ELVIS]

Yngwie is funny and he's a nice guy too...

I met him and he was a regular guy with big hair, leather pants and sunglasses at night...