Yngwie Malmsteen
The Seventh Sign

We are now fully immersed in the 1990s scenario, the glories of the previous decade seem decidedly distant. Meanwhile, many things have changed. After the severe accident in 1987, many would have bet on the end of the Swede's career, who, having completed the long and famous tour in Russia, decided to radically change his future.

There begin to appear continuous line-up changes, including the departure of the Johansonn brothers and the approach to sounds on the edge of Glam; it will indeed be "Eclipse" to initiate a decade marked by uncertainty and artistic disorientation and to decree another significant break with the past: the contract termination by the record label that had always believed in his talent, the famous Polydor. In fact, Malmsteen managed to react in the best possible way to a series of truly unfortunate events, and he did so through the most congenial channel, the musical one: already the following "Fire and Ice" signals a clear recovery, of a newfound balance and the expression of an artistic flair anything but extinguished, but it is certainly "The Seventh Sign" that at both a compositional and commercial level proves to be of greater impact.

Another band, with a new singer, Mike Vescera, another new record label (because the connection with Electra lasted very little), and other sounds. It almost feels like a dive into the past, precisely to 1985, the year "Marching Out" was released, and indeed the analogies exist but not so evident: in this new work, Yngwie also wants to explore other paths, embracing blues tones, as in the case of "I don't know" and "Bad Blood", or more typically melodic as in "Forever one", an extraordinary ballad dedicated to his beautiful ex-wife Amberdawn (don't worry, he replaced her with someone equally stunning!) and "Prisoner of your love", where at times it almost seems to recover those blackmorian reminiscences of the early Alcatrazz combining them with those typically classical borrowed from J.S. Bach. Not forgetting more effervescent and powerful tracks like "Never Die", "Crash and Burn", and the classical "Seventh Sign", these relate to the epic trend of "Marching out" and the introduction of an extraordinary solo piece, titled "Brother", which demonstrates, once again, to everyone, that he is not just a technical phenomenon, but also and above all a true artist in his instrument, capable of prioritizing melody over mere speed for its own sake.

That same melody we also find in "Sorrow", a short instrumental acoustic track that concludes the album, sending a clear message to the audience and fans: Malmsteen is here, he is back and is still capable of truly stirring emotions, with a work that deserves a solid 4.5 and stands, by right, among the best of his career.