Yngwie J. Malmsteen
World on Fire

"Musical stagnation corrodes the artist."

A rule so simple to follow in the musical field, yet never so damnably true. Because while it's true that in the case of bands like AC/DC, this musical stagnation can become a strength, if not the group's hallmark, in most cases it can be summed up in one simple concept: Digging your own grave.

Well, this is the case with Yngwie Malmsteen, or at least the current Malmsteen. I believe that his last real masterpiece or, if you will, listenable album, was "War To End All Wars," but from there on, nothing at all. It now seems that the master of shredder, the author of that masterpiece called "Rising Force," has fallen into a spiral of monotony and boredom, with music devoid of any emotion or inspired passage. Like many bands that ended up reuniting and releasing album after album they said were "as a thank you for the fans' support," but that turned out to be absurdities made only to rake in money, Malmsteen seems to have settled for doing the bare minimum. An album of sometimes well-crafted melodies, this must be said, but which get lost in a succession of notes played haphazardly, as if Malmsteen thought during the composition phase, "I'll play fast, people won't understand my music, and they will applaud me once again."

Egocentrism. This word alone would be enough to describe Malmsteen, who in every album seems to have to bring out a copy of that "Rising Force," but which then turns into a disaster. The cover of "World On Fire" is as simple as it is predictable, with the maestro's demeanor poised to play, but so recycled over the years, that now you can already imagine how the next cover will be.

Empty tracks like the title track, or "Soldier" do not help in trying to at least give a promotion to the album, and faster tracks like "No Rest For The Wicked" make the earlier point about Malmsteen's technical outbursts abundantly clear. As if that weren't enough, tracks like "Sorcery" and "Duf 1220" only repeat the same line of notes ad infinitum, with some interesting arrangements, but which absolutely do not change the final judgment.

I don't think I'm going out on a limb when I say that this "World On Fire" is one of the worst releases of 2016, and also of Malmsteen himself. Being too sure of oneself, egocentrism, vanity, are characteristics that will never produce a good product, that's for sure. And if maybe Malmsteen had learned this concept earlier, we certainly wouldn't be dealing with albums of this caliber today.