Classic Rock, Genre, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal

Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force – Marching Out (Review)

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Check this shit!

Guitar magazines would have you believe that Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force was THE ONE, which is fair enough given its classic feats of guitar mastery like Black Star and Icarus Dream Suite Op. 4. Those are rightfully legendary instrumentals and justify the album’s status as a guitar classic. But Yngwie’s debut fell down a bit on the actual song front and the band’s stiff delivery of the vocal numbers. If you’re actually just wanting a fuck-off classic METAL record, follow-up Marching Out is the music of the Gods.

Guitar fanatics needn’t worry, there’s still plenty of heroic guitar acrobatics from Yngwie but the whole band ups their game here. Fleet-fingered keyboardist Jens Johansson gives God’s guitar teacher a right run for his money on the widdle front and the whole band is more driving, less ploddy than on the debut. But the star here is Jeff Scott Soto. He totally finds his voice on this. His passionate delivery on tracks like Soldier Without Faith and I Am a Viking is absolutely infectious. Try not to join in, tankard raised, with the chorus to Anguish and Fear. You can’t. Not if you’ve got blood in your veins. I am a Viking, I’ll walk all over you. Triumphant, warfaring power metal. That’s what I’m talking about!

74 thoughts on “Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force – Marching Out (Review)”

      2. I especially liked a story about him turning up to a guitar mag’s offices for a photo shot in a Ferrari, wearing leather trousers, frilly shirt, aviator shades, all his bling etc… and asking if they minded that he was just “cazh”.

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    4. Hahahah….yeah. Plus…”pillaging” reminds me of a Yngwie shirt my little brothers bought me for a x-mas gift. It had the Rising Force lady of the lake of fire hand you and me the “duck” on the front side and the rear was the tour dates and ….wait for it…”Hide the Women and Children tour”. Kinda weird now that I think about that children inclusion…better fact check this too.

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  9. Slick review! I recall back in 1985 ish or so Yngwie on this album opened for ACDC (Fly On The Wall Tour) in Toronto and a Highschool buddy of mine(Pizza Thief) attended. Remember him saying that during Yngwies set you would and see a singer and than he would be gone as Yngwie went into guitar heroics and the singer would return 5 minutes later! Hahaha…
    Pizza Thief said Yngwie was wild and good on Angus letting a guy like this open for them….

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    1. The singer should have done a Gillan and got himself some bongos! Pretty odd choice as an AC/DC opener for sure. Never seen Yngwie… he’s only came here once that I know of in recent years. But it was too expensive and I didn’t know enough of his recent stuff.

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    2. Yeah, Who Made Who? I remember cutting out that tour’s promotion and thinking it’d be a firey concert. I read that Yngwie was like…”What am I going to learn from watching Angus Young…” and I think that was a hint of me learning about him, his personality, his art. My collection at that point was 3 Yngwies to one For Those About to Rock.

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      2. Oh, the ratio in 2016 is 0-0 Yngwie – AC/DC. Steeler through Odyessy was plenty of YJ(F)M for me. I generally cherry pick songs now as needed. I only had FTATR…Fire! I’d head into Bon Scott territory next time I got an itch for the switch. If I was analyzing my listening habit, I’d say I felt too much repetition discovered=left their catalogue. Also, I dig their fire if really want it, but there’s hungrier artist making more compelling fuel for me time. Something like that is the score, for me. Nice Bonfire book you had in you photo’d shelf here in the posts, Scott.

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      3. Haha at YJ(F)M! Bonfire is a box set actually. Great set, lots of unreleased Bon stuff on that. But I’m with you I don’t find AC/DC all that compelling any more. I rarely even go back to the old stuff.

        I’ve not followed Yngwie beyond Eclipse… when was that about 1990? I’ve definitely got more AC/DC than Yngwie but the Yng gets way more plays these days.

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  10. “Remember him saying that during Yngwies set you would and see a singer and than he would be gone as Yngwie went into guitar heroics and the singer would return 5 minutes later! Hahaha…”

    There is a Mojo interview where Blackmore (by the way, I have tickets to the shows in June with the reborn Rainbow) claims that the real inventor of the extended guitar solo is—Ian Gillan. During a standard guitar solo, Gillan crawled under Jon Lord’s grand piano in order to get a blow job from a groupie. When the solo was finished, Gillan hadn’t, and signaled to Ritchie from underneath the piano to stretch it out (the solo, that is) a bit. Those were the days!

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  11. Yeah, Rainbow Born Again…should be interesting. Hey two cents: Caught In The Middle came hard to me in my art making, thinking, facing your demons…type moment for me, this week. Yeah, I down loaded the Marching track from itunes and rocked it hard with Holy Diver’s(Dio) Caught In the Middle, too. Interesting to me because I just caught the Dio backstory on the comments of an extended version of the album as I was clouding on a Turkish Air flight weeks ago. But, fuck, I love both those tracks. Just terrfic. Two different minor stories in meta albums, for my listening. So kinda coincidental you reviewed Marching Out. (All read it tonight, I just jumped into the comments; ) Second cents… I think it was Dio circa Rainbow or maybe a Gillan interview I read talking about how when Ritchie Blackmore went into a solo, in a song, “it was his moment to make a sculpture in the air…” – relative to the song, of course. Anyway, the idea of air sculpting pressed nice buttons in me, I guess. I’ll have to think about that more and why, but just like that thinking, man!

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    1. Oh, I should add, I was attracted to Yngwie’s Caught In The Middle because in my creative process and limitations, I felt stuck in painting. To me he and Jeff Scott Soto are fucking Alexander’s sword solving the Gordian Knot. Breathe…aaah.. ok, back to work. Nice review and comments here!

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    2. The Dio/Rainbow/Malmsteen connection is huge on this album definitely. It’s got that same spirit for sure. Have you heard King Crimson’s Indiscipline? That’s a great song about the artistic process. The singers wife was describing (I think) a sculpture she was working on and he turned into the songs. It’s fantastic.

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      1. That sounds really interesting. I’ll look in to that. I only know 3 by KC. I keep meaning to look into them more so I’ll start with Indiscipline. Wow, yeah…discipline is essential…that should be a great discovery. Thanks Scott.

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  12. No love for “On The Run Again” and “Don’t Let It End”.

    Come on… I know that all of you like those songs. Sure they sound like pop rock songs, but they got that Euro Metal vibe happening.

    How can you not press play on those songs?

    That outro, with the harmony melodic line from Malmsteen and JSS singing, “On The Run Again” over and over, is brilliant.

    That’s it, i’m off to Spotify and pressing play.

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    1. I’m with you, I love the whole album. And I enjoyed that Euro Metal/Pop combo on later albums like Odyssey and Eclipse too.

      My only gripe is maybe the falsetto in Don’t Let It End… that makes me wince a little. Reminds me a bit of Journey that songs actually. I can imagine Steve Perry singing it.

      But yeah, I didn’t mention every song here but the whole album’s a keeper.

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    2. Yeah, with you hole hearted on those tracks too. The album is solid and hot blooded for me. I want a spin with MA this week. JSS didn’t get much press at the time, as I remember it, but I hear his voice by memory recall. Yeah, whole band was aggressively engaged and that cooperation is great to hear in comparison to RF. I wanna hear that outro harmony melodic line. Cool highlight.

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  13. Great stuff. ‘Black Star’ totally turned my ear when I first heard it in the late ’80s and I’ve loved Yngwie’s playing since. ‘Icarus Dream Suite’ also is the business. I saw him live at Dingwalls in London in the mid-’90s, he smashed his Strat, chucked it into the crowd and it hit the soundboard about 10 metres behind me! Then the singer started picking a fight with someone in the crowd. Good days, good days…

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      1. Yeah it was hilarious. There was then a mini-riot in the venue and I believe there might even have been a lawsuit involved! No, haven’t seen him live since then, I don’t really want to tarnish the memory! I haven’t checked in with his music since a friend gave me ‘Eclipse’ back in the day. There were a few decent tracks but it was all getting a little bit commercial for me. I’m sure there are other hidden classics since then though. Any other instrumental works you’d recommend?

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      2. It sounds like a total riot. I think I’d have stayed away after that too, it could only go downhill from there!

        I went back to Eclipse lately and it’s aged pretty well. Definitely more commercial but a lot of great Euro-rockers on that. And a good singer.

        Doubt I’ve got an recommends you wouldn’t already know. Was never a big fan of the instrumental guitarists like Satriani, Vai etc… Yngwie much more up my street than them. I tend to be more into instrumentals from prog bands like King Crimson or Yes. Or jamming bands like Deep Purple and The Allmans.

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  15. I also love this God-spawned album. I agree that the first five — Rising Force thru Eclipse — are Yngwie a’plenty for all but the most adamant completists, but I would unsheath my steel against anyone foolish enough to try and force me to part with any of them. That said, I would likewise have to cite this one as the fuck-off triumphant pinnacle. I saw a then newly-in-shape Yngwie in concert in ’06 — with Doogie White doing the singing bits in between the guitar warfaring — and the one song marched out from Marching Out, “I’ll See the Light, Tonight,” was a glorious highlight.

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    1. I think the first five are all essential… and they’ve all got their own thing going on too. Each one is a progression.

      I’m going to hit you up again… any of his later albums you’d especially recommend? I’ve got some that my brother gave me but I’ve never bothered much with them!

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      1. I am a sucker for Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra but am hesitant to recommend it. It is about as pompous a wankfest as have ever been pressed to vinyl, but I love it whole heartedly — the 2002 DVD version with the New Japan Philharmonic is pure can’t-look-away car accident glory. No one can accuse Yngwie of not “meaning it.”

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  16. Pingback: Yngwie Malmsteen – Eclipse (Review) | HEAVY METAL OVERLOAD

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