Rising Force

It was 1984. Me and my friends were very into metal bands from USA at the time. We were following the glam bands mainly but we used to love bands like Metallica and Anthrax too. Those were the hair metal days! One of my friends one day told me "I heard an album from a great swedish rock guitarist is coming out and it will be ALL guitar solos". I perfectly remember that I said "what a bore this album should be, ALL guitar solos?!" Then Rising force came out and it was a shock. Because the very first time I put it on the intensity of the music, Yngwie's completly innovative musical personality and blazing virtuosity, his impressive musicality (that was something absolutly new and unique!) completly blew me away. At the time Yngwie exploded onto the scene and he became a huge star overnight. In those days Van Halen was the guy everyone tried to emulate in the rock context but Yngwie showed a completly different way of playing the guitar being as good as Eddie. He showed there was a way to sound different from Van Halen being at the same level! It was sensational! His classic minor runs, his classical music quotes, played with sincerity and attitude, his unbelievable blues-Hendrix chops, the epic flavour of his music made him unique and totally devastating! He was recognizable from the very first note (and still he is of course). One of the most difficult and important things for a musician! I can't forget that I completly fell in love with Yngwie, he seemed to me the most virtuosistic player ever! And I really loved his music! I listened to this album over and over, I did buy the VHS of his concert in Japan (if I remember well it was a japanese concert) and I played it a million times. It was amazing to see this guy from the old and dusty Europe coming out with something so fantastic, so fresh, so unique, with an attitude SO BAD and so proud of his european roots! An european who was able to be a serious pretender to the world's best guitarist crown! Wow! And this album was only the first! I thought "wow if this is only his first album what will he do in the future!?". And luckly Yngwie produced a lot of very good album in the years that followed, but not legendary as this one. This one to me is legendary as "Van Halen 1". It is completly different of course but it is equally beautiful and it is together with it, one of the most important guitar album of all time. ABSOLUTLY! No doubt about it. After this one Yngwie has been copied thousands of times by thousands of players all over the world. Now his music may sound repetitive, maybe he is out of ideas, but I don't forget that he is one of the most fantastic musicians this our instrument, the guitar, had the privilege to have in its team. With this album a force was really rising, it was Yngwie! Thank you for the inspiration Yngwie J. Malmsteen!

This album is about as groundbreaking as it gets. I was never particularly (still not) "into" shred metal when I first heard about how great Yngwie was from my younger brother back in 1985. I was 20 at the time and much more interested in Jimi Hendrix, Robin Trower, Tony Iommi, VH, all kinds of stuff but I'd never heard of Yngwie. I was also a budding student guitar player. Well I finally broke down and bought this album on vinyl a year later. Wow, this guy was almost too good. Great tone!! Killer sounding and very Stratty, this guy really knew how to best exploit the awesome sounds a stock Fender Stratocaster is capable of. Yes his guitars had scalloped fretboards and noise eliminating Dimarzio pickups but it still sounded like a Stratocaster straight into a Marshall stack to me. And the songs and the lightening fast runs were and are a thing of wonder. It could be said that Yngwie threw down the gauntlet with this first solo album. Now what do gauntlet throw downs usually do? Well in this case three things, 1) a challenge either by other guitarists to try to show they're just as good or better or a challenge by people who are jealous and lame and find it easy to attack the works of others yet they don't have their own works to demonstrate their superiority with. 2), People hear the work and are immediately impressed and know they're hearing something masterful and 3) budding guitarists (like yours truly) are inspired to pick up the guitar again and start listening to more classical music to hear where it all came from. Don't get where all the hate comes from, it's just music people. If the music doesn't appeal to you then don't buy it and don't complain about it. There's lots of music I'm not fond of particularly but I dont go out of my way to find and bash. Heck, one idiot compared what Yngwie does to what Stevie Wonder did. Really?? I love both artists but to create a pi$$ing contest between them shows complete ignorance. The most often heard complaint is a lack of melody. Really? You people are screwed up, go away. Yngwie isn't wasting his time listening to you fools thankfully and has stuck to his guns and kept on the same path he created for himself and his loyal listeners to enjoy. Oh yeah, that vinyl copy of this album I bought 28yrs ago? I dusted it off on my Nitty Gritty machine and gave it a spin and it's just colossal sounding. Blows the CD away I'm afraid but the CD is still awesome. If you only ever buy one single Yngwie recording this is the ONE!!

Gr8 album!! The 1 that started it all!!! Delivered on time, & in gr8 shape!! CD itself is like new condition..

The CD arrived in on time and in great condition, no cracked jewel case as is often how I receive any CD's ordered online. It's been a long time since I listened to this Yngwie Malmsteen's solo effort and I instantly felt like I was teleported back in time to 1985. Rising Force is the first solo album by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, released in late 1984 through Polydor Records. This was originally planned as an instrumental side-project of his then-current band Alcatrazz, but due to singer Jeff Scott Soto's appearance on the album, Malmsteen opted to release it as a solo album. Even though it's been over 30 years Yngwie was definitely a pioneer in the style of shred guitar playing that is called "Bach Rock!"

Top bit rate that I was able to rip using iTunes was around 900. I had to order twice, because the first CD fulfilled and sent by Amazon came in a cracked and crushed CD case. The second one came with the inside ring that snaps into the center hole of the CD half-way broken. Luckily the CD wasn't damaged. I bought the CD for the top three songs on the album. The rest don't really have much rythm or feeling to them, they're just really fast guitar playing. It's more a show of Malmsteen's speed, and lack of musical creativity/talent.

A minor masterpiece. Malmsteen fuses Blackmore with Al DiMeola and his own otherworldly technique, and creates this killer blend of (mostly instrumental) classical, fusion and metal. Some say it's self-indulgent, but I believe it comes together beautifully. The precision on many of these pieces is remarkable, but the backing musicians are up to it. The music has a generally high sense of drama, tension and release, and like the very best albums clocks is at about 40 minutes, not overstaying its welcome. Just a great CD if you like music, as opposed to songs. Yngwie did some good stuff in the following years, but nothing quite as remarkable as this.

I bought this on cassette back in the mid-80s after hearing it while shopping in a record store. As I gradually switched to CDs, my cassettes became more or less forgotten. I remembered how much I liked this at the time and so ordered it here on CD. This is one of those albums which sound as good today as when I first heard it. I'm pretty picky when it comes to heavy metal but Malmsteen's Viking metal shows a heavy symphonic influence. Rather than mere hellish din, Malmsteen's play evokes the heroic traditions of the Norse gods of old as he storms the gates of a musical Valhalla. It makes great companion music to reading the Nibelungenlied or the Heimskringla. Malmsteen's fingers frantically tear out notes as the hard-charging music hypnotizes the listener with its Satanic fury. The few vocals fit the style. My favorite cuts are the frenetic Black Star and the majestic Icarus' Dream Suite which starts out slowly, builds to a demonic crescendo , then eases off in the classical epic tradition. If you like fast-paced guitar, are a metal-head, or your musical tastes are just wide-ranging, then you are sure to like Malmsteen's classically flavored guitar heroics as presented here.

I can't explain the influence that this album had on me as guitarist. By now most everyone is familiar with it and it seems a shame that this album seems to be almost forgotten. This is mostly instrumental music and it's of a very high caliber. Songs like "Black Star", "Far Beyond The Sun", "Little Savage", "Icarus: Dream Suite", "Evil Eye" are just great songs brilliantly played. These were songs that inspired me to practice and I remember them for that. It says something that Yngwie still covers many of these in concert to this very day. Find a concert video without "Black Star" or "Far Beyond The Sun".

His best album.

Primer álbum del artista, con el cual debió sorprender a propios y extraños por su particular modo de tocar la guitarra. Genial se le vea por donde se le vea.

One of the most impressive guitar records of all time.

What an album by one of the greatest guitarists

Bij het kopen van dit album kreeg ik een verkeerde album binnen van een hele andere artiest, vervolgens is door Amazon direct gratis de juiste toegezonden! Top service. Over het product: dit is een legendarische Malmsteen album. Een must have!