THE SEVENTH SIGN

The Seventh Sign, Yngwie Malmsteen's seventh studio album, was a bit of a letdown after the recovery on the previous Fire & Ice. Indeed, it was almost as if this period of his career was literally going up and down with each subsequent album; the close to terrible Eclipse was followed by the very good Fire & Ice which was followed by the present weak album which in turn was followed by the much better Magnum Opus the year after. The Seventh Sign once again saw him turn away from Neo-Classical Metal after returning to it on the previous album. This time around Malmsteen wanted - for the most part - to do rather conventional bluesy (!) Hard Rock. The opening number is alright, but songs like I Don't Know (not the Ozzy Osbourne classic) and Meant To Be set the course for the album. Such straightforward and unoriginal bluesy rockers as the latter two do not fit Malmsteen's style, in my opinion. Power ballads like Forever One and fast-paced "Hair" Metal tunes like Hair Trigger too are unfitting and leave me bored. It is first on Brothers that we get into Neo-Classical territory again which comes as a relief after the first five tracks.

Had the second half of this album been as lackluster as the first half, this album would have been an utter disaster. Thankfully, there is at least one great song on this album: the excellent Pyramid Of Cheops. It has some Egyptian sounds and atmospheres. If there is anything that comes even remotely close to Prog on this album it is in this song. Also the nice acoustic closing number Sorrow saves some face. Crash And Burn is a typical Neo-Classical Metal song, nothing too special but outshines the tracks on side one. The ballad Prisoner Of Your Love too is a decent song despite the cheesy title and lyrics. Michael Vescera handles the vocals here for the first time and he does a good job on the better songs.

A weak album overall, but with a few brighter moments towards the end

Share this YNGWIE MALMSTEEN review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to SouthSideoftheSky
• Report this review (#544583)
• Buy YNGWIE MALMSTEEN music online with PA partners
• Show all YNGWIE MALMSTEEN MP3/Stream
• Go to YNGWIE MALMSTEEN page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to The Seventh Sign page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for YNGWIE MALMSTEEN related discussions