RISING FORCE

In the early 90's a cousin who had 15 years and was a Metal Head, asked me to listen this album, being used as I was to his loud and insane albums with lots of shredding. accepted the cassette and placed it in the old (but faithful) Pioneer K-500 from my car, ..........What a tremendous surprise I had, the music was excellent and captivated me from the start, surely we are not talking about a 100% Prog artist, but YNGWIE MALMSTEEN deserved a place in Prog Related for a long time.

"Rising Force" begins with the amazing "Black Star", a track that combines the skills of Yngwie with the distorted guitar and a fantastic melody with clear Baroque leanings. It's true that he goes a bit too far with the guitar solos, but the melody is simply spectacular.

"Far Beyond the Sun" is even better, Malmsteen embraces more the Metal aspect of his music but the guy is extremely careful of maintaining a good melody, the interplay between keyboards, bass and drums with the guitar leading the band is fantastic, but what surprised me more in the 90's is the clear Symphonic structure, I felt like a kid with a new toy.

"Now Your Ships are Burned" has a plus in the vocals, because Jeff Scott Soto adds the energy required but not going too far with growls and disgusting sounds. Even when the keys are a good complement, the star is Yngwie with his guitar. The Blues oriented solo is delightful.

"Evil Eye" starts with a beautiful and soft Baroque guitar intro, but suddenly this guys hit us with all they have, creating some sort of Flamenco oriented melody with drums and keyboards, again virtuosity of Malmsteen is more than evident,.

"Icarus Dream Suite" is supposed to be "La Piece de Resistance" and all the praises are not enough, the song is so dramatic that almost seems painful, loved it from start to end, because they manage to keep the aggression in control, making it even more nostalgic with the guitar interruptions.

"As Above, So Bellow" starts with a Bach like organ intro, mysterious and almost religious, but suddenly changes into a fluid but frenetic song with excellent vocals a classic of the band that leans to the less inspired "Little Savage" which is not bad but the first chance of Malmsteen to focus in plain metal leaving the Prog elements behind.

The album ends with the beautiful "Farewell", a track that closes the album with a soft and beautiful guitar performance.

I can't understand why Malmsteen wasn't added before, being that at least this album is a true masterpiece that I'm going to rate with 5 stars (despite the guidelines), being that I find it flawless and essential for people who want to understand the connection between Symphonic and Metal.

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