Anyway one thing occurred to me a while ago when one of my biggest influences and heroes, Mr Yngwie Malmsteen, released his new album “World On Fire” on which he performs the vocals himself (and the bass and some of the keyboards and also the production). I had the same reaction when I heard about this as so many others, and when I listened to it the reaction remained the same, I was like, what the f*** is he doing?! (Yes, I know I 'm kind of doing the same thing, but we’re talking about Yngwie f***ing Malmsteen here.) He could easily bring in some killer, top musicians into his band, why doesn’t he do that? Why doesn’t he let a producer (or/and an engineer, I don’t know) in so it all would sound better? And why doesn’t he bring in a killer vocalist to do the vocals, as he has always done?! and I saw so many similar reactions out there on social medias at the time. Then some weeks later I felt maybe I should listen to the album a second time, give it a real fair shot, and I did and I thought, well it doesn’t really sound that bad, and he has done everything himself, the work of one highly talented musician, if you ask me. And why shouldn’t he get to do that if he wants to? He’s done it the other way enough of times already and hasn’t he earned the right to do exactly what he wants? I mean he has made a handful of records (the first 5-6 if you ask me) that are up there at the very all-time top, done so much for hard rock/heavy metal music and not to mention the guitar playing, changed the whole thing and influenced everyone in a way or another, whether they admit it or not. He is the only real rockstar coming out of Sweden, so hasn’t he earned to do whatever he wants with his art? I mean if nothing else, this keeps him and what he does pure and real, which obviously is very rare these days.
And no, “The World On Fire” and “The Book Of Souls” isn’t “Marching Out” and “The Number Of The Beast”, the material nor the performance don’t even come close, but bear in mind we’re comparing them with real top masterpieces here. This is now and they’re still doing it and what is wrong if they are happy doing it and even having fun doing it? I mean, if you don’t like it, don’t listen to it. You can go and see them live, because they still entertain the socks out of most newer bands, that goes for both examples above, and if you don’t want to see them live either, don’t. Just remember that what they’ve done doesn’t disappear or change by them doing what they do now. This off course goes for many other bands and artists who’s still enjoying making new music (and maybe aren’t doing it entirely for the money).
Peace.
/ PM