Guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen has announced a new album titled Hell or High Water, due out November 13 via Music Theories Recordings / Artone Label Group.
The new LP comes roughly five years after his previous album, Parabellum, making it his longest gap between studio records in his oer 40-year career career thus far.
“Now or Never,” the lead single for Hell or High Water, is a classic Yngwie neo-classical metal ripper. It’s surprisingly tame in terms of tempo, feeling spritely and playful rather than perhaps the expected absolute shredfest. Instead, it’s keenly melodic with a taut heavy metal riff underpinning it and great vocals from the legendary guitarist. The song of course still does contain some wild shred sections, but are delivered with tasteful ferocity, the same kind that made guitarists obsess over him during his early days with Steeler and Alcatrazz.
Malmsteen said of his upcoming album, “When I started making records, I would just take the songs I had lying around. Later on, I fell into a schedule – make a record, tour the record and then write the next record. Over the pandemic, I realised it was better to focus completely uninterrupted, so I stayed at home to write this album over the course of eight months. I had around 80 or 90 tracks finished, and then I had to decide which ones were the strongest.”
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The album also features a closing track titled “Father,” written in honor of Malmsteen’s dad, who passed away just last year.
“He was an amazing man,” remembers Yngwie. “I was proud to have him as a father, and I loved him. I wanted to dedicate all of this to him, and that one particular track is for him. I wanted others to feel what I felt when they hear it. Nicola Paganini once said, ‘One must feel strongly in order to make others feel strongly’. It’s one thing to be a typewriter and another thing to be someone who writes stories that can touch people. That was always the point.”
Watch the music video for “Now or Never” and see the album art and tracklist for Hell or High Water below. Pre-order the album here.
Hell or High Water Artwork:
Hell or High Water Tracklist:
01. Now Or Never
02. Am Caprice/Hell Or High Water
03. (He Is) Living A Lie
04. Antikythera
05. (On The) Battlefield
06. Beyond Zeta Reticuli
07. Prestissimo In Bm/Adagio
08. Eye For An Eye
09. Father