Review: Yngwie Malmsteen – Tokyo Live
Music Theories Recordings (April 25th, 2025)
Reviewer – David Mark Pearce
PLAY IT LOUD!
LESS IS MORE – NO, MORE IS MORE!
YNGWIE WHO? YNGWIE FUCKING MALMSTEEN THATS WHO!
………. are just some of the yngwie’ism’s that come to mind especially when you get to review an album by, arguably, my favourite ever guitarist!
This is a double live album and you certainly get your moneys worth with a career spanning 30 tracks on offer!
Now I know Yngwie certainly divides opinion but if there was a Mount Rushmore for guitarists then he would certainly deserve his place right besides Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen and I dunno who else? I’ll leave the coveted 4th place up to you out there in debate land.
I think they changed the course of guitar playing for a legion of fans to follow because when they emerged it caused a tectonic shift and swept away all that came before and I feel Yngwie certainly did that when he hit the states many years ago!
Anyway, vocally Yngwie and his keyboard player Nick Marino handles vocals throughout. Now this definitely throws up one or two bones of contention because Yngwie isn’t a singers singer and I, like many others thought it wasn’t one of his better ideas for him to start singing. But you know what, he handles the vocals here pretty well, and Nick certainly does well with the more higher register songs. Sure they’re not Joe, Goran, Jeff, Mark etc etc but it’s good enough!
That aside, the rest of his band comprises of bassist Emily Martinez, drummer Kevin Klingenschid do a great job handling the complexity and power required from his back catalogue!
I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this album but I really got in to this and really enjoyed it!
Amongst the songs on offer you’ve got classics such as ‘Rising Force‘, Now your ships are burned, Far beyond the sun and the mighty ‘Black Star‘ and newer material such as ‘Relentless Fury‘, ‘Wolves At The Door‘ and ‘Vengeance‘ which is preceded by ‘Trilogy‘!
Yngwie‘s playing here is great, I mean what the hell do you say that hasn’t been said a million times before! I love the guys playing, always have, always will! Speed, ferocity and a tonne of feel, yes kids, he has that too in abundance!
With the CD there is the included Blu-Ray of the concert, so for something in the region of £20 ish that’s plenty of bang for buck!
So like the man said ‘Play it loud’ and if you’re still not sure who he is then it’s ‘Yngwie FKN Malmsteen‘ – that’s who!
Oh and am I biased when it comes to my opinions about Yngwie then yup, I sure am!
Tracklist:
CD1
1. Rising Force (Live)
2. Top Down Foot Down (Live)
3. No Rest For The Wicked (Live)
4. Soldier (Live)
5. Into Valhalla (Live)
6. Baroque & Roll (Live)
7. Like An Angel (Live)
8. Relentless Fury (Live)
9. Now Your Ships Are Burned (Live)
10. Wolves At The Door (Live)
11. Hiroshima Mon Amour (Live)
12. (Si Vis Pacem) Parabellum (Live)
13. Badinere (Live)
14. Paganini’s 4th (Live)
15. Adagio (Live)
16. Far Beyond The Sun (Live)
17. Arpeggios From Hell (Live)
CD2
1. Seventh Sign (Live)
2. Toccata (Live)
3. Evil Eye (Live)
4. Smoke On The Water (Live)
5. Trilogy-Vengeance (Live)
6. Cadenza 1 (Live)
7. Brothers (Live)
8. Fugue (Live)
9. Cadenza 2 – Grand Finale (Live)
10. You Don’t Remember I’ll Never Forget (Live)
11. Acoustic Cadenza (Live)
12. Black Star (Live)
13. I’ll See The Light Tonight (Live)
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