Album Review: Yngwie Malmsteen – Hell Or High Water
Music Theories Recordings – November 13th, 2026
Reviewer – David Mark Pearce
This is the best sounding album sonically and vocally that Yngwie has done since he started singing on his albums.
I realise that to many that’s a pretty low bar but this album is way above that!
Would I love an actual singer as many would call it, ie a return for Turner, Boals, Soto, Edman etc, yes of course I would, but we all know thats not going to happen, so we get on with the matter at hand, and thats Yngwie’s new album. 9 songs that are designed to fit on to a vinyl album and I admire that I think, because like me, and many others like me, Yngwie still prefers the good ol’ days? Regardless we have here a highly enjoyable album that showcases everything Yngwie is and that will do for me. He’s my favourite guitarist so you’d think in my eyes he can do no wrong? Well, I’ve not enjoyed some of his releases over the last few years, but I’m very pleased to say that it seems he’s paid a lot more attention to things on this album.
Like I said sonically it sounds a lot better than previous releases. The overall mix is better, its a lot clearer, the bass is a lot more present in the mix and although his guitar playing speaks for itself his past vocals haven’t, but they sound a damn sight better here, so I’d say he’s really been putting the work in on those as well.
Also the songs are better and so are his riffs. Maybe he’s gone back over his catalogue and realised he needed to write some catchier songs? Seriously though, I think his more focused approach began with his last album ‘Parabellum‘ (review here), which he wrote over the Covid period, and because that was so successful in his focus he repeated the process here where he was at home, a place he could concentrate and wasn’t on the album/tour rinse and repeat schedule. But whatever the process, I think on this album especially, it really works!
There’s a really nice pace to this album and a great mix of vocal and instrumental songs, so if the vocals are still not or you then there’s plenty off soloing on offer, I mean c’mon its an Yngwie album after all!
And speaking of instrumentals, the very last song on the album, ‘Father’, is a tribute to his late father who passed away a short time ago, and it is a beautiful tribute, and a fitting way to close out a really good album!
Track List:
- Now or Never
- Am Caprice/Hell Or High Water
- (He Is) Living A Lie
- Antikythera
- (On The) Battlefield
- Beyond Zeta Reticuli
- Prestissimo In Bm/Adagio
- Eye For An Eye
- Father
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