THE SEVENTH SIGN

The great Pyramid Of Cheops

The Seventh Sign, Yngwie Malmsteen's seventh studio album, was a bit of a letdown after the recovery on the previous Fire & Ice. Indeed, it was almost as if this period of his career was literally going up and down with each subsequent album; the close to terrible Eclipse was followed by the very good Fire & Ice which was followed by the present weak album which in turn was followed by the much better Magnum Opus the year after. The Seventh Sign once again saw him turn away from Neo-Classical Metal after returning to it on the previous album. This time around Malmsteen wanted - for the most part - to do rather conventional bluesy (!) Hard Rock. The opening number is alright, but songs like I Don't Know (not the Ozzy Osbourne classic) and Meant To Be set the course for the album. Such straightforward and unoriginal bluesy rockers as the latter two do not fit Malmsteen's style, in my opinion. Power ballads like Forever One and fast-paced "Hair" Metal tunes like Hair Trigger too are unfitting and leave me bored. It is first on Brothers that we get into Neo-Classical territory again which comes as a relief after the first five tracks.

Had the second half of this album been as lackluster as the first half, this album would have been an utter disaster. Thankfully, there is at least one great song on this album: the excellent Pyramid Of Cheops. It has some Egyptian sounds and atmospheres. If there is anything that comes even remotely close to Prog on this album it is in this song. Also the nice acoustic closing number Sorrow saves some face. Crash And Burn is a typical Neo-Classical Metal song, nothing too special but outshines the tracks on side one. The ballad Prisoner Of Your Love too is a decent song despite the cheesy title and lyrics. Michael Vescera handles the vocals here for the first time and he does a good job on the better songs.

A weak album overall, but with a few brighter moments towards the end

"The Seventh Sign" is the 7th full-length studio album by Swedish heavy metal/power metal artist Yngwie J. Malmsteen. The album was released through Pony Canyon in May 1994. After releasing what is arguably one of his weakest albums in "Fire and Ice (1992)", Yngwie was in a situation where he had to prove himself again and he certainly delivers a bounce back album with "The Seventh Sign".

...not all is perfect on "The Seventh Sign", but the album features some of Yngwie J. Malmsteen´s most kickass material in the opening power metal "fist in your face" type track "Never Die", the beautiful neo-classical (with a slight springle of the blues) instrumental "Brothers" and the epic power metal title track. The bluesy, hard rocking and funky "I Don´t Know", which reminds me quite a lot of Extreme (the band), is also a nice surprise. The album ends on a high note with the brick heavy "Pyramid of Cheops", the neo-classical themed power metal track "Crash and Burn" and the short and beautiful instrumental "Sorrow". The rest of the material is a bit up and down in quality (with the lowpoint being the saccarine power ballad "Prisoner of Your Love") but the brilliant musicianship, strong vocals by Michael Vescera and a powerful, clean sound production make "The Seventh Sign" an overall very enjoyable listening experience. Even the least memorable or least interesting tracks feature guitar licks and amazing solo work by Yngwie that save the day.

Everyone knows that Yngwie is one of the fastest guitar players, or maybe even THE fastest guitar player, in the world, but not all mention how much feeling he actually puts into the notes he plays. As a child, before venturing into the world of neo-classical heavy metal/power metal, Yngwie played the blues, and it´s audible. His love for Paganini is also very obvious with the high pitched notes that follow fast shredding runs and the combination of his different influences works like a charm when he plays solos (listening to the solo in "Never Die" is a jaw-dropping experience every time). It´s too bad that the core of his music sometimes comes off as a generic Rainbow/Deep Purple clone, but no one should take away from him how talented he is when playing a guitar.

It´s not all Yngwie J. Malmsteen´s albums that I would call worthy purchases but "The Seventh Sign" is definitely one of his better albums and certainly worth a purchase. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is warranted.