Jeremy Amend has been picking 90s deep cuts for us for years. This time he crossed the aisle into 80s metal and brought Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force, the record that turned neoclassical shred from a rumor into a genre. It is the album that made “guitar virtuoso” a viable solo career, not a backup gig. Want to bring YOUR favorite lost album to the table? Suggest it for a future episode or community poll at
Why did a nineteen year old singer end up fronting a guitarist who barely wanted him there?
A Swede Named Lars Who Became Yngwie
The man behind Rising Force was not born Yngwie Malmsteen. He entered the world in Stockholm in 1963 as Lars Johan Yngwie Lannerbäck, and only started using his maternal grandmother’s maiden name, Malmsteen, after his mother reverted to it. By the time he recorded this debut, he had already logged time in Steeler and Alcatraz, restless stints where he was, in essence, a hired gun waiting to become the boss. Rising Force is the sound of him finally getting the whole show to himself, no band name out front, just his own name and a mostly instrumental record built entirely on his terms.
Neoclassical Shred, Before It Had a Name
This album is credited with crystallizing neoclassical metal into an actual movement rather than a scattered influence. Guitarists like Ritchie Blackmore and Uli Jon Roth had flirted with classical phrasing in the 70s, but Rising Force is where that idea became a concrete genre, one built on scales, arpeggios, and structure borrowed straight from Bach and Vivaldi rather than blues. It effectively split 80s guitar playing into two camps, the Eddie Van Halen school and the Yngwie Malmsteen school, occupying opposite ends of a spectrum that most metal guitarists since have had to define themselves against. That fork in the road opened the door for the entire Shrapnel Records roster and eventually launched players like Steve Vai and Joe Satriani into wider recognition.
The Nineteen Year Old Voice on the Record
The two vocal tracks on the album feature Jeff Scott Soto, who was around nineteen at the time and went on to a genuinely wild resume: a short run with Journey, sessions for Lita Ford and Stryper, and vocals for the fictional band Steel Dragon in the film Rockstar. Soto returns for the 1985 follow-up, Marching Out, and by most accounts the band figured out how to actually build songs around his voice by that second record. Here, the vocals feel closer to an afterthought layered onto guitar-first compositions, which is part of why some longtime fans consider this the purer statement of who Malmsteen actually is as an artist.
Restraint, Then Release
What sets Rising Force apart from a lot of shred-guitar records is the production. The guitar tone carries far less overdrive than Malmsteen’s later work, closer to a classic rock or Jimi Hendrix-influenced sound than a typical mid-80s metal record, and the drums have a loose, roomy feel rather than a tight, triggered attack. That restraint matters because it makes the moments where the playing does explode, tracks like “Black Star” and “Evil Eye,” land harder. Rather than following a standard verse-chorus rock structure, songs like the eight-minute “Icarus Dream Suite Op. 4” move through multiple sections the way a classical suite would, alternating slow acoustic passages, riff-driven sections, and extended solo runs.
What Happened After
Malmsteen chased the commercial breakthrough that finally arrived on 1988’s Odyssey, which brought in veteran singer Joe Lynn Turner and produced his biggest hit, “Heaven Tonight.” Rising Force, by contrast, never got a shot at radio the same way, staying a cult touchstone for guitar-obsessed listeners rather than a commercial entry point. Malmsteen remains an enormous draw in Japan to this day, still performing pieces like “Icarus Dream Suite” with full orchestras.
The Verdict
Community reaction split, some listeners loved the technical proficiency and neoclassical structure, others found the extended instrumental runs self-indulgent or repetitive at points, and there was real disagreement over whether the vocal tracks help or hurt the record. Does an album built almost entirely around one guitarist’s virtuosity hold up as a front-to-back listen, or does it work better as a handful of standout tracks? Should the vocal songs have been cut entirely, or expanded and given more attention? Is this really the “purest” Malmsteen record, or is that just nostalgia talking? We get into all of it, plus where this stacks up against Odyssey and Trilogy, on the full episode. Give it a listen and drop a comment with your own verdict.
Episode Highlights
00:02: Jeremy’s pick: Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force, why he chose an 80s record after years of 90s picks
04:11: The mystery of the “J”: Yngwie’s real birth name and family history
06:18: Jeff Scott Soto’s resume, from Journey to Saigon Kick to Steel Dragon
10:03: Community comments from the Metal Union on Jeremy’s pick
11:46: How Jeremy discovered Malmsteen through his brother’s cassette collection
30:14: Is this the first neoclassical guitar solo album in rock history
33:54: The Shrapnel Records pipeline and how it launched Vai and Satriani
35:38: What doesn’t work: the vocal tracks and where the playing gets repetitive
46:52: Jeremy’s deep-cut observations on Far Beyond the Sun, Evil Eye, and Icarus Dream Suite
52:15: Final ratings and community poll results
Yngwie Malmsteen - Trilogy | 80s Metal Album Review
In this episode, we take a deep dive into the revolutionary album "Trilogy" with a discussion about the guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen and his groundbreaking contribution to the neoclassical metal genre. We explore how his unique blend of classical music influences and unparalleled guitar skills reshaped the metal landscape, setting a new standard for…
