Luke Box

It’s been a while since I heard a Malmsteen album and, while guitar oriented albums have become a niche occupation, the fans (howsoever few) continue to support and worship the force that is Yngwie Malmsteen, one of the great classical guitar players in metal. Yngwie’s brand of guitar playing brings all the trademarks that his fans lap up so every time. This is melodic speed metal at its highest, so all you guitar players out there can take some time to check this out and practice your skills. Malmsteen’s mastery over what he does is absolutely fantastic and can never be undermined, if only more of us cared.

In The Covering, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Deep Purple, Kiss, Ozzy Osbourne, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Van Halen, Led Zeppelin, UFO and Sweet get the cover treatment by one of the biggest Christian metal bands of the eighties, Stryper. I don’t know if it’s a good thing or not. I mean, the choice of songs are classic, ”˜Highway Star,’ ”˜Immigrant Song,’ ”˜The Trooper,’ ”˜Breaking The Law’ etc, its just that to hear them in a Eighties metal mode of choral guitars with wavering Michael Sweet vocals is another matter altogether. Oh well”¦

Eric Martin, Paul Gilbert, Billy Sheehan and Pat Torpey are back! After a successful reunion tour in 2009 which also saw them stop off at two venues in India, it looks like the original Mr Big lineup is back to stay. This is their first all new album of original material since 2001’s Actual Size and the first with the original line-up since 1996’s Hey Man. I was a huge fan of then band when they were at their peak and since then I have been trying to keep track of Paul’s solo career as well. No surprises here, though as most of the songwriting tries to capture past glories. And while it’s always great to hear the foursome play ”“ Paul’s mean guitaring is a pleasure to experience, Billy’s pounding bass is scorching, Pat’s drumming is textbook and Eric’s voice has never been better ”“ it’s quite sterile otherwise.