Yngwie Malmsteen

We've had a HUGE discussion about this. In the end the vast majority thought he sucked, and a few really liked his stuff. I'm with you, both on the ego and playstyle opinion.

Things I do like about Yngwie :

-Introduced me to classical music to a greater degree.

- Affirmed the idea in my head that learning a lot of classical scales and such is boring unless you've got something fun to rip through - like Paganini's 5th Caprice, conveniently located in the April issue of Guitar World. (Anybody care to explain to me why I'm getting magazines from the future? :-D)

- A little bit of Yngwie once in a while is great to listen to.

- He uses fat strats from time to time, and that reassured me that, despite what all the nay-sayers have said, Strats can sound very metal. (Especially now that the Fender MetalHead amp is out... MUAHAHAHAHA!)

THe other stuff:

-His ego is the stuff of legends.

-He gets incredibly repetetive. His music has one vibe to it - Yngwie.

-I like classical music, but not THAT much.

Hence, Yngwie gets a big NOT.

Music wise, I think his technique has become such a strong focus that you can't really relate to his music, so it's lack of ability to touch people... is uninspiring.

However, I think he's useful as a technique role model.

arpeggios from hell is pretty sweet in my opinion

lol Rodya, I've always wondered the same thing about the whole getting future magazines. I get Guitarplayers about 3 months in advance, before they even have the lesson mp3's posted on their site.

I voted not, his music has zero emotion in it. And his ego is just too much. Now Vai and Satriani, they can play fast, but actually put some emotion into it, not just blazzing fast repeated arpeggios. Any one see the G3 tour with Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, and Eric Johnson? Now that was cool.

To summarize my view:

Yngwie is too technical and he's all about "look at what my fingers can do" as opposed to the actual music.

Personally I think his music sucks.

I'm not getting into it more than that.

Just expounding a bit more on Mr. Malmsteen -

There's a guitar player that works a lot with Dave Matthews named Tim Reynolds who really reminds me of Malmsteen. Incredibly oriented towards technicality, very versatile, fluid, but his work is BORING. If you compare his music to weather conditions, he sounds like wind blowing through the trees.

Yngwie is the same way - except it's very loud, brash wind. :P

He has good points, but in terms of being one of the truly great guitarists of the 80's, he is nowhere near the top. The best, in my opinion, were those that could balance both sides of playing well and still manage their own unique voice on the guitar. (Van Halen, Slash, Randy Rhoads, SRV, the list goes on)

As a guitar player he's awsome, as a musician he's crap.

With that said though the stuff he does with lyrics are really great as thrash metal I think, he has (or had, refering to his origional singer) a good singer in the band too. If you like 80s metal, check out Rising Force one of my favourite metal songs ever.

His style (while ppl may not realise, cos so many ppl copy him) is exeptionally unique and overlooked. And his compositions with this style are again awsome, but not very muscial at all lol.

i'm very respectful of peoples threads and i'm sure i've posted a repeat thread but hasn't this already been beaten to death. I think it was not to long ago that we had like an 8 page thread about this and his style. Maybe threads about other guitar players would be more interesting. i hear a wide array of opinions on slash for instance. some say his playing is boring and cliche others say disagree. seems like a good one to start with. sorry if it sounds like i'm

start it up antny... I think slash is a genious, one of my hero's

I mention slash because Ihear people really knock some of his stuff but he does some really cool things. his use of feedback is pretty cool in some songs. I also hear people say bad things about the song estranged off of uyi but i think that song has such a cool melody. in fact the whole song is one melody. anyway like i said some stuff is contrived but he has a lot of good stuff too

I think hes hot looks wise. Get's my submarine to float ya know what I'm saying?

Musicaly wise I don't like him, nor do I appreciate his technical ability. If I want to appreciate technical ability I'll call up Dell, and talk to a nice Indian fellow.

I enjoy Slash. His work on Sweet Child Of Mine is great, IMO. He has a style all his own, but he reminds me alot of page. He has great technical abilities and creativity and he's a good musician. I'd kill someone (Yngwie maybe? nah, kidding guys) to see Slash and Axl back together. I love Velvet Revolver, but there's nothing like a good Axl & Slash song. I can't even listen to the new "Guns N Roses" cos it's just stupid.

What's great about Axl is his amazing singing ability.

^sarcasm.

Slash is good yeah. He had some great solos, some fast, some slow. He's a good player. I don't relaly like Velvet Revolver, was more of an Appetite for desutuction fan.