Yngwie Johan Malmsteen is a Swedish guitarist, songwriter, composer, and bandleader. Malmsteen first became known in the 1980s for his neoclassical metal playing style in heavy metal, and has released 20 studio albums in a career spanning over 40 years. In 2009, Time magazine rated Malmsteen as number 9 among the 11 greatest electric guitar players of all time.
Odyssey is the fourth studio album by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, released on 8 April 1988 through Polydor Records. The album reached No. 40 on the US Billboard 200 and remained on that chart for eighteen weeks, as well as reaching the top 50 in five other countries. As of 2019 it remains Malmsteen's highest-charting release on the Billboard 200.
Trial by Fire: Live in Leningrad is the first live album by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, released on 12 October 1989 through Polydor Records. The album reached #31 on the Swedish albums chart and #128 on the Billboard 200. A VHS video of the concert was released in 11 July 1991 through PolyGram, and a DVD edition was reissued in Japan on 12 December 2006 through Universal Music.
Rising Force is the first studio album by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, released on 5 March 1984 through Polydor Records. The album reached No. 14 on the Swedish albums chart, No. 60 on the US Billboard 200, and received a nomination for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 1986 Grammy Awards. It is regarded as a seminal release in the shred and neoclassical metal genres.
Jonas Hellborg is a Swedish bass guitarist. He has collaborated with John McLaughlin, Ustad Sultan Khan, Fazal Qureshi, Bill Laswell, Shawn Lane, Jens Johansson, Anders Johansson, Ginger Baker, Michael Shrieve, V. Selvaganesh, Jeff Sipe, Mattias IA Eklundh, Public Image Ltd, and Buckethead.
Shawn Lane was an American musician who released two studio albums and collaborated with a variety of musicians including Ringo Starr, Kris Kristofferson, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Reggie Young, Joe Walsh, Jonas Hellborg and many others. After studying the piano, he mastered the guitar, which he played with exceptional speed.
Jens Ola Johansson is a Swedish keyboardist and pianist who currently plays in the Finnish power metal band Stratovarius and Ritchie Blackmore's rock project Rainbow. He is notable for his high-speed neoclassical and fusion style.
Inspiration is the ninth studio album by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, released on 14 October 1996. It is a tribute album consisting entirely of covers of various bands who influenced Malmsteen. Featured on vocals are Jeff Scott Soto, Mark Boals and Joe Lynn Turner, all of whom performed on Malmsteen's first four studio albums.
Trilogy is the third studio album by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, released on 4 November 1986 through Polydor Records. The album reached No. 44 on the US Billboard 200 and charted within the top 60 in the Netherlands and Sweden. In the liner notes, Malmsteen dedicates the album to the memory of the late Swedish prime minister Olof Palme, who was assassinated on 28 February 1986.
Freak Kitchen is an experimental rock band from Gothenburg, Sweden, formed in 1992.
Marching Out is the second studio album by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen, released on 30 September 1985 through Polydor Records. The album reached No. 52 on the U.S. Billboard 200 and remained on that chart for 28 weeks, as well as reaching the top 30 in two other countries.
Mattias IA Eklundh is a Swedish guitarist and vocalist, known for his work with Freak Kitchen, Jonas Hellborg Trio and Art Metal; he has also produced several noted solo Freak Guitar albums released by Steve Vai and Favored Nations, and holds his annual Freak Guitar Camp in the woods of Sweden every summer for dedicated guitar players from all over the world. He was also prominently featured playing his trademark-style solos on the first four Soilwork albums.
Anders Johansson is a Swedish drummer, best known as the former drummer of HammerFall and Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force. He is the son of jazz pianist Jan Johansson, and brother of Stratovarius and Rainbow keyboardist Jens Johansson.
Jörg Fischer is a German guitar player, primarily known for his work with the band Accept. He joined the band towards the end of the recording of their self-titled debut album and plays on the albums I'm a Rebel and Breaker until leaving before the recording of the fourth album Restless and Wild. After the recording of Balls to the Wall was completed he was asked to rejoin the band. Fischer appears on the albums Metal Heart and Russian Roulette. By this time his role had diminished mainly to rhythm guitarist, although featured on lead guitar on the songs "Living for Tonite", "Wrong Is Right', "Aiming High", "Another Second to Be" and "Lay Down the Law". Fischer left the band again around 1988.
Fate is a Danish melodic rock band originally formed in 1984. They released four albums between 1984–1990 before disbanding in 1993. However, after a one-off reunion at a German music festival in 2004, Fate was reformed and released a new album, V, in 2006. In 2010 Fate released Best of Fate 25 Years on EMI and in November 2011 the brand new album Ghosts from the Past was released on AOR Heaven in EU and Rubicon in Japan.
Art Metal is a progressive metal band based in Sweden and led by Jonas Hellborg. Some of the line-up includes guitarist Mattias Eklundh of Freak Kitchen fame, the Johansson brothers who have both contributed to the solo career of Yngwie Malmsteen and Jonas Hellborg, an influential musician and solo artist in the jazz music scene. The band's music also has plenty of Indian music influence.
Good People in Times of Evil is the fifth collaborative live album by bassist Jonas Hellborg and guitarist Shawn Lane, released on 10 November 2000 through Bardo Records. For this line-up they are joined by percussionist V. Selvaganesh, and as such it is the first album by Hellborg and Lane to incorporate Indian music.
Icon: A Transcontinental Gathering is an album by bassist Jonas Hellborg, released on 25 January 2003 through Bardo Records. The album merges contemporary jazz-fusion and traditional Indian improvised music and features guitarist Shawn Lane in his last officially released studio recording before his death in September of that year, as well as the sons of ghatam player Vikku Vinayakram: Selvaganesh (kanjeera), Umashankar (ghatam) and Umamamesh (vocals), who also perform passages of konnakol, the vocal "scatting" often used as a memory device by Indian percussionists. The album's name stands for a common cross-cultural ideal image, beyond vanity and self-identity, also present in this kind of musical communication.
Freak Guitar: The Smorgasbord is Mattias IA Eklundh's double CD album, released on Steve Vai's Favored Nations label.
