Mark Robert Boals (born December 5, 1958) is an American heavy metal vocalist and occasional bassist, best known for his vocals with Yngwie Malmsteen. He is currently a member of the band Foundry.
Boals' first album with Malmsteen, 1986's Trilogy, achieved platinum status in the US and sold several million copies worldwide. As a young child, he learned to play the piano and bass guitar. Although Boals has never had any vocal lessons or training, as a teenager he gained experience as a vocalist in local groups. Boals is the founder and vocalist for the band Ring of Fire, and had a brief stint as the bassist for Dokken.
Career
In 1982, Boals joined Savoy Brown and toured around Canada and the U.S. through 1983. Although several songs were written for a proposed new album, the record never materialized due to mainman Kim Simmonds running into legal problems at the time. During these years Boals also performed with his band Lazer.[1]
While with Savoy Brown, Boals met Ted Nugent and joined his band as bassist in 1984 touring throughout the U.S. and opening up for Judas Priest in Europe. Deciding to focus on singing and being a frontman, Boals moved to California in 1985. He joined Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force and performed on the Trilogy album. Boals' first show with Malmsteen was at Day on the Green in San Francisco, CA in front of 80,000 fans. After leaving Yngwie in 1986, he gave up music for a time, trying to find himself in cinematography and working for Warner Brothers. In this period he recorded, with Mike Slamer, a soundtrack for the film White Water Summer (1987); he also appeared on Maestro Alex Gregory's "Paganini's Last Stand" (Priority Records) in 1992.
Boals' next venture was Billionaires Boys Club, a short lived supergroup featuring former Accept guitarist Jörg Fischer, future HammerFall bassist Magnus Rosén, and former Yngwie Malmsteen bandmate, drummer Anders Johansson. The group's sole album, Something Wicked Comes, was released on Polydor Records in 1993.
Then in 1996, Yngwie Malmsteen called Boals and asked if he wanted to perform on several songs on the cover album Inspiration. Boals accepted, and resumed his role as vocalist with Yngwie Malmsteen for the album Alchemy. The band subsequently went on tour.
In March 2000, Boals won the No.1 Vocalist Prize in the Japanese music magazines Burrn! and Young Guitar. At the end of that year, on the same day, his second solo CD, entitled Ring Of Fire and Yngwie Malmsteen's War To End All Wars, with Boals on vocals, were released. However, after many years of musical magic and friendship, the team of Malmsteen and Boals had decided to move in different directions, and Boals formed a new band, Ring of Fire, named after his solo album. At the beginning of this year, Ring of Fire recorded their subsequent debut The Oracle album at the George Bellas Studios in Chicago. Alongside Boals were George Bellas, Vitalij Kuprij, Virgil Donati and Philip Bynoe.
In addition Boals has participated in two exciting projects of Lion Music in Finland. He appears on the Jason Becker tribute "Warmth in the Wilderness", singing a version of David Lee Roth's "Hammerhead Shark" with Lars Eric Mattsson. Speaking about Mattsson, in 2005 he also recorded an album War with Boals lead singing on track "Deep In The Shadows". As Malmsteen urgently needed a singer for his current tour, Boals has toured again with him in Europe, but only as guest vocalist.
Also Boals is featured on vocals on two songs, "Into The Light" and "I Will Always Be There", for the Empire CD Hypnotica (2001). Another cool project where Boals took part in, was "Genius Rock Opera" Trilogy by Daniele Liverani. There he was recording as the main character (Genius) on Episode 1: A human into dreams' world (2002) and Episode 2: In search of the little prince (2004). But he refused to sing on the last Episode because of personal reasons and was replaced by D. C. Cooper.[2] In 2004 Boals recorded two songs for young Japanese guitarist named Takayoshi Ohmura. Ohmura's debut album, entitled "Nowhere To Go", features additional guest appearances by Doogie White (Yngwie Malmsteen, Cornerstone, ex-Rainbow) and Richie Kotzen (ex-Mr. Big, Poison). Commented Boals:
After I was asked by the representatives of Ohmura, I listened to his demo. I thought his music was good and he has a talent to play guitar, and I thought it'd be great to support this young Japanese musician. I also thought it would be great to share the vocals with the other singers, Richie Kotzen and Doogie White, so I recorded two songs here in L.A. and sent them to Japan.[3]
2000s years Boals recorded 3 solo albums as well as three studio albums and one live DVD with his own band, Ring Of Fire. The project album called The Codex Boals recorded with Magnus Karlsson in 2007. The album project marks the return to recording after a 3 years hiatus for Boals.[4] In 2007 Boals started looking for a serious, permanent band situation and Royal Hunt became a perfect opportunity for a singer to exploit and expand his vocal abilities.[5]
In 2008 Boals appeared on his first Royal Hunt album Collision Course... Paradox 2. Boals also appeared on Uli Jon Roth's album titled Under A Dark Sky on which he shared vocal duties with Liz Vandall. The band with Boals toured the world from July – December 2008. In 2009, he also worked with such bands like Vindictiv and Wolf, and completed work on the latest Royal Hunt album X which was released in January 2010. Mark is also currently handling vocal duties in the band Seven The Hardway featuring guitarist Tony MacAlpine which released a self-titled album in August 2010.
Boals with Royal Hunt in 2008
A press release dated June 19, 2011, announced that Boals would be recording vocals for the Wagnerian opera metal project Lyraka.[6]
In 2012, he sang lead vocals for Joshua Perahia's band and their album, "Resurrection".
Since 2013, he performed with Dio Disciples, replacing former Judas Priest singer Tim "Ripper" Owens.
After singing backing vocals on Dokken's 2012 album Broken Bones and performing acoustic shows with Don Dokken for the past couple of years, Boals was announced as the new full-time Dokken bass player in November 2014 replacing Sean McNabb.[7]
Boals also appears on an EP project from the band Metal Hell called Decadence, which includes Mark Zonder from Fates Warning
2014 he started performing in the Las Vegas show, "Raiding the Rock Vault", as lead vocalists, and also plays guitar and bass.
2019 Boals started performing with other Las Vegas show called "Tenors of Rock".
Boals also now sings with the rock band Foundry whom are actively producing and performing concerts to audiences worldwide. Foundry is currently working with producer Colin Brittain.
Yngwie Johan Malmsteen ; born 30 June 1963) is a Swedish guitarist. He first became known in the 1980s for his neoclassical playing style in heavy metal, and has released 22 studio albums in a career spanning over 40 years. In August 2009, Time magazine named Malmsteen No. 9 on its list of the 10 best electric guitar players of all-time.
Dokken is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. It split up in 1989 and reformed four years later. The band has had several hit singles which charted on the Billboard Hot 100, such as "Alone Again", "In My Dreams", and "Burning Like a Flame", and has sold more than 10 million albums worldwide. The live album Beast from the East was nominated for the inaugural Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance in 1989.
George Lynch is an American guitarist, best known for his work with the hard rock band Dokken and his post-Dokken solo band Lynch Mob. He is considered one of the most famous and influential 1980s metal guitarists and is known for his unique playing style and sound. He is ranked No. 47 on "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" by Guitar World magazine and No. 10 on "Top 10 Metal Guitarists of All Time" by Gibson.
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.
Alcatrazz is a heavy metal band formed in 1983 by Graham Bonnet, Jimmy Waldo, and Gary Shea. They are best known for their songs "Island in the Sun", "Hiroshima Mon Amour", and "God Blessed Video". They are also notable for featuring a previously-unknown Yngwie Malmsteen as their lead guitarist for a year, who was then replaced by Steve Vai, with whom they recorded one album.
Douglas "Doogie" White is a Scottish rock vocalist who currently sings for La Paz and Alcatrazz. He has also notably sung for Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow, Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, Praying Mantis and Tank.
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Marcel Karl Jacob was a Swedish musician, best known as the founder, chief songwriter, and bassist of the hard rock band Talisman. For a brief period, he also played in the band Europe and with Yngwie Malmsteen. Jacob was also a skilled lead guitarist, occasionally playing guitar solos on albums where he felt the guitarist did not perform to his standards.
Steeler was an early 1980s American heavy metal band that featured Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen upon his arrival in the United States. The band was founded in 1981 in Nashville, Tennessee, by vocalist Ron Keel and released one album on Shrapnel Records in 1983 before morphing into Keel.
Jörg Fischer is a German guitar player, primarily known for his work with the German band Accept. He joined the band at the end of the recording sessions for their self-titled debut and plays on the albums I'm a Rebel and Breaker until leaving before recording began for 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 he is featured as lead guitarist 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.
Barry Sparks is an American rock bassist and guitarist for artists such as Yngwie Malmsteen, the Michael Schenker Group, UFO, Dokken, and Ted Nugent, among others. Currently Sparks is part of the touring band for the Japanese rock group B'z, and has also contributed to many of their albums and singles.
Christopher Lee McCarvill is an American musician best known as the touring and/or recording bass guitarist and backing vocalist with arena rock bands Dokken and House of Lords. He is well known for his energetic and technical virtuosity on the bass and his heartfelt vocal performances.
Iron Mask is a power metal band formed in 2002 by Belgian guitarist Dushan Petrossi, also known from Magic Kingdom.
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Magnus Karlsson is a Swedish heavy metal musician, songwriter and producer. He is currently a session musician and songwriter of the band Primal Fear, as well as for other projects like his own Free Fall.
Ring of Fire is an American neoclassical/progressive/power metal band from Chula Vista, California formed in 2000. Fronted by former Yngwie J. Malmsteen collaborator Mark Boals after the release of his solo album Ring of Fire, the band also included guitarist Tony MacAlpine, Planet X drummer Virgil Donati, grammy-award-winning bassist Philip Bynoe, and keyboardist Steve Weingart. Ring of Fire released three studio albums between 2001 and 2004, as well as a live album, Burning Live In Tokyo 2002. After disbanding, Boals, MacAlpine, and Donati later formed Seven the Hardway. Boals, MacAlpine, and keyboardist Vitalij Kuprij returned in 2014 with their fourth studio album Battle of Leningrad.
Animetal USA is a Japan-based American heavy metal band formed as a tribute to Eizo Sakamoto's band Animetal. They made their world debut at the 2011 Loud Park Festival, where they performed on stage with Momoiro Clover Z.
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