Customer Reviews

Genesis

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Most of the material on this cd has been circulating via bootlegs for a while now. This cd was done by Yngwie in response to another cd (Birth of the Sun) put out by the original bassist, apparently without Yngwie's permission, who played on some of the tracks. I believe the bass tracks were all redone on this release. The first 6 tracks are from 1980. There is also a spoken track and 2 other much more recent tracks. Personally, I didn't care too much for the 2 recent tracks mainly because to me they sound way overplayed, by both yngwie and the singer, in the case of "voodoo child", and the last track I thought was ok but somewhat boring.

I'm mainly a big fan of Yngwie's early work, from 79/80 - 85. Imo, this period finds Yngwie at his best. His playing was fresh, creative and mindblowingly flowing. Also, the compositions were cool. You could hum them later. In fact, you had no choice because they just stuck in your mind. The riffs were very rocking.

There is some very emotional soloing here. I don't know yet which of the first 6 tracks are my favorite, but I think I lean toward Black Magic Suite. It has a lot of changes and some really very nice intricate understated soloing in addition to more crazy stuff. But all 6 tracks have some really great soloing and musicianship. Yngwie would go in the next few years to completely develop his virtousity, especially his very fluid and very fast and precise alternate picking technique, where the very fast lines would be accompanied by a fluid machine gun-like clicking sound, the sound of the pick buzzing across the strings. But you can clearly hear the genesis of it on these tracks from 1980.

Also, I don't know if it's because Yngwie redid the bass and the sound of this cd just has a super bass punch, but I think the drumming, by Zepp Upgard, is really, really excellent. He's very in the pocket and flowing like Yngwie himself. Pure ear candy. I've listened to the cd a few times just for the drumming.

If you are a fan of his early work, you have probably heard some or all of the first 6 tracks. But if you haven't, this is very worth getting. I've found that even people who do not like Yngwie's music, have very good things to say after hearing early tracks like these.

In all, excellent early stuff from a true virtuoso of the guitar.

I am posting this review under both "The Genesis" and "Birth of the Sun" albums.

First, let me make one thing perfectly clear: I do not now, nor have I ever, worked for or been associated with either Yngwie or Marcel Jacob in any way. The following is just my personal unbiased opinion as a guitarist and fan. Take it for what it's worth.

I have Yngwie's "The Genesis" as well as the demos released by Marcel Jacob under the Rising Force name entitled "Birth of the Sun", and although they both have basically the same demo tracks there is an interesting difference between the two in sound quality.

Marcel's disc is slightly louder in volume and to my ears more "pure" (for lack of a better word) in that it sounds closest to the original demo tapes (of which I have a crumbling cassette copy from eons ago). It seems that Marcel did not do any major reprocessing to the tapes, so what you get is basically the raw, straightforward 8 track demo sound from 1980, which some listeners may prefer. I feel that Marcel wanted to keep things as original as possible and I believe that he did just that. In his liner notes he explains the technical process and the problems he had finding an 8 track Tascam machine to play the tapes on. The results are not bad, but what you end up with is a recording that is still quite a bit rough around the edges.

Yngwie, on the other hand, has chosen to remix his distant past. He has re-recorded all of Marcel's bass tracks, effectively cutting his old bandmate out of the demos completely, so no credit is given to Marcel on the disc. Zepp Urgard's original drum tracks remain, so it would seem that some animosity exists between Yngwie and Marcel. Or maybe Yngwie liked Zepp's drumming but not Marcel's bass work on these tapes. Of course, it is also possible that Yngwie wanted to re-record Zepp's tracks as well, but perhaps he reasoned that since the drums leaked onto the live guitar tracks it would have been more problematic to replace them. Possibly it was merely due to the fact that drums are not Yngwie's forte. So for whatever reason, Zepp's tracks remain.

Purists may scream "sacrilege" at this remixing of a notable piece of modern electric guitar history but as Yngwie says in his own words, "It's my creation after all". Normally, most bands use a more collaborative process in the creation of their art, but not in this case where it is obvious that the man had his own vision and the creation sprang from one mind alone. The truly talented artist (in any genre of art, be it painting, sculpture, or music) must always pursue his own vision, and who are we to question his methods. We can only accept or reject his results. Anyway, the newly recorded bass tracks give these aging demos a more streamlined and, shall we say, "produced" sound than before. He also did a better job of remastering the original tapes to produce a less compressed and clearer sound spectrum with a much heavier punch to the drums. Overall, it's a smoother, more aurally pleasing sound.

Therefore, in my humble opinion (and with all due respect to Marcel, who did the best he could), Yngwie has released the superior set of demos here. They are much better sounding and more polished than Marcel's version. It is most likely Yngwie who has the first generation tapes, so he has the highest fidelity copy to work with. In the end, I really like what he did with these raw demos. So my vote goes to Yngwie.

This CD blows in comparison to Yngwie's best work but it's more of a historical document of where Yngwie was coming from in his teens.

The guy was 16 or 17 years old and of course the production is bad and the playing is nowhere near the caliber that we now expect.

I challenge any of the Steve Vai's or Satriani's of the world to put out their teenaged demos and display such conceptualization, vision, and facility on the instrument that would later create an entire genre of music.

Anyone who whines about this disc, I ask you, "What musical vision did you create when you were 16?"

Yngwie had a dream, believed in it, and pursued his vision with steadfast decisive execution of a plan. A lesson for us all.

GENESIS - This is a must for MALMSTEEN fans. "BIRTH OF THE SUN", the openeing track, is worth the price of this disc alone. It's about 10 minutes long and is loaded with traditional vintage guitar jam with yours truely on vocals.

Y. MALMSTEEN does make shred out of godfather JIMI HENDRIX's VOODOO CHILD. Other songs on this disc are pretty worthy listening.

This gems were recorded in the late 70's before Y. MALMSTEEN had forsakened his Swedish homeland for the glam riches of the U.S. of A.

Please get this if you love vintage METAL-ROCK guitar work.

I purchashed the Japanese Import 18 months before it came to the states and it's way better, there's 2 extra tracks on it!!! This U.S. Version is just okay!!!

This is the sort of release that hard core fans such as myself relish and leave the casual observer feeling utterly cold. The purpose of this album is to clear the decks - so to speak - of some old recordings that Yngwie had done essentially as demos that were apparently doing the rounds. Quite rightly the six string maestro seems to have decided that if they were going to be out there they might as well have the recordings cleaned up and a proper release organised. Hence this collection of seven tracks is of interest to lovers of the mans frenetic fret burning style as it shows some early pieces that never made it to any of his later studio albums proper.

Presented with fairly perfunctory liner notes from Yngwie and no archival photos or anything much of visual interest (and surprise surprise - it's Yngwie on the cover.... again!) this product was fun for me to listen to as I could pick out pieces of music that he used later on in his career. Yep I know I just said that none of this stuff was on the later proper studio albums but there are heaps of segments that will be familiar to the mans fans from later tunes. I won't spoil the treasure hunt for you but you'll pick a bunch of them on your first listen.

So why only three stars? Well..... let's face a few inconvenient truths here. Yngwie has developed only a little and to tell the truth the tunes here kind of confirm there was little in the way of other directions the young buck courted in his pre record contract days, much of this could have been on his debut solo slab. Heck, even the production job sounds similarly botched just like the debut (go on, admit it). Also the truly horrific vocal stylings of the man himself are enough to make you wish the production job was even worse and that you couldn't hear the vocals at all. Of course I'm willing to be fairly forgiving here given who knows what quality the original tapes were in by the time he got around to rescuing them. And as my tag line suggests he does deserver credit for putting this out at all where others would have desperately tried to stop the availability of such foetal pieces. But that doesn't excuse the way too brief liner notes and no sense of occasion you get from this release.

If you are new to Yngwie don't buy this. At least not until you are well versed in his music. As for an old time fan such as myself I really did enjoy cherry picking through this album of curiosities and would certainly recommend this as an interesting buy to any others who, like me, were blown away by Marching Out and Trilogy all those years ago. Speaking of which.... I might just go and thrown Trilogy on right now.... cos the Queen is in Love don't ya know....

This is an amazing album, the guitar shred master with some of his best work to date.

am a big yngwie fan since i was 17 and this cd is truly a masterpiece
its really raw and the rythm riffs here re so well composed having this dark neoclassical spirit in it
i dont know how to explain it but in my opinion ...its different and unique to all yngwie's later work
if you are a malmsteen fan you should buy this
total raw perfection

These recordings are dated around 1980, before his STEELER and ALCATRAZZ days. He's so bloody fast on this CD it's not to be believed.

Poor production quality on the live tracks. Even so, you can hear his speed and accuracy. The main guitar riffs here in these songs were later used and renamed for his major market LP's like "Odyssey". Man that blew my mind.

The live video (included in th CD) is great. His poses always crack me up. Can't believe how fast and articulated his playing is. It's really incredible, seriously.

If you're a fan or NOT a fan of YJM, this is a great CD to buy for it's raw energy and the overwhelming display of talent evident in the studio tracks and live tracks.

Fun Facts: Yngwie Malmsteen (for those of you who don't know it already) is a lightning fast rock guitarist whose music has loads of classical overtones. He is the template for any neo-classical or speed metal or "virtuoso" type rock music. What I did not know,even as a long time fan, was that he wrote the majority of his main riffs when he was a TEENAGER! These recordings are dated around 1980, before his STEELER and ALCATRAZZ days. [check out 7TH SIGN, Trilogy, Concerto in E minor, and any of his live concert DVD's]

I have'nt heard this cause I own the 2002 Japanese cd version and all I can say is,'Why the repackaging all the time?' Do they think I will buy it again with a few different pics or want me to forget I have it and repurchase it a second time?..Who knows.