Customer Reviews

Trial By Fire: Live in Leningrad

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

It's the Eighties, so be prepared to have fun listening to some excessive axework in this great live record. Yngwie plays here with the intensity you expect from a guitar hero of his magnitude, up to burning his guitar out. His performance is passionate and brilliant, even when he missed out some notes here and there - but I love that: he didn't hide his errors in order to retain the actual "taste" of the live show, and I think that's a very honest attitude.

The guy unarguably is one of the greatest guitar players of all times - yes, he is; in spite of any critic, any rumor (or fact) about his ego, any repetitive playing or anything else. :-) This album demonstrates how good he actually is, as Yngwie proudly shows all his abilities off, from the purely neoclassic shredding in "Black Star" and "Trilogy Suite", to the explicit quotes to Paganini, Bach, Beethoven and the likes all the way along, to the frantic riffing in any of his own songs with vocals, to the bluesly soloing in the Hendrix's song "Spanish Castle Magic" and in "Spacebo Blues" - at whose end he also amuses the crowd with some great feedback and guitar effects.

Furthermore, the choice of sung pieces is great. This CD contains many of the best vocal tracks of Yngwie's early solo career - mainly from "Trilogy" and "Odyssey". Joe Lynn Turner's mellow vocals seamlessly fit into Yngwie's style, yet doing far better than Mark Boals when singing those songs from the "Trilogy" album. The production honors his voice, and that's fair to his amazing performance.

Lynn is a great songwriter too. "Odyssey" (the studio album to whose tour this gig belongs to) includes a bunch of amazing material. That material is showcased in "Trial by fire" in a clean manner. I still think that the Yngwie/Lynn combination was a killer one from the songwriting point of view - just tell me: do you *really* believe that those cheesy and ridiculous love lyrics are specially worst than those others lyrics about warriors, dragons, knights, swords and kings? C'mon! :-)

By the way, going back to Joe Lynn Turner, I'd want to point out some few things about him in this review. This vocalist has been widely criticized because he aims commercialism too much, because he's mellow, because he's not aggressive enough, because he doesn't like wailing, etc. Maybe all that is true, but he has one of the greatest, cleanest, most perfectly tuned and most melodic voices ever heard in the rock genre. He also has a superb tone and a truly wide vocal range - listen carefully to his interpretation of "Liar". Isn't it GREAT? In addition, he is a master of dynamics - the enormous load of feeling that he delivers in "Dreaming" says it all! And he doesn't miss a single note in this album! This album witnesses that he can perform live as a genuine vocal god. Honestly, I believe he deserves much more recognizance for the flawlessly job he does here and in every band where he has performed (including Rainbow and Deep Purple).

Back to "Trial by Fire", this album contains an excellent choice of Yngwie Malsmteen's "hits" (if so can be said) and astonishing guitar pyrotechnics complemented with vocals of the highest quality. I strongly recommend this CD even for Yngwie newbies. Hard rockers will appreciate it too. So, go for it NOW, put it into your CD player, fasten your seatbelts and enjoy! The trip will pay off, I guarantee you that.

This is the best Yngwie album! I been listening to Yngwie since the "Rising Force" days. This album has great sound, and the band is sounding good this night. If you still like a little double bass druming, and keyboards with Yngwie's awesome guitar, this is prefect!

What you'll find about Yngwie J. Malmsteen is, that what he says is true: when he gets in front of a sold out crowd, watch out! His playing is more intensified live than in the studio, if you can belive that. The shining moment on this live set is, of course, the guitar solo, with the trilogy suite in there. By the time you get to the end of his solo and hear what sounds like Satan dishing out some massive melodic feedback, you just shake your head and wonder how he does it. Incredible live performance of his earlier stuff here. Don't let this one get by you. And you'll definitely give it up for the cover of Jimi Hendrix's, Spanish Castle Magic: killer job on that cover. 5 STAR MALMSTEEN RATING FROM SCRAGGY'S TOMB OF POWER METAL, USA.

This live album from Yngwie Malmsteen is satisfying. The band is very energetic throughout. Yngwie is just as good live as he is in the studio. All of the tracks are respectable and listenable. Yngwie's version of "Spanish Castle Magic" is cool--he shows how versatile he is with this tune. The only thing that surprises me about this live album is the fact that nothing from Marching Out is performed. I'm not much of a fan of Marching Out, but I still find this to be sort of odd. This album is worth a listen. The band sounds good live.

Yngwie sure shows his talents in this album. His fingers were storming up and down the guitar neck, and the sound was great for a live album.

Yngwie Malmsteen has always been a rock guitarist's rock guitarist. His combination of heavy metal with classical chord progressions and violin stylings influenced by the likes of J.S Bach and Niccolo Paganini were copied by tons of wanna be guitar heros and his Top 40 hit "Heaven Tonight" from 1988's ODYSSEY had seen him claim a broader audience for his guitar pyrotechnics. This album 1989's TRIAL BY FIRE: LIVE IN LENINGRAD, recorded at the final show of Yngwie's world tour in support of the ODYSSEY disc, is a poor affair that seems stitched together. For anyone who has seen the live concert video of the same name will be appalled at this record. Most of the guitar solos are redone as are the vocals and leaving off concert opener "Rising Force" seems like a travesty of justice. High points include "Queen In Love", "Deja Vu", and "Heaven Tonight", as well as Yngwie standards like "Black Star" and "Far Beyond The Sun". This album seems like a patchwork process and is destroyed by in studio recordings. If you want a better Yngwie live experience, get this VHS concert if you can find it. Yngwie was only the second artist from the west (Billy Joel was the first) to play in Mother Russia and this live album seemed to close the book on him as a guitar icon. This could have been much better

Joe lynn Turner and Yngwie Malmsteen. It does not get any better than that. Great CD. I think Joe Lynn Turner is the best singer and Yngwie is the best guitarist ever. I only wish they would have done more together then just one album and one tour. This cd captures it forever. It rocks.

I like Odyssey very much and think it is the best album Yngwie ever released. Apart from that, killer songs from Rising Force, Trilogy are also performed. Joe Lyn Turner is the best singer that fits Yngwie's style in my point of view. The only issue is that the song Rising Force that is included in Far Beyond the Sun DVD is missing.

thanks for the cd got here quick in excellent conditon. love the cd.Will make sure i will order from you again.

Great live album. Yngwie was HUGE in Russia in the '80s, and remember at that time they were lucky to even get good blue jeans, much less top notch rock concerts, so this must have been a real event for them! American audiences have never really been able to understand where Yngwie was coming from, but Russian and Euro audiences sure did.

Joe Lynn Turner brought mass commercial appeal/sex appeal to the band (hmm, hot girls at an Yngwie concert, eh?) that hadn't been there before. Everything in the '80s was about excess (which I love) and this show has plenty of it, although Yngwie focused himself a bit more on accessible songs during this period considering he was playing to huge audiences, not a small room of guitar nerds wanting to hear about dragons, etc. The popular US myth of the '80s was that all Russian women were sturdy, grim looking old ladies, which we later found to be very untrue!! But seeing really good rock stars (sorry, Gorky Park doesn't count!) was a new thing to them, you can tell in videos of this concert that Yngwie was lapping it up! He was one of the earlier Western metal acts to give big shows in Russia.

I like the psychotic effects he uses in the solo spot and the way his band improv'd with him during the solo. Yngwie was in great form and Turner did a great job on all the songs also.

This should definitely be in any Yngwie fan's collection!