Fretplay.com Yngwie J. Malmsteen CD reviews Yngwie J. Malmsteen guitar tabs Yngwie J. Malmsteen CD reviews Yngwie J. Malmsteen tabs Facing the Animal


Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Facing the Animal Audio CD

A fair review of the Yngwie J. Malmsteen "Facing the Animal" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Yngwie J. Malmsteen reviews here, or go back to the Yngwie J. Malmsteen tabs.

Yngwie J. Malmsteen Band: Yngwie J. Malmsteen
Title: Facing the Animal
Rating:
Release Date: 2000-11-07
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Braveheart 2: Facing the Animal 3: Enemy 4: Sacrifice 5: Like an Angel [For April] 6: My Resurrection 7: Another Time 8: Heathens from the North 9: Alone in Paradise 10: End of My Rope 11: Only the Strong 12: Poison in Your Veins 13: Air on a Theme

Great guitar player but poor music

The kind of Heavy metal of the 80's that has not aged well. Of course Yngwie is a great guitar player, but this cd is poor.
Every guitar solo looks like the other, the signer is not great.
For myself, I prefer Joe Satriani. . . he makes better music and better guitar solos.


Very Underrated!
The cd seems to have energy and passion, it even sounds angry at times. This Album is completely underrated, it may be a little commercial but the songs are tremendous. Songs like Facing the animal, Another time, and End of my rope are awsome. The only negative thing i can say is that its not holding up as well as other malmsteen releases, thats probably because ive listened to it a couple thousand times.

my ratings are,
Braveheart-7/10
Facing the animal-10/10
Enemy-8/10
Sacrifice-9/10
Like an angel-7/10
My Resurrection-10/10
Another time-10/10
Heathens from the north-7/10
Alone in paradise-6/10
End of my rope-10/10
Only the strong-8/10
Poison in your veins-6/10
Air on a theme-7/10.


Another good song based effort
This album - originally from 1997 - was co-produced by Chris Tsangarides and feels more sturdy possibly due to this co-production. Malmsteen in the 90's is a more straightforward beast in many respects and albums such as Eclipse, Seventh Sign and this album all deliver up reasonably solid slabs of hard rock songsmithery. And the band in the background is pretty handy too - Barry Dunaway (B), Mats Olausson (keys), Mats Leven (vox) and non other than Mr Cozy Powell on drums.

This album contains more of the same in most respects, some dil hard rock (Braveheart + Heathens from the North), some instrumentals (For April + Air on a Theme) and some great rockers like the title track, Enemy, My Resurrection and Another Time. And it's the rockers that make the album. Facing the Animal and Enemy are just great pull out all the stops Malmsteen attacks while My Resurrection plays around with some vocal/axe duelling and Another Time really hits a groove you could park a truck in with great vocal harmonies, groove being a little rare on Malmsteen albums normally. And as an aside, if you can get a version of this with what was originally a Japanese bonus track "Casting Pearls Before the Swine" then you'll be treating yourself to a favour to another full tilt rocker with a tremendous performance from Mats Levens' vocal chords.

Unlike a number of later Yngwie albums I can actually honestly recommend this one to any lapsed fan, you won't be disappointed by the passionate and commited hard rock assault.


Worst album I've ever bought.
This is embarrassingly bad stuff. This album was enjoyable for about 3 listens, but it hasn't aged well at all. The reason I bought it in the first place was because it was heralded as a "full band effort", rather than just Yngwie shredding fast, and, well, it is that, but the songs are still cheesy, weak, and really forgettable. Also, Yngwie's guitar playing is just as boring as ever. Yeah, he can shred fast, big deal. That's about all he can do. All of his solos sound exactly the same (Yeah, let's do a sappy ballad dedicated to my wife, and then shred over it, that'll sound good!), and his rhythm playing is pretty uninsprired. Also, the singer on this album sounds like a 4th rate Dio ripoff, and Yngwie's vocals sound like Jeff Keith from Tesla with a cold. And if that's not enough, the lyrics are some of the worst I've ever heard ("I'll tear my heart out and serve it to you on a plate". . . uh yeah).

I really don't recommend this at all. If you want some good band-oriented shred-type metal, get some Dream Theater or Symphony X. If you want some full-on guitar-oriented stuff, get some Vai or Satriani. This doesn't have you covered either way. The only really good thing about this album is Mats Olausson's keyboard outro in "Braveheart". But that's not really enough to listen to this. Also, Cozy Powell plays drums on it, but it's not his best work by any means (get a Rainbow album instead).

But hey, if you really want this, you're more than welcome to my copy. You can save it from a horrible fate of being burned, smashed, or hurled like a frisbee into a field.

.


Yngwie YAWNsteen
First, while the man is a great guitarist, he can't write a song to save his life. After listening to this Yngwie's latest "opus", I only have two things to say. Second, this is the reason why I'm so glad the 80's are over. This album is all style and no substance. Time for Yngwie to quit making records, and join the rest of us in the new century.


You can see a complete list of all Yngwie J. Malmsteen discography, or go back to the Yngwie J. Malmsteen tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

Search guitar tabs

#ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
[ Search tabs | Guitar tabs | Bass tabs |
Easy guitar tabs | Guitar solo tabs |
Acoustic guitar tabs | Guitar chords |
How to read guitar tabs ]
Forum topics
Music forums
- Bands and artists - Songwriting and lyrics - Tablature talk - Promote your band
Instrument forums
- Guitar basics - Gear & accessories - Bass guitar
Community
- The pit - Site Feedback - Reviews
[ User survey | About us | Privacy statement ]