Band:	Yngwie Malmsteen
Album:	World On Fire
Style:	Neoclassical power metal
Release date:	June 2016

01. World On Fire
02. Sorcery
03. Abandon
04. Top Down, Foot Down
05. Lost In Machine
06. Largo
07. No Rest For The Wicked
08. Soldier
09. DUF 1220
10. Abandon (Slight Return)
11. Nacht Musik

Review tagline: "Oh, Yngwie..."

We all know Yngwie Malmsteen as one of the founders of the guitar-oriented neoclassical rock / metal, who inspired thousands and thousands of people to pick up and play the guitar. He was pretty good at writing music in the '80s (and it sounded original back then!) and continued doing that in the '90s and onwards, teasing us with some great tunes from time to time.

Many have heard of his extravagant behavior and disrespect to fellow bandmates which led to constant changes in lineup. Many people could have also noticed that he worked with almost every Rainbow singer except the great Ronnie James Dio. And after Doogie White, the last "survivor from Rainbow", eventually left, he somehow hired Tim "Ripper" Owens, which gave Yngwie some decent sales for his 2008 album Perpetual Flame, which for me was the starting point for his "I-play-covers-of-myself" era (in terms of originality and songwriting).

So now, Malmsteen, bereft of a good lineup decided: "Fuck that, I'm going to record everything myself". But it's not like the Devin Townsend kind of "solo record" with decent production and Toontrack drums. Instead, the great maestro decided to use some GuitarPro-ish drums and sing the lines himself with a terrible AutoTune plugin. Yes, the liner notes mention Mark Ellis as the drummer, but you won't get away with this, Yngwie - we're not that stoopid! So yes, the vocals sound terrible, and also due to Yngwie's laziness to catch the perfect pitch, although he has an interesting timbre. On top of that, World On Fire is overwhelmed with rushing guitar parts, note skipping and so on and so forth. Oh and just in case, let me remind you that this is a review on an album by a guitar player. Seems like he didn't care about the result...

You know, it's really really sad to know that such a talented person (whose albums I had listened to since I was 11) turned into a self-repeating and lazy kind of artist.

The only memorable tracks were "Sorcery," which had just a little bit different approach to songwriting than the others, and "Soldier," which has a great chorus, but the obvious "copy-paste" of the same vocal track 4 times was kinda odd.

We love you, Yngwie, but with this approach you're definitely on the wrong track.