Yngwie Malmsteen’s new album coincides with upcoming launch of Fender Custom Shop Yngwie Malmsteen Tribute Series Stratocaster “Play Loud” guitar
The long-awaited new album from Swedish Stratocaster guitar master and perpetual neoclassical metal enfant terrible Yngwie Malmsteen, Perpetual Flame, will be released on Oct. 14, 2008, on Malmsteen’s own Rising Force Records.
Malmsteen self-produced the 12-song album, which features vocals by former Judas Priest/Iced Earth frontman Tim “Ripper” Owens in his first recorded appearance with Malmsteen, who also played bass and keyboards on the album and contributed some vocals. Keyboardist Derek Sherinian and drummer Patrick Johansson also appear on the album; Malmsteen’s touring band will include keyboardist Michael Troy and bassist Bjorn Englen.
Malmsteen will tour behind the album throughout October 2008 in the United States and Canada.
Equally significant to Fender fans, the release of Perpetual Flame coincides with the November 2008 release of the Fender Custom Shop 100-instrument Yngwie Malmsteen Tribute Series Stratocaster, a.k.a. “Play Loud,” guitar replica. The instrument is a meticulous recreation of the infamous and battle-hardened 1971 Stratocaster guitar that fueled Malmsteen’s meteoric rise to metal stardom, complete with heavily worn Olympic white finish, scalloped fingerboard and distinctive body graphics.
Malmsteen rose to fame in the early 1980s as the phenomenally talented and flamboyantly theatrical sole progenitor of “neoclassic” metal. Live and on record, his classically inflected guitar chops dazzled all who heard him. His phenomenal playing proved highly influential and served as the foundation for an entire new metal sub-genre. Several of his many albums are considered metal classics, including Rising Force (1984), Marching Out (1985), Fire and Ice (1992) and Unleash the Fury (2005).
Visit Yngwie Malmsteen’s Tribute Series Stratocaster website here and visit Guitar Hood Fender Store to buy Fender Yngwie Malmsteen Stratocaster Guitars.