Overall, I give this CD a strong 8. Review by snobb Special Collaborator Honorary Collaborator. For me, this album is more Alan Holdsworth work, even if Johansson brothers participation is very important. I really can hardly remember so good balance of technical skills, melodies, improvisations recorded at the time this album was released.
Even comparing with Allan Holdsworth's works,released under his own name, this album is really great work! Alan Holdsworth's participation gave not only great guitar sound and great name there, but bring excellent improvs atmosphere to usually more rock-oriented Johansson's music. Rare very successful combination on the border of jazz fusion and instrumental rock.
Must have release for any Holdsworth fan, very good music for all jazz rock fans as well. Review by Tarcisio Moura Prog Reviewer. But when you think of all these fantastic people playing, one would expect something at least very good. Quite a dream team for this kind of work. However, The Last Viking suffers from a very bad production the bass is almost inaudible and a lack of strong songwriting.
Some parts are good, like the second track. Burning Eyes, that reminds of good latter day Deep Purple stuff. But most of the time the songs just sound disappointingly short, not well arranged and many seem to be half baked.
Romeo is seldom heard, unlike anything he has ever done before or since. A truly waste of great musicianship. It might spare you from the big disappointment I had at the time.
Rating: two stars because of some brief good moments. This one is for collectors and completionists only. This album is the first out of three albums that the two brothers, keyboardist Jens and drummer Anders Johansson, made under their last name. For those of you who don't know the history of these guys, they both used to play in Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force in the 80's. But don't be fooled, the Johansson brothers have a much wider set of influences that stretches far beyond the narrow boundaries of Neo-Classical Metal.
This can be seen on their especially Jens extremely diverse output. Jens has also played keyboards on many bands and artists albums including Blackmore's Night. The present album is more in the Deep Purple category but with many progressive aspects. I would probably put this album in the Heavy Prog category. The Johansson brothers are obviously very skilled on their respective instruments and not surprisingly the sound is strongly dominated by keyboards and drums but there are also bass and guitars.
There are a couple of instrumentals, but most of the tracks have vocals. The keyboards are mainly organ, synthesisers, some piano and something that sounds like a harpsichord even if I'm pretty sure that it is produced with electronic keyboards. The vocals are very bluesy and almost soulful and would fit in nicely in any classic bluesy Hard Rock band.
Deep Purple might come to mind, but the music here is much more melodic during the vocal parts and much more progressive and jazzy during the instrumental parts. Most of the songs are based on melody and not on instrumental workout. Most of the many keyboard solos are appropriate within the context of the songs and never too excessive. This is not at all an album concerned just with showing off chops. The song itself is about five and a half minute, but the track runs to over 21 minutes of silence with some noise at the very end.
So don't expect an epic here! Compared to the other two albums they did, Sonic Winter and especially The Last Viking, this debut is slightly immature. Thanks to rushfan4 for the updates. Please login to post a shout. Stay signed in. TOP 25 and more filters. Social Media. Mto bom o blog. Brother valeu pela discografia!
Valeu cara! Cara ainda to baixando os cds.. Post Brutal parabens. Amei o site! Tem todos os discos de Malmsteen! Eu sou do Brasil e amo malmsteen! Valeu e sucesso para todos! Porra, tava me matando para achar o Malmsteen Tinha acabado de formatar o pc, e nao acahava esse fdp em lugar nenhum.
Grato pra caraio! Prezado a Admin, quero agradecer pelo material do Yngwie Malmsteen disponibilizado no seu Blog. Att, Mario. Stay Heavy'n'Hard Metal Esses arquivos tem apenas o intuito de divulgar as respectivas bandas! Yngwie J. Malmsteen: All electric and acoustic guitars, bass guitar, background vocals. Joe Lynn Turner: Vocals. Jens Johansson: Keyboards. Liar 2. Queen In Love 3. Deja Vu 4.
0コメント