Yngwie Signs with Pony Canyon and Begins a New Phase of His Career

On Feb. 3 the new band lineup began rehearsals for the upcoming world tour. The new album, The Seventh Sign, was released in Japan on Feb. 18, 1994. The raw, aggressive power of the album brought immediate comparison to one of his earliest works, Marching Out. It quickly reached #1 on the International charts and was certified triple platinum in Japan. CMC International Records picked up the distribution rights for Europe and America, and worked vigorously to promote the new album worldwide. Yngwie's 7th Sign tour played to sold out audiences in Japan, followed by club appearances in Europe and the U.S. New label CMC worked vigorously to rebuild Yngwie's core audience and get the new album played on the airwaves. Although the U.S. still proved to be a difficult market due to the current popularity of "grunge" music, The Seventh Sign outsold all other Yngwie albums in Japan and Asia.

In September and October, Pony Canyon released two mini-albums, Power and Glory (with Yngwie's theme for Japanese wrestling champion Takada) and I Can't Wait (with two previously unreleased tracks and several live tracks from Yngwie's concert at Tokyo's Budokan). A Japanese version of the Budokan show was released as a concert video, with worldwide distribution to be handled through CMC. After nearly a year on the road, Yngwie ended the tour in November 1994, and the band went home for a much needed break.

In December 1994, construction began on Yngwie's own recording studio in Miami, with state-of-the-art mixing board, tape drives, and monitoring equipment. Work also began on Yngwie's next album, Magnum Opus, with a target release date of June, 1995, from Pony Canyon. Yngwie and his manager agreed to part ways with CMC due to lack of distribution capability, and negotiations for a new European/USA label deal began as soon as the master tapes were shipped to Pony Canyon.

The Magnum Opus tour got underway in September 1995 in Japan, covering an unprecedented 17 cities and drawing his largest crowds ever. From there, the band headed to England and Europe for two months. Midway through the tour, Michael Vescera developed bronchitis from a cold and had to drop out of the tour for 5 shows. The concerts went on as scheduled, however, with Yngwie himself stepping into the singer's role, although songs that were not in his range had to be eliminated from the playlist. Mike rejoined the band in Germany, taking part in a festival minitour with 4 other bands, including metal veterans Saxon. At year's end, Yngwie and the band flew home to the U.S. on Christmas Eve, for a well-deserved rest.

Yngwie Records His First Album in Studio 308

Beginning in January, Yngwie put his Studio 308 to good use, flying in several old friends and musicians-- including Joe Lynn Turner, Jeff Scott Soto, David Rosenthal, Marcel Jacob, and Mark Boals--to work on a new project. For many years, Yngwie kept in the back of his mind the desire to record some of the songs he grew up with that influenced both the way he plays and the way he writes songs. Of course, that meant the music of Deep Purple, Rainbow, U.K., Kansas, Scorpions, Rush, and Jimi Hendrix. With old pals the Johansson brothers providing drum tracks and some of the keyboards, the "Inspiration" album began to take shape. By mid-April, the tapes were mastered and cover artwork was commissioned: a painting by Japanese artist Asari Yoda, featuring visual elements representing the bands covered on the album. With the Magnum Opus lineup disbanded and most of those players moving on to other projects, Yngwie assembled a touring band that proved to be as tight and powerful as any he's worked with: Mats Olausson continuing to anchor the keyboards slot, Live in Leningrad veteran Barry Dunaway on bass, Trilogy vocalist Mark Boals, and drummer extraordinaire Tommy Aldridge of such bands as Ozzy, Whitesnake, and Pat Travers. South America was the first site of attack for the new lineup, with crowds of delirious Brazilians and Agentinians packing the large concert halls each night. The tour continued unabated into the U.S., Japan, and Europe, proving that Yngwie's turbo-charged brand of melodic hard rock was not only NOT dead, it had found new life.

Yngwie concluded the "Inspiration" tour in December '96 with nearly a dozen guitar clinics held in England and Europe. Fan response to these intimate sessions with their hero was so positive that Yngwie promised to try to do more such appearances in the future. After a brief stay in England, hanging out with long-time friend Uli Jon Roth, Yngwie returned home to Miami to begin work on his next studio album as well as his much-anticipated work for electric guitar and orchestra.

The Orchestral Work Fans Have Been Waiting for Becomes a Reality

After months of intensive work sequestered in his Miami Studio 308, Yngwie produced his first completely classical work, Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in Eb minor, Op. 1. In June of 1997, Yngwie flew to Prague for a date with the prestigious Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which had recently celebrated the 100th year since its founding. In three intensive days of recording, with Atlanta Symphony conductor Yoel Levi wielding the baton, Yngwie's dream to record a work of his own with a full symphony orchestra had become reality. Anxious fans would have to wait until 1998 to hear the astonishing results, but they didn't mind... many of them had been waiting for this since Yngwie's debut album in 1984!

Not one to rest on his triumphs, Yngwie returned to Miami to put the finishing touches on his 1998 studio album, Facing the Animal, featuring none other than Cozy Powell behind the drums. Fueled with passion and a dark brooding intensity, Facing the Animal was highly regarded by both critics and the majority of fans as one of the Maestro's strongest offerings in years. Distributed outside Japan on the Mercury label, Yngwie was able to get initial promotional support and gave numerous press interviews for the album.

Fatherhood and Other Life Changes

On March 6, 1998, one of the most momentous events in Yngwie's life occurred: his first child, Antonio Yngwie Johann Malmsteen, was born in Miami, Florida. Yngwie and his wife April hardly had time to get used to their new role as parents, however, because tour dates booked long in advance now had to be honored. So at age three weeks, tiny Antonio obtained his first passport! Luckily for April and Yngwie, he turned out to be a real road dog like his dad, and he was happiest throughout the tour whenever they were moving in planes, trains, buses, and taxis.

However, while Yngwie was celebrating the birth of his son, he also suddenly had to cope with a tragic loss. Just as he was preparing to take the Facing the Animal Tour on the road, a horrific nighttime car accident in England claimed the life of Cozy Powell. Shaken, but determined to carry on, Yngwie hired Jonas Ostman as tour drummer, and the crew set out for Japan, South America, and selected dates in Europe and the U.K. During several sold-out shows in Brazil, a new concert video and CD were recorded, called simply Yngwie Malmsteen LIVE!! Unfortunately for fans, the U.S. and Canadian leg of the tour had to be scrapped due to poor response from promoters and the loss of record company support, because of the sale of Mercury/Polygram to Seagram/Universal. Thus, Yngwie returned home to Miami with his family, and settled down for the rest of the year, getting used to his new role as father.

By early 1999, he had begun work on his next rock album, Alchemy. Released in September 1999, this album gave many of Yngwie's hardcore fans something they'd been hoping for: a return to his heaviest roots and themes. Of this album, Yngwie said, "I wanted to make an album where my playing was as extreme as possible, with no thought to its commercial value. I wrote all the lyrics, using topics that are most interesting to me, such as Leonardo da Vinci." Yngwie explains, "I chose this title because 'alchemy' is where science and magic meet - the science of the recording process meshed with the magic of the music." For this return to the "Rising Force" sound and approach, Yngwie chose Trilogy singer Mark Boals, who outdid himself on the demanding, often operatic vocals Yngwie crafted for Alchemy. The album also featured the stunning graphic design of Ioannis of Vivid Images, which departed from the usual "photobook" CD liner design for a total design concept that incorporated a separately illustrated panel for each song. Alchemy was heralded as Yngwie's "guitar manifesto" for the new Millennium, once again blazing a trail for others to follow in a "quantum leap" forward into the next phase of his career.

Goodbye Lewis Entertainment, Hello Spitfire

Early in the year 2000, Yngwie hired new management, replacing Lewis Entertainment which had not been able to advance his career satisfactorily in the USA. His new manager, Miami businessman Michael Spitzer, brokered Yngwie's contract with Spitfire Records, which released Yngwie's album War to End All Wars in November 2000, as well as his entire Japanese back catalog. Spitfire backed a media publicity blitz in the USA, resulting in Yngwie's best selling album in the USA in years.

Yngwie's life has been a continual series of ups and downs, and the beginning of the new Millennium was no exception. The successful launch of Yngwie on a new, aggressive USA label got underway with a "guest artist" slot on label-mate Dio's Magica Tour. Following this highly visible month of touring, Yngwie launched his own headlining ambitious 45-date American tour in March 2001. For the first month of the tour, rave reviews from fans poured into the Fan Club and across the Internet. But this success was short-lived, when two band members quit the band in mid-tour, leaving Yngwie with no way to continue the tour and forcing the cancellation of over a dozen remaining USA dates.

Fans were devastated, and the Internet became saturated with rumors of who said and did whatever to ruin the tour. But with typical Malmsteen determination, Yngwie put these setbacks behind him and immediately began auditioning new band members to take on the overseas portion of his 2001 WAR tour, with the hope of rescheduling the lost USA dates after his return from Japan.

In addition to rock touring dates in Europe, Asia, UK, and South America, the second half of 2001 also brought Yngwie his first opportunity to perform his critically acclaimed Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar , with the New Japan Philharmonic Orchestra in Tokyo. The DVD/CD/VHS package of this groundbreaking performance became Yngwie's first release of the year in January 2002, with numerous offers to play the Concerto Suite for other orchestras around the world.