Metal Anarchy

Yngwie Malmsteen has announced that he will be releasing a new album, titled “Hell Or High Water,” on November 13. An official music video for the effort’s first single, “Now Or Never,” can be found below:

“Hell Or High Water” Track Listing:

01. “Now Or Never”
02. “Am Caprice/Hell Or High Water”
03. “(He Is) Living A Lie”
04. “Antikythera”
05. “(On The) Battlefield”
06. “Beyond Zeta Reticuli”
07. “Prestissimo In Bm/Adagio”
08. “Eye For An Eye”
09. “Father”

Malmsteen commented:

“When I started making records, I would just take the songs I had lying around. Later on, I fell into a schedule — make a record, tour the record and then write the next record. Over the pandemic, I realised it was better to focus completely uninterrupted, so I stayed at home to write this album over the course of eight months. I had around 80 or 90 tracks finished, and then I had to decide which ones were the strongest.”

He continued:

“Even without a guitar in my hands, the music just comes to me. It’s like that movie ‘Amadeus’. Mozart was getting music given to him in complete form. I understand the building blocks and can therefore build you anything you like. If you asked me to write you a death metal song, call me back in five minutes, and I’d have it ready for you. You want country and western or reggae? No problem. I can give you whatever you want. The language of music is simple. There are certain notes that belong together in whatever stylistic direction and sound pleasant to the ear. The ideas don’t come all the time, but when they do, it’s like an avalanche. The pieces I choose for my records are like gifts that I capture because they amaze me. I’m very lucky in that sense.”

He also added the following about the closing track “Father,” which serves as a tribute for his dad:

“He was an amazing man. I was proud to have him as a father, and I loved him. I wanted to dedicate all of this to him, and that one particular track is for him. I wanted others to feel what I felt when they hear it. Niccolò Paganini once said, ‘One must feel strongly in order to make others feel strongly’. It’s one thing to be a typewriter and another thing to be someone who writes stories that can touch people. That was always the point.”