Yngwie Malmsteen

Yngwie Johann Malmsteen is a highly influential Swedish-American guitarist. His music is the Trope Codifier of neoclassical metal, and he is considered to be one of the best guitar shredders around.

Yngwie's technique consists of high speed picking and sweep picking in the harmonic minor scale, diminished arpeggios, and phrygian mode.

Along with Eric Clapton, he was one of the first artists to have a signature guitar released by Fender.

Current backing band:

• Tim "Ripper" Owens: Vocals (2008-present)
• Bjorn Englen: Bass (2008-present)
• Patrick Johansson: Drums (2001-present)
• Nick Marino: Keyboards (2010-present)

Former members:

• Let's just say there are a lot.

Discography:

• Rising Force (1984)
• Marching Out (1985)
• Trilogy (1986)
• Odyssey (1988)
• Eclipse (1990)
• Fire and ice (1992)
• The Seventh Sign (1994)
• Magnum Opus (1995)
• Inspiration (1996)
• Facing the Animal (1997)
• Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra in E flat minor Op. 1 (1998)
• Alchemy (1999)
• War to End All Wars (2000)
• Attack!! (2002)
• Unleash the Fury (2005)
• Angels of Love (2009)
• Relentless (2010)

---

Yngwie Malmsteen provides examples of the following tropes:

• Ascended Meme - After an audio tape of a very-drunk Malmsteen ranting at someone for spilling water on him on an airplane leaked and became popular on the internet, he titled his next album (Unleash the Fury) after the best-known line from the rant. ("You've released the fucking fury!")
• Chronological Album Title - Trilogy and The Seventh Sign
• Cluster F-Bomb - The aforementioned rant.
  • The Onion referenced this in a sidebar article where Yngwie legally changed his middle name to "Fucking".
• Cover Album - Inspiration
• Flip-Flop of God - An instrumental from an instruction video was called "Arpeggios From Hell", later recorded with his band as "Molto Arpeggiosa", and then recorded with the "Arpeggios From Hell" title.
• Heavy Mithril - On occasion.
• I Am the Band - The first few albums were credited to Yngwie Malmsteen's Rising Force, but he eventually decided to stop pretending that the band wasn't really him and whoever else was around.
• Jerkass - He's infamous for being incredibly arrogant.
• Large Ham - VERY large
• Instrumentals - Most of Rising Force, all of Angels of Love, and plenty of tracks on his other albums as well.
• My Nayme Is - His professional name is derived from one of his own given names (Yngve) and his mother's maiden name (Malmsten). The spellings of both were changed.
• No Pronunciation Guide: It's pronounced Ing-Vay, not Ing-Wee.
• Power Ballad - "Dreaming"
• Power High: The subject of "Rising Force".
• Power Metal - Some of his music falls into this category, and many power metal bands (such as Stratovarius) were influenced by him.
• Revolving Door Band