Birth of the Sun

First let me start off by saying that this release is technically not new. The material on this album predates Yngwie's success with his former bands Alcatrazz and Steeler. "Birth of the Sun" consists of six songs that were from Yngwie Malmsteen's early demos from 1980. They are considered a bootleg collection of old rehearsal tapes which an old Swedish bandmate of Yngwie's has had in his possession for all these years. It's been re-mixed and re-mastered by Powerline Records and IS NOT an official Yngwie Malmsteen release or a real Rising Force album because it was released without Yngwie's knowledge or permission. However, Powerline Records claims that the sessions that make up the CD were fully financed by the family of Marcel Jacob, former bass player in the band, and are fully owned by Marcel. To the best of Powerline Records knowledge, it has been suggested in previous negotiations that there would be no objection to these historically important recordings being released as long as they were under control of a certain member of the band. All of the royalties and mechanical copyrights are being paid. Any disagreements amongst the former members of Rising Force as to where the allocation of the royalties are to go is an internal matter between them. They also feel that the recording quality can in no way be termed as of bootleg quality because it was fully remixed and re-mastered and is of a far higher quality then any other previously released version of these recordings. With that said, this might be a jewel in the rough for Malmsteen fans. In my opinion the overall quality and mix of the album is pretty good considering the history behind it. The guitar style and sound is closer to that used on his albums with Steeler and Alcatrazz and his first two official releases. Back then you could actually hear what Yngwie was playing as far as his rhythm guitar playing, unlike the muffled twangy sound he has today. Musically there's alot of lead guitar soloing over a tight rhythm section of drums and bass, a commendable accomplishment when trying to keep up with a fast guitar virtuoso. The vocals are just horrid and take much getting used to if anything. The singer sounds like a mix between Frank Zappa and Ozzy Osbourne on quaaludes. I can even sadly say that the guy also sounds like Crackhead Bob, for those of you familiar with the Howard Stern show wack packers. Another thing I must point out is that there are no keyboards on this album. The only song which I recognized parts that showed up on later Yngwie releases is on "Suite Opus III". I could hear parts of "Krakatau" from "Odyssey". I wish Yngwie would re-record some of these songs with the line up he has now. I'm sure he would have wanted to even re-mix and re-record some parts on this release had he known or had possession of the tapes himself. Overall this is an album that might be better than alot of other Yngwie Malmsteen releases, but I would recommend it to die hard fans only.