Yngwie Malmsteen: Rising Force

October 21, 2025

Every once in a while, I succumb to the compulsion to dip back into my heavy metal days… and queue up old songs that I used to listen to (either on cassette tape, or via MTV).

Recently, I was looking over an old blog post: Heavy Metal Nostalgia from a Marvel Movie Trailer. And I started thinking about the guitar heroes I used to admire as a highschooler – Eddie Van Halen, of course. But then the slew of blistering shredding guitarists that followed in his wake – folks like Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Yngwie Malmsteen.

A few random YouTube searches later… I found myself listening to songs from Malmsteen’s album Odyssey… and then just got hooked again. Particularly the opening track, “Rising Force.”

For me, I think the heavy metal I liked ended up having operatic overtones – high-powered tenors with ridiculous vibrato, set against guitar solos that ran up and down the fretboard.

The lyrics are… well, they’re heavy metal lyrics. And they are just fantastic as well.

The lightning, strikes cracking the night
It feels like never before
Thunder and spark in the heart of the dark
I hear a rising force

While I admit my ears are likely biased due to my listening habits as a teen, I do still think the guitar still holds up, after all this time. So much fun to listen to again.