Yngwie Malmsteen has released his new album Perpetual Flame, and it's a joint effort between his own record label Rising Force and the newly signed distributor Koch Records. The album from the guitar virtuoso features the vocals of former Judas Priest frontman Tim "Ripper" Owens, and many say it's the heaviest album to date.
Malmsteen first collaborated with
Owens during a
2000 Ozzy Tribute album when they teamed for "
Mr. Crowley." We caught up with
Malmsteen in New York to talk about the new album and his new singer.
"Well, we weren't really because I recorded my guitar in one studio and he recorded his vocals in another studio. We know each other of course. I bumped into him really quickly at the NAMM show now and again, and we just started talking and decided to try it out, and we did. And that was is. The way I did the album is quite different, because all through the years there's always been a cycle. You do a cycle. You tour, the tour ends, you sit down and write songs...(but for this one) We go in and we record the basic tracks for about twenty-five songs and then I go on the road, come back about a month later or so, and I listen to it, 'Whoa, this sounds cool. I like this one,' I start writing lyrics for it and put some bass and guitar, and then I go on the road again and then I come back, back and forth like this. So every time I come back I hear the songs a little different. So that's a different way of doing it. That's how I realized because I wrote the lyrics and the melodies and everything that the songs were taking shape to be what they now are, I'm going to need a different singer."
Malmsteen, who was honored with induction into the Hollywood Rockwalk last month, will be keeping a low profile for the rest of 2008, before touring Europe, Japan, and the U.S. in 2009.
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Yngwie Malmsteen On Perpetual Flame And Ripper Owens
