Perpetual Flame

Untitled

Perpetual Flame is an all-new studio album by guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen and his group Rising Force, released on October 13, 2008 in Europe and on October 14, 2008 in the U.S.A. and Canada. It is his first album since 2005's Unleash the Fury and the first with ex-Judas Priest and Iced Earth singer Tim "Ripper" Owens. The album also features famed keyboardist Derek Sherinian on keyboards.

The album was also produced by Malmsteen himself, who also served as engineer, and was mixed by Roy Z (of Bruce Dickinson and Halford fame).

On tour, Malmsteen will be joined by Bjorn Englen on bass and Michael Troy on keyboards.

The tracks Red Devil, Damnation Game, and Caprici di Diablo were made as downloadable content for the games Rock Band and Rock Band 2 on November 25, 2008

Track listing

No.	Title	Lyrics	Music	Length
1.	"Death Dealer"	Yngwie Malmsteen	Malmsteen	5:26
2.	"Damnation Game"	Malmsteen	Malmsteen	5:04
3.	"Live to Fight (Another Day)"	Malmsteen	Malmsteen	6:13
4.	"Red Devil"	Malmsteen	Malmsteen	4:07
5.	"Four Horsemen (Of the Apocalypse)"	Malmsteen	Malmsteen	5:23
6.	"Priest of the Unholy"	Malmsteen	Malmsteen	6:47
7.	"Be Careful What You Wish For"	Malmsteen	Malmsteen	5:29
8.	"Caprici di Diablo"	(instrumental)	Malmsteen	4:28
9.	"Lament"	(instrumental)	Malmsteen	4:31
10.	"Magic City"	Malmsteen	Malmsteen	7:26
11.	"Eleventh Hour"	Malmsteen	Malmsteen	8:03
12.	"Heavy Heart"	(instrumental)	Malmsteen	5:58

Personnel

• Yngwie Malmsteen - lead & rhythm guitars, bass, additional keyboards, backing vocals and lead vocals on "Magic City".
• Tim "Ripper" Owens - lead vocals
• Derek Sherinian - keyboards
• Patrick Johansson - drums
• Roy Z – mixing

Maor Appelbaum - mastering

Tied of Desire and Eleventh Hour

Mysteriously, lyrics were printed in the insert of Perpetual Flame for a song entitled "Tied of Desire." The lyrics are about not giving up, and of a Perpetual fire, a flame still burning; themes that seem to go with the title of the album. When asked in a recent interview, Yngwie stated that Tied of Desire was accidentally printed and will be omitted in future releases. He made it clear that he plans to use the song in the future for something else.

The eleventh song on the album is spelled in three different ways. On the back of the album, the song is called "Leventh Hour", while on the back of the booklet the song's title is "Eleventh Hour". Finally, inside the booklet the song is called "The Eleventh Hour". The title on the back cover is most certainly misspelled.

Also, the three instrumentals are handled in a peculiar way, the song "Lament" is mentioned inside the booklet as being an instrumental with the music written by Yngwie J. Malmsteen, but there is no mention at all of the other two, "Caprici Di Diablo" and "Heavy Heart".

Critical Reception

The album has achieved generally positive reviews from critics. Critic Greg Prato of Allmusic writes "Not since the days of Jeff Scott Soto has Yngwie Malmsteen shared the spotlight with a singer who possessed enough pizazz to truly stand toe to toe with the Swedish six-string shredder...the result is Yngwie's best album in some time."