lukretion My reaction to Malmsteen’s post-1990s albums is almost as predictable as the formula he used to write them. Invariably, I end up concluding that the Swedish guitar wizard has done better elsewhere. Attack!! is no exception, although there are more surprises here than what I was expecting going in. This turns out to be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, Malmsteen seems to have tried to shake things up a bit across the 15 tracks that form this record, which is never a bad thing. On the other hand, the new directions he experimented with in some of the songs seem somewhat misguided and give the album a fragmented, disjointed feel overall.

In the album’s first-half, Yngwie seems busy attempting to revive the sound and spirit of his glorious past. Fast neoclassical guitar scales abound in the construction of riffs, leads and solos, absolutely dominating the soundscape and instantly bringing to mind the true essence of the genre. Differently from the neoclassical power metal strain that became popular in the 1990s, the spirit of songs like “Valley of Kings”, “Ship of Fools”, or the title-track, is truly rooted in the classic origins of the genre, displaying a hard rock swagger that instantly connects to the music of the 1970s (Deep Purple, Rainbow). Enlisting Doogie White on vocals was a clever move to make that connection even more credible, as the singer does a good job at infusing the polished baroque melodies with some healthy rock ‘n’ roll grit. With the guitar and voice firmly put at the heart of each song, the other musicians are vastly relegated to an inconspicuous sparring partner role, which is mad considering the talents Yngwie managed to enlist here (did he really need Derek Sherinian to play simple chords in a handful of tracks?). But this won’t surprise anyone who is familiar with Malmsteen or who has simply glanced at the endless list of musicians that have transited in his band over the years.

If the album’s first-half flows away pleasantly albeit with a general sense of deja-vu, the second-half is where things start going awry. Here Yngwie attempted to shake things up with a handful of tracks that depart from the usual neoclassical formula, but unfortunately took things in directions that are not particularly convincing. If the detour towards classical instrumental music (“Baroque & Roll”, “Air”) fits well with the album’s overall aesthetics, I cannot say the same about the AOR inflections of “Stronghold” and “Touch the Sky”, or about the straightforward but insipid rock ‘n’ roll vibes of “Mad Dog”. The major offender, however, is “Freedom Isn't Free” a fuzzy blues affair that may nod to Jimi Hendrix, but in a way that would have made the poor man roll over in his grave. The fact that Yngwie decided to sing this song himself with a performance which isn’t exactly for the history books, only adds to the woes of what must be the album’s absolutely lowest point.

The combination of inconsistent direction and lack of quality makes the album’s latter part a chore to sit through and, by the time I get to “Freedom Isn't Free”, I usually press the STOP button because I can’t seem to make myself care about the LP anymore (which is a pity since “Majestic Blue” and “Valhalla” are not bad songs, actually). The shaky sound production isn’t exactly encouraging repeat listens, either. Unsurprisingly, the guitars dominate the soundscape, but they are mixed oddly with the rhythm guitar hard-panned to the right and the bass hard-panned to the left in the stereo mix, giving an odd, disjointed feel to the overall sound. The sudden spikes in volume that occur whenever the lead guitar kicks in contribute to the same unpleasant effect. The drums are also mixed in a strange way, very loud and in your face but with a flat, lifeless sound that at times is actually annoying (the snare in “Attack!!”).

Overall, Attack!! leaves me with the general impression of a less accomplished and less inspired version of the sound Yngwie pioneered in the 1980s, with the further aggravating factor of a highly inconsistent and misguided second-half. For some, Attack!! may still be better than the two albums that immediately preceded it, but we are a long long way from anything that might resemble a reasonable return to form.