In a new video interview with Premier Guitar, legendary Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen spoke about the importance — or lack thereof — of pleasing a certain segment of his fanbase every time he releases a new studio album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “I’ve never really been a person that actively follows things or moves in certain directions because of whatever. I’m very much spontaneous. I pick the guitar up and I play it. If it’s great, it’s great; if it is not, it is not. And I just do what I do.
“It’s an interesting phenomenon, because I was doing this for decades before there was an Internet, and I’m sure there were people saying certain things then too; I just didn’t hear them,” he continued. “I don’t hear them now either. But I have a very strong self-criticism built in. I don’t allow things that are not up to my standards. If I do something that I feel is very strong and something that I feel very passionate about, if someone says something derogatory about it, I say, ‘Well, you can listen to something else.’ This is my art. This is my expression. This is what I do. If you try to please everybody, you please nobody.
“My new album, ‘Parabellum’, is the perfect example,” Yngwie added. “It is completely devoid of compromise. It doesn’t have any compromise whatsoever in any way, shape or form. It’s completely only an expression of what I feel, what I’m passionate about, what came to me spontaneously. So, again, what could be the least important thing to me is what somebody with an iPhone thinks and puts on the Internet.”
“Parabellum” will be released on July 23 via Music Theories Recordings/Mascot Label Group. Only four of the songs on the album feature vocals.
The album title “Parabellum” is Latin, translating as “Prepare For War”. “There’s a track on the album called ‘(Si Vis Pacem) Parabellum’,” Yngwie said. “This translates as ‘If you want peace, then prepare for war.’ It was a last-minute decision to make this the album title. But I think it fits very well.”
The striking portrait on the cover was painted by the acclaimed artist David Benegas.
The complete track listing includes “Wolves At The Door”, “Presto Vivace in C# Minor”, “Relentless Fury”, “(Sis Vis Pacem) Parabellum”, “Eternal Bliss”, “Toccata”, “Good Particle”, “Magic Bullet”, “(Fight) The Good Fight” and “Sea Of Tranquility”. The album will be available on CD, red tranparent LP and digital.
