Jos Ramn Montero Del Angel | Universidad Veracruzana

Reading activity
Title: Yngwie J. Malmsteen
Level. Intermediate +
Objective. To practice reading comprehension and identify the past form of the
verb and the regular and irregular forms.
Instructions: Read the text carefully and answer the questions below.

Yngwie J. Malmsteen
Yngwie Johann Malmsteen (born Lars Johann Yngve Lannerbck, June 30,
1963) is a Swedish guitarist, composer and bandleader.

Widely recognized as a virtuoso, Malmsteen achieved widespread acclaim in
the 1980s due to his technical proficiency and his pioneering neo-classical
metal. Guitar One magazine rated him the third fastest guitar shredder in the
world after Michael Angelo Batio and Chris Impellitteri.
Born into a musical family in Stockholm, Yngwie was the youngest child in the
family. At an early age, he showed little interest in music. It wasn't until
September 18, 1970 when at age seven he saw a TV special on the death of
Jimi Hendrix that Malmsteen became obsessed with the guitar. To quote his
official website, "The day Jimi Hendrix died, the guitar-playing Yngwie was
born".

He claims his first name in Swedish means "young Viking chief". Actually, it is
a variation of Yngvi, who founded the House of Yngling, which is the oldest
known Swedish dynasty.

Malmsteen was in his teens when he first encountered the music of the 19th-

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century violin virtuoso Niccol Paganini, whom he cites as his biggest classical
influence. It has been rumoured that Yngwie believes himself to be the
reincarnation of the temperamental, often criticized,and widely misunderstood
violinist from Genoa. Through his emulation of Paganini concerto pieces on
guitar, Malmsteen developed a prodigious technical fluency. Malmsteen also
cites Jimi Hendrix, Steve Hackett of Genesis, Brian May, Uli Jon Roth, and
Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple as influences.

Malmsteen's contributions to the evolution of modern rock guitar, particularly
his embracing of modal progressions and classically-influenced techniques not
widely used in rock music, broke new ground and Malmsteen is often credited,
along with vituoso guitarist Randy Rhoads, with the creation of the
neoclassical metal genre, inspiring a new generation of virtuoso electric
guitarists including Paul Gilbert and Tony MacAlpine.
1980s
In late 1982 Malmsteen was brought to the USA by Mike Varney of Shrapnel
Records, who had heard a demo tape of Malmsteen's playing. Shrapnel is
synonymous with the shred style of music. He had brief engagements with
Steeler, for their self-titled album of 1983, then Alcatrazz, for their 1983 debut
No Parole From Rock N' Roll, and the 1984 live album Live Sentence. He left
Alcatrazz in 1984, replaced by Steve Vai, and began his solo career.

Malmsteen released his first solo album "Rising Force" (winner of Guitar
Player Magazine's Best Rock Album and nominated for a 1984 Grammy for
Best Rock Instrumental) which achieved #60 on the Billboard album chart. He
was nominated for a Grammy and later Rising Force topped the charts at
number 1. This was followed by "Marching Out" (1985). Jeff Scott Soto was the
singer in the first two albums.

His third album, Trilogy, was released in 1986. In 1987, former Rainbow
vocalist Joe Lynn Turner joined his band. That year, Malmsteen was in a
serious car accident, smashing his Jaguar XKE into a tree and putting him in a
coma for a week. Nerve damage to his right hand was reported. It was during
his time in the hospital that Malmsteen's mother died from cancer.

In the summer of 1988 he released his fourth album, Odyssey. Odyssey would
be his biggest hit album, mainly because of its first single "Heaven Tonight".
Shows in Russia during the Odyssey tour were recorded, and released in 1989

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as his fifth album Trial By Fire: Live in Leningrad. The concert in Leningrad
was the largest ever by a western artist in the Soviet Union, and Malmsteen's
record sales in Russia totalled 27 million.

In late 1988, his signature series Fender Stratocaster was released, making
him the second artist so honored, after Eric Clapton.

Malmsteen's style "Neo-classical" became somewhat popular during the mid
1980s, with notable contemporaries such as Paul Gilbert, Marty Friedman,
Tony MacAlpine and Vinnie Moore all reaching prominence after Yngwie.
However, only Paul Gilbert claimed Yngwie as an influence, with MacAlpine
coming to the neoclassical/shred field by applying his classical piano training to
his guitar playing and Moore arriving at a similar style because he shared
Yngwie's major influences, Ritchie Blackmore of Deep Purple and Al Di Meola,
American jazz fusion great of Return to Forever fame.
1990s
In the early 1990s he released the albums Eclipse (1990), The Yngwie
Malmsteen Collection (1991), Fire and Ice (1992) and The Seventh Sign (1994).

Despite his early success, and continuous success in Europe and Asia, by the
early 1990s the gratuitous over-the-top stylings of 1980s heavy metal had
become unfashionable in the USA. This was displaced by the Seattle grunge
movement, where technical ability was replaced by simpler, more emotionally-
driven songs. The grunge rock movement may have arisen in part as a
backlash to the overly technical metal inspired by Malmsteen and his
contemporaries, which despite its often impressive technique was regarded by
many as ponderous, bland and self-indulgent.

In the 1990s, Malmsteen continued to record and release albums under the
Japanese record label Pony Canyon, and maintained a devoted following in
Europe and Japan, and to a lesser extent in the USA. In 2000, he once again
acquired a contract with a US record label, Spitfire, and released his 1990s
catalog into the US market for the first time, including what he regards as his
masterpiece Concerto Suite for Electric Guitar and Orchestra, recorded with
the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra in Prague.




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2000s
After the release of War to End All Wars in 2000, singer Mark Boals left the
band. Yngwie went on tour with former Ark vocalist Jorn Lande. Due to
various tensions on tour, Jorn left before the recording of Yngwie's next album,
Attack!!. He was replaced by former Rainbow vocalist Doogie White. White's
vocals were well received by fans, and it seems that he has become a
permanent member of the band.

In 2003, Malmsteen joined Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, with whom he toured as
part of the G3 supergroup.

Yngwie released Unleash the Fury in 2005. 'As stated in an issue of "Guitar
World" magazine, he titled this album after the infamous 'airline incident',
which occurred in a flight to Japan for the 'Odyssey' tour. He was drunk and
was behaving obnoxiously, until he fell asleep and was roused by a woman
dumping water on him. Enraged, he shouted, "You stupid bitch! You've
unleashed the fockin fury!" The audio from this moment was caught on tape by
a fellow band member.

He is married to April and has a son named Antonio after Antonio Vivaldi. A
noted Ferrari enthusiast, he owns a black 1985 308 GTS and a red 1962 250
GTO. In recent years, Yngwie has given up both smoking and drinking. The
Malmsteen family lives in Miami.




Jos Ramn Montero Del Angel | Universidad Veracruzana

1. Write all the verbs you find in the past simple tense (please avoid
repetitions). Which of them are regular? Which are irregular?





2. Malmsteen achieved widespear acclaim mainly because of his technical
proficiency.
a) True
b) False

3. Who was the inspiration for Yngwie to start playing guitar?
a) Eric Clapton
b) Frank Zappa
c) Joe Satriani
d) Jimmi Hendrix

4. His first swedish name means:
a) young swedish warrior
b) swedish master
c) young swedish chief
d) conqueror


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5. Who is his biggest classical influence
a) Bach
b) Beethoven
c) Mozart
d) Paganinni

6. Mention some other Yngwie's influences

7. His first solo album was called "Unleash the Fury"
a) True
b) False

8. In this year he had a serious car accident resulting seriously injured.

9. What's Malmsteen's biggest album?

10. By the 90's which musical movement started to replace heavy metal?





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----------Key----------
1. Born, recognized, achieved, rated, was (I), showed, saw(I), founded, criticized,
misunderstood (I), developed, credited, left(I), released, topped, followed, joined, died,
recorded, totaled, honored, became, claimed, shared, displaced, replaced, inspired,
regarded, continued acquired, went(I), joined, titled, occurred, fell (I), engaged, shouted,
unleashed, caught (I), married.
2. (a)
3. (d)
4. (c)
5. (d)
6. Uli J ohn Roth
Brian May
Ritchie Blackmore
J imi Hendrix

7. (a)
8. 1987

9. Oddysey

10. Grunge