Swedish guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen has released an official music video for "(On The) Battlefield", the newest single from his studio album Hell Or High Water. The record is out now via Music Theories Recordings/Artone Label Group.
"(On The) Battlefield" is one of the vocal tracks on the album, with Malmsteen handling both the singing and the lead guitar. It follows the lead single "Now Or Never" and the instrumental "Beyond Zeta Reticuli", which got its own video in early October.
Hell Or High Water is a nine-track, 46-minute record that Malmsteen deliberately sized to fit a single vinyl LP. He wrote it at home over roughly eight months, cutting a pile of around 80 to 90 finished ideas down to the strongest material. It's the same isolated, uninterrupted approach he first tried on 2021's Parabellum and decided to keep.
According to Malmsteen, the songs come to him fully formed. "Even without a guitar in my hands, the music just comes to me," he explained, comparing the process to Mozart in the film Amadeus. "The ideas don't come all the time, but when they do, it's like an avalanche."
The album mixes vocal songs with instrumentals: "Antikythera" and "Beyond Zeta Reticuli" are named after scientific discoveries, while closing track "Father" is a tribute to the guitarist's dad, who died last year. "I was proud to have him as a father, and I loved him," Malmsteen said. "I wanted to dedicate all of this to him, and that one particular track is for him."
We first reported on Hell Or High Water in August.
Hell Or High Water tracklist:
- Now Or Never
- Am Caprice/Hell Or High Water
- (He Is) Living A Lie
- Antikythera
- (On The) Battlefield
- Beyond Zeta Reticuli
- Prestissimo In Bm/Adagio
- Eye For An Eye
- Father
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