Who always had liked Yngwie will probably also like “Perpetual Flame“. There are hardly any changes. There is a new singer, this time Tim Owens, and the fuddling of the guitar hero can really get on your nerves pretty quickly. I really like his albums “Marching Out“ and "Trilogy“ and to be honest, anno 2008 he still sounds quite close to his stuff from the Eighties.

Just back then the songs were better and sounded fresher as well. Vocally you can’t complain about anything, the Ripper fits here far better than on ICED EARTH, but the album is just a typical Malmsteen album with horrible cover, average production and good, yet not outstanding songs. For people, who only need one or two albums of the guitar god, I would rather recommend the first four albums, for friends of the Swede I can only say: business as usual, you can get it!

(Online December 31, 2008)