His largely instrumental debut album, Rising Force, immediately upped the ante for aspiring hard rock guitarists and provided the major catalyst for the '80s guitar phenomenon known as 'shredding,' in which the music's main focus was on impossibly fast, demanding licks rather than songwriting. Combining a dazzling technique honed over years of obsessive practice with a love for such classical composers as Bach, Beethoven, and Paganini, Malmsteen's distinctively Baroque, gothic compositional style and lightning-fast arpeggiated solos rewrote the book on heavy metal guitar. Yngwie Malmsteen is arguably the most technically accomplished hard rock guitarist to emerge during the '80s. Yngwie Malmsteen (1978 - 2016) Studio Discography
