Yngwie Malmsteen announces new album Hell Or High Water and shares ‘Now or Never’

Yngwie Malmsteen has announced a new studio album, Hell Or High Water, set for release on 13 November through Music Theories Recordings / Artone Label Group.

The guitarist has also released the album’s opening track and first single, ‘Now or Never’, alongside an official music video.

Hell Or High Water features nine tracks and was written during an extended period in which Malmsteen focused on the record away from touring and other commitments. He says the approach followed a similar process to the one he adopted while making 2021’s Parabellum.

“When I started making records, I would just take the songs I had lying around,” he admits. “Later on, I fell into a schedule – make a record, tour the record and then write the next record. Over the pandemic, I realised it was better to focus completely uninterrupted, so I stayed at home to write this album over the course of eight months. I had around 80 or 90 tracks finished, and then I had to decide which ones were the strongest.”

Alongside ‘Now or Never’, the album includes the instrumental ‘Am Caprice/Hell Or High Water’, as well as ‘(On The) Battlefield’, ‘Eye For An Eye’, ‘Antikythera’ and ‘Beyond Zeta Reticuli’.

The record closes with ‘Father’, a song written in memory of Malmsteen’s father, who the guitarist says died last year.

“He was an amazing man,” remembers Yngwie. “I was proud to have him as a father, and I loved him. I wanted to dedicate all of this to him, and that one particular track is for him. I wanted others to feel what I felt when they hear it. Nicola Paganini once said, ‘One must feel strongly in order to make others feel strongly’. It’s one thing to be a typewriter and another thing to be someone who writes stories that can touch people. That was always the point.”

The full Hell Or High Water track listing is:

1. Now or Never
2. Am Caprice/Hell Or High Water
3. (He Is) Living A Lie
4. Antikythera
5. (On The) Battlefield
6. Beyond Zeta Reticuli
7. Prestissimo In Bm/Adagio
8. Eye For An Eye
9. Father

Malmsteen also has four live dates listed for September:

September 4 – Beijing, China – East Third Live House
September 6 – Shanghai, China – Phase Live House
September 11 – Tokyo, Japan – Toyosu Pit
September 13 – Yokohama, Japan – Pacifico Yokohama