Music in The Castle of Heaven

An extended live set that concluded Yngwie's reign as one of the premier guitar heroes of the 80's. The set is comprised of many of his "hits" along with his two legendary guitar performances, "Black Star" and "Far Beyond The Sun." There is also a self-indulgent, clichй-infected guitar solo that must have excited every thirteen year old in the building. Malmsteen's playing on this set is decent, but time has not been good to this recording. It was recorded during the heyday of Hair Metal and the genre's influences can be heard throughout this session. The weak Pop songs that plagued Malmsteen's releases after Rising Force mar too much of this session to recommend it to anyone who is not exclusively infatuated with guitar pyrotechnics or 80's Metal. ~ Robert Taylor

Out of all the releases issued thus far in the Todd Rundgren/Utopia Official Bootleg series, it turns out that Vol. 5 – Oops! Wrong Planet Tour – is one of the most "bootleg sounding" of the bunch, as it's less than stellar audio quality suggests it is an audience recording. Despite not possessing as clear a sound as the other volumes (which appear to be mostly soundboard recordings), Oops! Wrong Planet Tour does a good job of capturing the group during one of the most transitional periods of its career. Beginning the year (1977) as a prog rock band (RA) and ending it as a new wave-ish arena rock outfit (Oops! Wrong Planet), both sides of the group are showcased on this double-disc set, while a generous helping of solo Rundgren material is included as well, given a Utopia makeover.

A lot of care went into the track selection and mastering on this four-CD set, devoted to 30 years in the history of Deep Purple – though for most listeners, discs one through three, devoted to the band's first eight years, are what will really count. Deep Purple recorded significant bodies of work in several styles, but the years 1968 through 1974, when they evolved out of psychedelia and into heavy metal, are the vitally important ones…