Two in One

It doesn't make much sense, but it seems to me that this collection of songs by Malmsteen was actually written by two people - one writing beautiful, complex and dazzling songs and one writing boring, repetitive annoyances.

On the first hand, you have beauties such as the instrumental "Brothers", "Rising Force" in an amazing live performance, the blue "Blue" and the cover of ABBA's "Gimme Gimme Gimme". These songs portray Malmsteen's talents, both in the technical aspect, where he is considered world's fastest guitar player, and in the creative aspect, where you can listen to charming emotional melodies, possibly influenced from the neo-classical subgenre.

On the other hand, there are songs here which are a complete catastrophy. "Hangar 18, Area 51" is simply boring and dogmatic. "Seventh Sign" starts out good, but degenerates into senseless playing without any consideration on the melody. "Facing the Animal" is just plain bad.

This album features samples of Malmsteen's work throughout the last decade. It is diverse and interesting, and as one it might be a good entry point for new Malmsteen listeners. However, it is absolutely not "The Best of".

Yawn yawn yawn..................

The best of Malmsteen? This guy cannot write a decent piece of music at all. The songs have and always will be terrible. This is the difference between YJM and Eddie VH, VH write songs that appeal to more than just mainstream neo-classical retards. You could rename this the 'worst of' and it wouldn't make any difference. The Swedes like this kind of thing cause they don't understand the songs. Mind you that goes for everybody else out there that can hear.