Yngwie Malmsteen has announced that he will release a new studio album called “Parabellum” in July. “I spent the whole year writing and recording a [it],” the legendary Swedish guitarist said during an appearance earlier today (Monday, March 15) on SiriusXM‘s “Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk”. “I’m really excited about that. So that was what I concentrated on. Obviously, I wanted to play live, but we all know what happened there.”

Elaborating on how he went about making a new studio album during the coronavirus pandemic, Yngwie said: “The thing is, the last few years — 10, 15 years or so, at least — I made records, but I made them, like, I go on the road and I go in the studio for maybe a week, and then I stop and I go on the road. Which is not a bad thing, mind you — that’s actually a pretty good thing. But the last time I remember being this intense, I think, was ‘Trilogy’. It’s not only recording — it’s writing too. It’s the writing process, it’s arrangement — it’s everything. And I did go completely crazy in the direction… Everybody knows me for the classical thing, and it’s very much that. We’ll see how people react on it, but I listened to it just the other day after staying away from it a little bit. It’s pretty extreme. I go faster than ever, there’s more of everything…”

He continued: “I really enjoy it. I think it’s a little different in that it’s made in a different way, because I was extremely immersed in this as far as writing and recording and arranging for such a long time that I think it might be a little different end result. But everybody’s gonna know who it is. There’s not gonna be any weird left turns, like blues or stuff like that — which I love too, of course. But no, this is very much a Malmsteen-esque classical thing that people know but maybe a little extra — maybe a little more extreme than before. [Laughs]”

Yngwie, who turned 57 last June, went on to say that he once again handled all the lead vocals on his new LP. “I’m singing more melodic stuff. There’s a lot of harmonies and stuff like that,” he explained. “There’s a couple of ballads too — one ballad, actually. I’m happy with it. It’s mostly instrumental — there’s only four songs with vocals. But the album is… I don’t know what to compare it to, but it’s pretty extreme. It’s double-bass drums and fast classical stuff all the way out. It’s pretty nutty.”