Search - Rising Force :: Birth of the Sun

Great Disc

A. S. Mccaslin | Las Vegas , NV | 12/02/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The other guy who reviewed this works for Malmsteen so he is sabotaging this killer disc. The fact is , this is a great slice of early Malmsteen (circa 1982) when he was like 16 or 17. He does all the vocals and the guitar work is unbelievable (as always). An absolute must for YM fans!! The sound quality is great - who cares if its a boot - its a piece of history!! Pick this up ASAP before YM's management tries to take it off the market."

A comparison sound review: Birth of the Sun VS The Genesis

jj | Los Angeles, CA. | 05/14/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I am posting this review under both "The Genesis" and "Birth of the Sun" albums.

First, let me make one thing perfectly clear: I do not now, nor have I ever, worked for or been associated with either Yngwie or Marcel Jacob in any way. The following is just my personal unbiased opinion as a guitarist and fan. Take it for what it's worth.

I have Yngwie's "The Genesis" as well as the demos released by Marcel Jacob under the Rising Force name entitled "Birth of the Sun", and although they both have basically the same demo tracks there is an interesting difference between the two in sound quality.

Marcel's disc is slightly louder in volume and to my ears more "pure" (for lack of a better word) in that it sounds closest to the original demo tapes (of which I have a crumbling cassette copy from eons ago). It seems that Marcel did not do any major reprocessing to the tapes, so what you get is basically the raw, straightforward 8 track demo sound from 1980, which some listeners may prefer. I feel that Marcel wanted to keep things as original as possible and I believe that he did just that. In his liner notes he explains the technical process and the problems he had finding an 8 track Tascam machine to play the tapes on. The results are not bad, but what you end up with is a recording that is still quite a bit rough around the edges.

Yngwie, on the other hand, has chosen to remix his distant past. He has re-recorded all of Marcel's bass tracks, effectively cutting his old bandmate out of the demos completely, so no credit is given to Marcel on the disc. Zepp Urgard's original drum tracks remain, so it would seem that some animosity exists between Yngwie and Marcel. Or maybe Yngwie liked Zepp's drumming but not Marcel's bass work on these tapes. Of course, it is also possible that Yngwie wanted to re-record Zepp's tracks as well, but perhaps he reasoned that since the drums leaked onto the live guitar tracks it would have been more problematic to replace them. Possibly it was merely due to the fact that drums are not Yngwie's forte. So for whatever reason, Zepp's tracks remain.

Purists may scream "sacrilege" at this remixing of a notable piece of modern electric guitar history but as Yngwie says in his own words, "It's my creation after all". Normally, most bands use a more collaborative process in the creation of their art, but not in this case where it is obvious that the man had his own vision and the creation sprang from one mind alone. The truly talented artist (in any genre of art, be it painting, sculpture, or music) must always pursue his own vision, and who are we to question his methods. We can only accept or reject his results. Anyway, the newly recorded bass tracks give these aging demos a more streamlined and, shall we say, "produced" sound than before. He also did a better job of remastering the original tapes to produce a less compressed and clearer sound spectrum with a much heavier punch to the drums. Overall, it's a smoother, more aurally pleasing sound.

Therefore, in my humble opinion (and with all due respect to Marcel, who did the best he could), Yngwie has released the superior set of demos here. They are much better sounding and more polished than Marcel's version. It is most likely Yngwie who has the first generation tapes, so he has the highest fidelity copy to work with. In the end, I really like what he did with these raw demos. So my vote goes to Yngwie.

"