Yngwie J. Malmsteen

Virtuosic Swedish guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen is credited for originating the fleet-fingered neo-classical style that took the heavy metal world by storm in the early 1980s. Combining a dazzling technique honed over years of obsessive practice, and with a love for rock gods such as Jimi Hendrix and Ritchie Blackmore and composers like Bach, Beethoven, and Paganini, Malmsteen's distinctively Baroque, gothic compositional style and lightning-fast arpeggiated solos rewrote the book on heavy metal guitar. His debut album, 1984's Rising Force, upped the ante for aspiring hard rock g...