I don't understand why so many people have bashed this album. The songs are well-crafted, and the vocals of Goran Edman are terrific (he's Yngwie's best vocalist). Sure, there's some pop here, but so what? There are enough guitar heroics here to satisy most axe freaks. To all of you "Eclipse" bashers, geez...lay off, will ya? This is good stuff.

By 1990, everybody knew the name Yngwie J. Malmsteen and the history of cult shred albums he had released. Coming off the huge commercial success of 1988's ODYSSEY, Yngwie returned to that same pop metal vein to craft quite possibly his best album since MARCHING OUT. Sadly, 1990's ECLIPSE would mark the beginning of the end for Yngwie in the U.S. as the same folks who helped him rise to the status of guitar god, quickly scrambled to crucify his style as repetitive, unemotional and derivitive.

The band had been stripped down and rebuilt with the incredible Goran Edman on vocals(Yngwie's best vocalist up to this point) Mats Olausson on keyboards (not as good as Jens but still a top notch player) Svante Henrysson on bass and Michael Von Knorring behind the drums. The guitar tone shines here as this album is an improvement over the others up to this point in production values (although the raw sound of the first two albums greatly added to the vibe of those early records). Edman's silky cool voice shines on cuts like the bluesy rock of "Bedroom Eyes",the epic ballad "Save Our Love"(one of Yngwie's last great ballads), the Bach'n'Roll of "Motherless Child" and "Judas" and we get one great, albeit short, instrumental, the title cut, "Eclipse". But the standout track here is the album opener "Making Love" with it's way over-the-top guitar solo and super sexy opening riff, we get a true indication of Yngwie's mood on here: polished, radio ready, and still prepared to destroy any and every other guitar player who thought he could try and step on Yngwie's toes! For all out drama, speed, and technique in a dark rock context, nobody could. Yngwie had mastered his art and was living the life of an international rock guitar icon. By now, he was a living legend and his earlier guitar exploits were the stuff of urban legend. We get here, the black trudging evil of "Devil In Disguise", the questioning "What Do You Want" and the all out frenzy of the standout, hard hitting "Demon Driver" as well as the dramatic "Faultline". But, for all these great songs and all this great guitar playing, sales for ECLIPSE were poor in the States which caused Yngwie to begin to criticize his record label and their ad campaign for the album which Malmsteen thought to be non-existent. Guitar magazines had good things to say about the album, but many people began to dismiss Yngwie's neo-classical metal as meaningless drivel. The seeds were being sown for a backlash to Malmsteen's style and music, but only here in America. Overseas in Russia and Japan, Yngwie was bigger than ever and this fan base would never diminish. Full of over the top guitar pyrotechnics and some of his best songs, ECLIPSE showed Yngwie in full form and proved to all his true fans that he was still relevant in the 90's metal scene.

The best heavy metal recordings are able to strike the perfect balance between the expressive complexity of progressive rock and listener-friendliness and this release achieved that result. This is a multidimensional album with individually multidimensional songs that are all very heavy.

Starting with "Making Love," a rock-steady track that takes a break to explode into Malmsteen's neo-classical heavy metal stylings on his trusty Fender Strat before rejoining the main progression for a memorable close. Then Yngwie switches from his Beethoven influence to his Hendrix influence with "Bedroom Eyes" that starts with a quick hammer-E on the D string, some wah pedal in the solo and an all-around funky feel on this rock steady track. We then take it down a notch with "Save Our Love," giving us one of the most beautiful solos on the entire record and some excellent acoustic work in the intro. Just as we are feeling serene, Yngwie turns on the power with Motherless Child which simply kills with its lightning solo that takes several turns. Devil in Disguise is song with a darker tone that also begins with acoustic overdubs.

Judas takes us back to that hard, rock-steady feel from "Making Love" along with "What do you Want." "Demon Driver" feels more like classic Yngwie without feeling overly long and being just a guitar solo from beginning to end. "Faultline" gives us a break from the speed with an enjoyable melody, and we're taken on one last fast track with "See You In Hell (Don't Be Late)" which is also able to avoid being just one very long guitar solo and super long. In fact, even the only instrumental on this album (a rarity for Malmsteen) is of a sane length, is not just one great big long guitar solo, but manages to take many different turns.

One particularly good thing about this recording was that the drums did not seem to be on auto-pilot. They fit the feel of each part in each song and only suffered from slight defects such as in parts of "Save our Love" or the fact that they felt a bit mushy, and hollow possibly due to the overuse of effects and mic placement.

This is the case throughout the album and for heavy metal, this is fine, but the worst offender of vocals being mixed far too low was "Devil in Disguise" - it almost sounds as though Goran was singing in Sanskrit or Latin during the verses, it was so low. If you're going to go through the trouble of actually writing and then overdubbing vocals, they should be mixed so that you can at least hear them--even if we can't make out the words. On an album like this, it probably doesn't even matter anyway.

Regardless, that does nothing to affect the ability to enjoy this album. There basically were no bad songs on this album and if you love heavy metal with some of the cleanest, well thought-out licks and riffs ever composed, this album is for you.

All the songs on this album are good. The music is very heavy, has alot of rhythm and Goran Edman's vocals are fantastic. This cd has popular tunes that made it big when the album got released-like Making Love, and Judas. I have to say that Goran Edman has a clean voice, and sings pretty well.(I strongly believe that he has been the best vocalist that Yngwie has had! ) I recommend this album to anyone who reads this summary. The music is good, the singing is good, and the cd has many songs. Goran Edman also sings on the "Fire and Ice" cd by Yngwie Malmsteen.

This CD is so great. I was suprised--I didn't think it was going to be so great. I read several reviews bashing this album, and I am glad I didn't listen to them. It's not as commercial as I was expecting. "Making Love" and "Bedroom Eyes" are pretty commercial, and maybe there's others that are kinda radio friendly, but all in all, it's not. My favorites are "Making Love", "Save Our Love", "Motherless Child", "Devil in Disguise", "Judas", "What Do You Want", "Demon Driver", "Faultline", "See You in Hell (Don't Be Late)", and "Eclipse". "Bedroom Eyes" is good, but not a favorite of mine. "Devil in Disguise" and "What Do You Want" are absolutely awesome! If you want fantastic guitar playing with great songs, don't hesitate--buy "Eclipse" now!