This is a project aimed at making it easy to see who inspired the bands you love or even hate. For this I try not to use any influences that the band don’t claim themselves. There will be a focus on predecessors but successors will be added as they site the band. These trees become more and more interactive as new bands are added, allowing you to click any band that has a tree and jump to it.

We want our lists to be better. If you know something that belongs on this list, let us know. When in doubt we will leave it out, so we need reliable sources.

Yngwie Malmsteen is on of the most influential guitar virtuosos. Although he is not the first rock or metal guitarist to bring a classical influence to the genre, he is certainly the first wholly embrace it and can be seen as the primary person behind neo-classical metal and shred. He had a brief time in Steeler and Alcatraz before going solo. His solo career has had tons of musicians fill out his band, but 99.9% of everything has been written by him.

Antonio Vivaldi

Johann Sebastian Bach

Niccolò Paganini

Ludwig van Beethoven

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Carl Orff

John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers was a blues / blues rock band. Yngwie said as a kid John Mayall and the Blues Breaker’s style, with Eric Clapton, was one of the first things he was playing. How ever he said that they are not a main influence despite them being one of the first things he was playing on guitar. — John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers was a blues / blues rock band. **Yngwie** said as a kid John Mayall and the Blues Breaker’s style, with Eric Clapton, was one of the first things he was playing. How ever he said that they are not a main influence despite them being one of the first things he was playing on guitar.

Deep Purple are a important hard rock and early heavy metal band. Yngwie has said he is only influenced by classical players, but counter to that has mentioned he is a big fan of Deep Purple and Ritchie Blackmore. They are one of the earliest band… — Deep Purple are a important hard rock and early heavy metal band. Yngwie has said he is only influenced by classical players, but counter to that has mentioned he is a big fan of Deep Purple and Ritchie Blackmore. They are one of the earliest bands that had a impact on him and the reason he loves using double bass drumming in his songs.

Genesis were an influential progressive rock band. He said he first heard classical stylings in rock from Genesis’s Selling England For The Pound. This lead him to diving deep into classical and baroque music which became is primary influences. — Genesis were an influential progressive rock band. He said he first heard classical stylings in rock from Genesis’s *Selling England For The Pound*. This lead him to diving deep into classical and baroque music which became is primary influences.

Yngwie said he was inspired to play guitar after seeing about Jimi Hendrix’s death on TV, but not musically. Despite saying that he’s done covers of Hendrix several times. He says he’s a pure classical fan and dislikes jazz, although at a different time he said he had jazz influences as a young kid.

On other guitar player, Yngwie says there are good players, but his influences come from classical. He said Ritchie Blackmore is very good. He’s a big fan of Angus Young and AC/DC, and named them as one of his favorite bands. He said he was impressed by Queen as a kid. Despite him saying he’s not a fan of jazz he said he was blown away by Allan Holdsworth. He named UK’s self titled album with Allan as an album that had an impact on him. He also is a big fan of Van Halen. He said he is also a Beatles fan although he would never put chords together the way they have.

Bands influenced by Yngwie Malmsteen!

As this project advances, bands will be added here… there are many!

Known as one of the fastest and aggressive early thrash bands.

Later members of Dio would name Yngwie as an influence.

Easily the most important for symphonic metal

Sources:

https://www.guitarworld.com/news/yngwie-malmsteen-discusses-his-roots-his-rep-and-his-latest-album-1986-guitar-world-interview
https://www.musicradar.com/news/yngwie-malmsteen-the-10-guitarists-who-impressed-me-most
https://www.guitarplayer.com/players/yngwie-malmsteen-dishes-on-how-he-went-back-to-his-roots-on-blue-lightning
https://guitar.com/features/interviews/yngwie-malmsteen-has-finally-embraced-the-blues/
https://www.goldminemag.com/articles/yngwie-malmsteen-the-music-that-changed-my-life
https://smashinginterviews.com/interviews/musicians/yngwie-malmsteen-interview-guitar-virtuoso-talks-parabellum-sets-record-straight-on-alcatrazz-departure