Yngwie Johann Malmsteen is a Swedish guitarist, composer, multi-instrumentalist and bandleader. Malmsteen became notable in the mid-1980s for his technical fluency and neo-classical metal compositions, often incorporating high speed picking with harmonic minor scales, diminished scales and sweep picked arpeggios. He is often considered one of the fastest rock guitarists of all time and is considered to be a pioneer of Shred guitar. Four of his albums, from 1984 to 1988, Rising Force, Marching Out, Trilogy, and Odyssey, hit the top 100 of the Billboard 200.

almsteen was born Lars Johan Yngve Lannerbäck in Stockholm, Sweden, as the third child of a musically-inclined family. At age seven, he saw a television news report on the death of Jimi Hendrix, an event which had a profound impact on his musical path. To quote his official website, "The day Jimi Hendrix died, the thumb-sucking, molly-coddled plebeian Yngwie died, and was replaced by a Dionysian, guitar-shredding god". At the age of 10 he took his mother's maiden name Malmsten as his surname, slightly changed it to Malmsteen, and Anglicised  his given name Yngve to "Yngwie". Yngwie also created his first band "Track On Earth" at the age of 10, consisting of himself and a friend from school on drums(Armin) . Malmsteen was a teenager when he first encountered the music of the 19th century violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini, whom he cites as his biggest classical music influence.

Malmsteen is best known for his extremely fast shred guitar solos and Neo-classical style of playing. He favors the harmonic minor scale, and often uses diminished arpeggios and phrygian scales and draws an influence from Bach and Beethoven. In an interview, Malmsteen confessed that his regular use of harmonic minor was because in the 1980s he was trying to move away from the blues-based pentatonic scales that were frequently used at the time.

Malmsteen has been a longtime user of Fender Stratocasters. His most famous Stratocaster is his 1972 blonde Strat, nicknamed "The Duck" because of its yellow finish and the Donald Duck stickers on the body. He also has a signature Stratocaster. It comes in a Vintage White finish with a maple neck, either a maple or rosewood fretboard with scalloped frets and, from 2010, Seymour Duncan YJM Model pickups. For amplification, Malmsteen has always used Marshall heads and cabinets.