The thirteenth solo album from three-time Grammy Award winner and fifteen-time nominee, guitarist, composer, singer, songwriter, and producer STEVE VAI titled “Inviolate” is to be released on January 28th via Favored Nations/Mascot Label Group.
The virtuoso guitar-hero is considered by many as one of the greatest guitarists of all time. He embarked on a solo career in 1983, following stints with Whitesnake, David Lee Roth, Alcatrazz, and most memorably, with Frank Zappa.
His second solo album Passion and Warfare (1990), sold over 15 million records and is usually featured in lists of the world’s greatest guitar-virtuoso albums…
This presents the most committed, responsive & exhilarating solvirtuosity we’ve heard from this artist since P&W…
Raw Ramp Music Mag
Inviolate is a nine-song blooming that expands the definitions of what becomes possible with instrumental guitar. It presents the most committed, responsive, and exhilarating solvirtuosity we’ve heard from this artist since P&W: an album filled with eclecticism and evocative enthusiasm.
“It’s very ‘Vai,’ whatever that means,” the guitarist says, “Someone else might be better than me at explaining what that is. But it’s just very honest music. Because a lot of my records, they’re long and there’s a lot of concepts and playing around with stories. This one has none of that.”
“This is nine pretty dense all-instrumental compositions that I wanted to capture and record so I could get out there and play them live for people.”
“Zeus In Chains” has already been released as an official visualizer (see below) and it’s a glorious, somewhat Celtic sounding, skirl of efficacious glissandos, worrying keens, unbalanced yawps and groaning recitatives. So, a clever series of undersongs and wonderful coloratures that work together to deliver something of harmonious concordance that lies somewhere between folk, rock, and the sleekness of jazz-fusion.
Other tonal extravaganzas include the gelatinous atmosphere of “Teeth Of The Hydra” with its high-spinning, rising sharps, simmering lows, and many effervescing edges.
And “Little Pretty” which is a retro-funkadelic “theme tune” type piece filled with polytonal possibilities and gorgeous expressiveness. There are many undemanding “take away” moments in this stunning track, but sufficient depth and multifaceted complexities to please even the most anticipative fan of experimental, progressive metal.
Yes, this is astonishing! And it ought to be equally as popular with Symphony X and/or Dream Theater cognoscenti as it is with all those Mothers of Invention buffs still out there!
words: @neilmach 2022 ©
Pre-order here: https://smarturl.it/steve_vai
RAW RAMP 