Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
There is no greater agency that does you harm than that of inaction and listening to those thoughts you cannot name. In silence we wound ourselves, we seek the solace of the shadow and see harm as a way of life, of being caught in the crossfire of personal responsive violence towards our own soul, and the target placed on our back by the spoiled view, of the attack by the contaminated disposition.
Rather than allow such a motion, to remain pure in your delivery, unspoiled by Time, is the key to continuation, of moving forward whilst displaying with absolute certainty the belief of your craft; and in all respects they don’t come much finer, more in tune with the cosmos and the stars than Steve Vai.
Mr. Vai requires no introduction, arguably he never did once he placed his feet on the stage for the initial time and was greeted wildly with anticipation and release by the fans, for as his 13th studio album, Inviolate, perfectly attests, the man remains one of the finest guitarists of all time; an enigma, a showman, intact, unspoiled, and damn hot as he takes the guitar and makes it burst into flames as if he had thrown it into the well and ferocious magma of a volcano.
In silence we allow the creeping thoughts of Time house room, in the wake of rippling and muscle flexing instrumental we are protected, we are furnished with a spell of enchantment in which to shroud ourselves in, and in that place, we are offered sanctuary and blissful encouragement, and the only payback is that we must listen, that we must open our souls and allow the sense of freedom in. It is to this that Inviolate speaks with certainty and majesty.
With not a concept in sight, unless the listener really wishes to build one, tracks such as the opener Teeth Of the Hydra, the rattling grace of Zeus In Chains, Candlepower, Greenish Blues, Apollo In Color, and Sandman Cloud Mist, what the listener is provided with is the internal thought laid bare, a sense of time captured and tamed, pure and simple, resounding, life-affirming, heart-breaking, sumptuous and beautiful; just like life itself.
Steve Vai provides, it is to the listener to whom the sound calls, and the power of inaction is quelled, the dragon of lethargy is vanquished; all that remains is the unspoiled motion of a master at play.
Steve Vai releases Inviolate on January 28th via Favoured Nations/Mascot Label Group.
Ian D. Hall