Still surprising his audiences with new styles of stringed exploration after half a century, Steve Vai remains at the forefront of futuristic guitar wizardry. His fans have had much to absorb lately, after his last two studio albums broke a period of sonic gestation in the wake of 2016's Modern Primitive. Released last January, Inviolate not only delighted fans with its cover image of a mighty triple-necked invention, but revealed a new style of playing from the platinum-selling artist.
At the age of 63, Vai has played some bizarre guitars in his career, including the alien-looking ‘Ultrazone', the triple-necked, heart-shaped ‘Vanity', and the ‘DNA' guitar, whose psychedelic body paint was blended with vials of his own blood. Arguably his most extraordinary guitar yet, the Hydra arrived at Vai's Harmony Hut after seven years of meticulous tinkering from a group of Japanese luthiers for Ibanez, owners of Vai's signature model the JEM77. This is the guitar featured on the cover of Inviolate, which contains six playable guitar types in its steampunkinspired build.
Vai's subsequent 2023 release, , features lead vocals and was originally recorded in 1990 and couldn't be more different. While the former is a vibrant, genre-diverse voyage through new realms of instrumental expression, the latter is a straight-up rock tribute to a departed friend. During an immersion in biker culture at the turn of the ‘90s, Vai met Johnny ‘Gash' Sombretto. Through their resulting friendship, Vai encouraged Gash to sing lead vocals over his newly-written rock songs, and was blown away by the power of his friend's voice in the process. Eight years after its lively recording sessions, the planned release of was to be shelved for the next three decades upon Gash's accidental riding death in 1998. It now sees the light of day as a tribute to a departed powerhouse vocalist who was killed while doing what he loved.
