Review: Inviolate by Steve Vai

Steve Vai

By Mike O’Cull

Ever-evolving guitar master and three-time Grammy winner Steve Vai breaks free of all comfort zones and creative limits on his new nine-song album Inviolate. Released January 28, 2022 via Favored Nations/Mascot Label Group, the record is Vai’s 10th solo effort in a career that’s taken him from an unknown college student to his present status as one of the most transcendent and original guitarists of our times.

This time out, Vai put himself in playing situations that were much different than his normal settings, using instruments and techniques not found on any of his previous recordings. Newcomers to his scene included a hollowbody Gretsch, a selection of exotic acoustic instruments, a new three-necked instrument called The Hydra, and playing clean tones on a Strat-ish guitar sans whammy bar and pick. Of course, our man Steve dominated all of these self-imposed challenges to deliver us a rock/funk/fusion thrill ride that could only come from his mind, heart, and hands.

Vai began his musical journey as a transcriber for Frank Zappa when he was just 18 and wound up spending three years in Zappa’s band as his “stunt guitarist.” He kicked off his life as a solo artist in 1983 and has also recorded and performed with bands and artists including Alcatrazz, David Lee Roth, and Whitesnake. He’s done studio work for as Public Image Ltd, Mary J. Blige, Spinal Tap, and Ozzy Osbourne and participated in the G3 tours, Zappa Plays Zappa, and the Experience Hendrix tour. His playing style is ferocious, quirky, and adventurous, based in complex harmony, high-velocity chops, and a lifelong quest to keep himself musically fascinated. He’s a one-man genre who is always unpredictable and never disappoints.

The album opens with “Teeth Of The Hydra,” a Latin-influenced showcase for Vai and his new Hydra guitar. Calling this beast of an instrument a guitar doesn’t really do it justice, however. Designed and built with the good folks at Hoshino, The Hydra incorporates one body, three necks, two headstocks, a four-string bass, sympathetic harp strings, half-fretless necks, single-coil, humbucking, piezo, and sustainer pickups, floating and hardtail tremolo bridges, phase splitters, and more. The track is haunting and unnervingly melodic, tapping into Vai’s endless well of expression, and reminds us that Steve just hears things differently than the rest of us.

“Little Pretty” is the cut done on the hollow Gretsch and, even though the tone and physicality of it send Vai into new worlds, it’s still unmistakably him. It’s built on dense chord structures that create a constantly-shifting harmonic landscape requiring synthetic modes and a fusion-like approach. The results speak for themselves and will definitely expand your mind. Brian Setzer has never made a Gretsch sound like this.

“Candle Power” features Vai on the clean-toned Strat without a bar or a pick and shows that he’s as great outside of his normal box as he is inside it. The track is full of melodic vision, crackling licks, and slick octaves. Vai developed a new tactic he calls “joint shifting” on this one that allows him to bend multiple strings in opposite directions in a new way. It’s a gorgeous composition and one of the album’s best.

Perhaps the freshest moment on Inviolate is “Greenish Blues,” Vai’s first venture into blues territory. He’s never been an overtly blues-influenced player and this is far from an everyday blues song but Steve puts it down in his own way and plays as the spirit moves him. It’s really quite cool and experimental and will quickly stick in the speakers of Vai’s legion of fans. Every second of Inviolate screams Vai’s name and lets us know that he’s still pushing to create at the highest levels. Want some incentive to practice your guitar skills? Spin this and get busy.

Listen to “Greenish Blues”