While instrumental guitar virtuoso prog rock is not for everyone, it has its place. And the Zappa/Lee-Roth alumn is pretty much eschewing the straighter-jazz of his the former collegue and the pop-rock sensibility of the latter. This is heavy gospel.Even in the musical passages, Steve is exploring the spiritual side of existence. Not his first time. Steve has had many references to the "Heatless Light" that he calls God. This gets much more explicit about it here. A cover of the gospel standard "John The Revelator" is a great crunch with a soulful vocal addition from The Voice's Beverly McClellan. The coda to that track may not work as well. "Book of the Seven Seals" goes for Southern Baptist spiritual feel, albeit a hard-rock one. And that's fine, but the gospel choruses are added in with a harsh clash.
When he rocks (to me) Steve is at his best. I've enjoyed Steve's ballads in the past. And if it was just his playing, I'm sure I would feel better about the slow tracks here. But "Creamsicle Sunset", for example, has an arrangement which gets way too New Agey to take seriously. But of those rockers, "Velorum" and "Gravity Storm" have riffs that could be parlayed into some awesome straight FM-radio jams. "Weepng China Doll" could be described as Epic Grunge, like a vocalless "Slaves & Bulldozers".
A duet with Aimee Mann rounds out mear the end of the album. A pretty acoustic number, "No More Amsterdam" isn't a pandering ballad at all. The vocals follow the acoustic minor key melody and there's a darkness to it. Vai certainly runs the gamut of emotions on this record and his playing is impeccable. I think though he would benefit from a writing/producing collaborator. (3 of 5 stars)
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