Guitar Tricks Insider May / June Issue | Page 6

RIFFING o n u N S ’ I A V E V E T S ON t r u o c M n O e R F t B D e ER t SURREN V D E E S R E ” CREts n Stix h o J by “TEN ALIEN LO hoever it is, it’s good. First you hear octaves of that bluesy, Fender sound and you think Stevie Ray (Vaughan). It isn’t because it’s so wet. Stevie is drier and more in-your-face. Then it was a bit updated in the sense of the vibrato and stuff. It could have been Gary Moore. It’s not. Slowly it started classic, and then you get to – all of a sudden – turn up the volume, turn up the distortion. It’s Steve Vai. Passion and Warfare killed me. He is a player to be reck- oned with. Nobody has put out an instrumental album like he did. Not since Rising Force (Yngwie Malmsteen) had a guitar album floored me and kept my interest like Passion and Warfare. I would say this song is what he does. You know the old cliché that when you have something you want something else. When you have dark hair you wouldn’t mind trying to go blonde because you’ve always had black hair. You know it probably looks better black, but you still want it. That’s sort of like Steve Vai. 6 GUITAR TRICKS INSIDER DIGITAL EDITION MAY / JUNE