I got my copy today too.
A great album. For the first time in a long time, Steve is bringing a lot of new sounds. First, in "Building the Church" you've got a very highly processed guitar signal that sounds like a slightly distorted synth. Some very heavy background guitars. And a great smooth lead sound. For some reason, this song reminds me of Vai's sound on the Whitesnake "Slip of the Tongue" album at times. Great solo that begins very loose and bluesy and finishes with flashes of
sweep picking.
"Dying for Your Love" has a slower tempo with heavy guitars and synth swells in the background, and clean guitar up front while Steve sings. Very orchestrated and almost reminiscent of Queensr˙che in quiet spots. If you liked "Oooo" or "The Animal", you might be interested.
The guitar on this instrumentals sound very lyrical. The songs on this album, often have a majestic and eastern feel. A lot of musical humor throughout. I can't remember Steve playing with this much looseness and skill since Passion and Warfare or even possible Skyscraper.
I'm not going to rave on about every song, but I'm very happy with this album in general. It's the most consistently listenable he's produced since Passion and Warfare. There were some who thought Steve had lost his edge in recent albums; that his playing lacked some of the technical finesse and fire of early albums. This album is definately a return to form in that respect.
Building the Church, Glorious, Freak Show Excess (especially), and
Lotus Feet all contain interesting, different sounding, and talented solos.
I'll give it 4 stars
