SOUND THEORIES VOL. I & II

This album is one of the most amazing things Steve Vai has done. To me it's his most musical output and I believe Mr. Vai writes better for an orchestra than he does for his band. I've never heard such an amazing marriage between rock and orchestra since Zappa but this isn't anything like what Zappa was doing. The album is seperated to two CDs. The first cd contains new renditions of old songs. The makeovers that Steve Vai gives these songs are truly breathtaking and brings wonderful life to the sound like how I think it was intended. The biggest highlight on disc one is the I'm Becoming/Salamanders in the Sun piece(s). Such an incredible performance by Vai and the orchestra (and such skill from the sound engineers if you read the liner notes :P). However, for me, Disc 2 was where the magic really happened. Most of the music on this side was premiered by the Orchestra (Shadows... is a medley and Bledsoe Bluvd is an old Flex-Able piece) and is incredibly outstanding. All the pieces come alive and I very much look forward to the next time Mr. Vai does something to this caliber. 5 stars!