Steve Vai takes the throne as he teams with Polyphia for new song Ego Death

Steve Vai
(Image credit: Polyphia)

Steve Vai is proven himself to be a champion of the new generation of instrumental guitarists; Tosin Abasi, Plini and now Polyphia have received the nod of approval from an innovator in the genre. But Vai is going one further with the latter, he's guested on their new song Ego Death.

And the team-up works very well indeed, with Vai fitting into the often otherworldly tonality and techniques of Polyphia's sound in his own way like a true guitar chameleon – and of course Vai is a trailblazer in that field. 

Contrary to his previous statements regarding 'guitar music', Tim Henson and the boys are huge fans of Vai and even give him a throne to sit on in the video. 

King Vai? We like the sound of that. 

Polyphia

(Image credit: Alana Ann Lopez)

The track – which also features Grammy Award-winning trumpet player and producer Brasstracks – will close Polyphia's forthcoming fourth album Remember That You Will Die, due 28 October via Rise Records – preorder here. 

Nobody has taken instrumental guitar music to new ears like this band right now and we're intrigued to see how far they can take it, especially with the integration of guest vocalists on the new album, including Chino Moreno and Sophia Black. 

Rob Laing
Guitars Editor, MusicRadar

I'm the Guitars Editor for MusicRadar, handling news, reviews, features, tuition, advice for the strings side of the site and everything in between. Before MusicRadar I worked on guitar magazines for 15 years, including Editor of Total Guitar in the UK. When I'm not rejigging pedalboards I'm usually thinking about rejigging pedalboards.