Heavy Song of the Week is a feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week, the top song goes to Joe Satriani and Steve Vai for their collaborative track “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1.”
Wait, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani had never released a song together until this week?
Maybe it’s those MP3s of bootleg recordings from the G3 concerts back in the day that have our memory clouded. But yeah — as far as studio recordings, “The Sea of Emotion, Pt. 1” is the first “Satch/Vai” collab to date, and it sees the guitarists paying homage to their love of ’70s rock.
Big, chunky riffs and virtuosic leads pour from each axeman, offering a mighty fine teaser of what fans can expect from Satriani and Vai’s current joint tour. Furthermore, the track consummates the long-standing musical relationship between Satriani and Vai, the former having once taught guitar to the latter in their teenage years.
Honorable Mentions:
Aseethe – “Last Time I Do Anything for a Fucking Friend Ever”
Now that’s a song title! As Aseethe bassist-vocalist Noah Koester explained, the phrase was actually said in jest, sarcastically, years ago after the band threw a benefit show for a friend. But eventually, the title became all too real. “…a lot of people, in my life at least, ended up being not so awesome,” mused Koester. His frustrations are palpable on this beast of a single from the Illinois sludge act, a seven-minute exercise of angular post-hardcore turnarounds, crushing tones, and unhinged vocal expulsions.
BIG|BRAVE – “canon : in canon”
Guitar auteur Marisa Anderson seamless integrates into BIG|BRAVE’s swaths of drone on the band’s latest single. Given Anderson’s more blues/Americana background, she is likely responsible for the sharper notes and tones that peak through the mix here, adding further colors to BIG|BRAVE’s sonic expressionism.
Full of Hell – “Gasping Dusk”
A minute of blistering pain, “Gasping Dusk” manages to reach out of the speakers and actively perturb. This is art as function, and Full of Hell have become masters of this glorious talent, arming their instruments, samplers, and drum machines to chisel into your nerves. Expression in the raw.