I love the fact a band with no singer is blowing up. It’s fuckin amazing that they can entertain and keep peoples attention off of just their playing abilities alone.
I feel like one of the reasons why I love Polyphia's music so much is because it feels as if the guitars are having a conversation with each other. It's almost as if they are telling you a story because of how well it blends and embellishes itself.
@@fatshady5714 This is what i hear in all "Good" music. a conversation being had, a story being told, either way, its an amazing occurrence, when a musician is able to relay such a beautifully arranged, sonic masterpiece.
thats any prog rock.. go back about 30 years and start listening to some prog rock from 2000’s.. this kinda stuff was all over the place… Dream Theatre was birthed from that whole era. No vocals.. just communication through music. its awesome
i dont feel any of this. For me its just "look how fast i can ply" 2020's edition. I dont hear or feel stories or emotions when i listen to this. its just fast and a bit different and not easy. I feel thats the message too. I feel pain, love, rhythm, ideas and emotion much more in "slower" pieces of music which let u breath. Leaving out some notes out is very underrated these days.
Something I appreciate about you is that, usually I "wish I could play like that guy", but with you, I wish I could hear and understand music like you. Watching your videos is so educational while also being entertaining. Thanks again Mike.
If you don't understand what you're doing and you can't create it first in your head, you can't implement it in practice. If you don't have the chops to implement what you came up with, you can't make good music. Understanding and playing music like "that guy" are both important.
For those of you who don't know or necessarily like Steve Vai, you should know that he worked on the Halo 2 soundtrack - he is the lead guitar in basically all of the major tracks.
(It was "Welcome Home" by Coheed and Cambria you were thinking about) Somebody pointed out brilliantly in another comment section something that took their creative expression and planning with this video to another place. They pointed out how when the video starts, we see each member of Polyphia sitting in that black throne, wearing brighter clothes and being the center of the shot. As they progress, each person sits in the throne and the scene changes or the "floor" of the building goes up another level. This goes on until finally we are on the roof or the pinnacle (both of the building, but also the guitar as an instrument and as levels of talent and respect), and here we now see Steve Vai sitting in that throne, all the gentlemen are in flat black outfits and lumped together standing off as loyal supporting subjects of their King. The Top Floor, The Pinnacle. The whole thing is almost an homage to Vai. (They pointed out some of this, I added some things like noticing the clothes change, but it's an amazing theory none the less)
Polyphia is amazing because they took a genre that was difficult to digest for 99% of listeners and made it simple enough to follow for the masses but still egregiously difficult to play on guitar at the same time. I love how they'll literally HAND YOU the root notes and then follow it with something insane. The formula for them is very obvious root chord followed by ridiculous lick(s) then back to the next root chord and follow that up with another ridiculous lick or two - lather, rinse, repeat. Sounds amazing, not too difficult for untrained ears to enjoy and still incredibly impressive to the trained musicians as well.
Anyone else shed a tear when Vai stepped in like Gandolf and took a magical sequence into the audible dimension of heaven? I mean there are few moments in all of music that achieve this level. This song is in my soul now.
@@anonymous.7585 So in the Guitar World Steve Vai is a magical sort of player. Never really lumped in with the others much like Jeff Beck, Zappa etc... So these young dudes in Polyphia have that same approach and respect of the art of guitar compositions, talent and flair. I feel that watching Steve with the future maetros was like watching Gandolf stand in a battlefield with an unstoppable army.
Yet...it IS math rock. It is squeezing as many notes into a tiny sonic space as possible. It is a loss of melody due to a desperate attempt to impress. The cold and clinical superseding the soul.
The more i listen to Vai's part the more i appreciate it. The first time i listened, i was waiting for him to unleash a crazy flurry of fingers to shred with the polyphia guys. Instead i was a bit disappointed by his part. But after listening to it again, i realized how beautifully melodic and restrained it was yet still extremely technical in a style that is unlike polyphia. And the "joint shifting" technique with his bends... so cool
agreed. I realized the dude was operating on a higher dimension and only after repeated viewings has it struck me how profoundly beautiful his parts are. Guy really is the king.
I think he went in knowing Tim and Scott were going to do some wild riffs. As I’ve gotten older, I more and more appreciate the idea of master guitarists “making their guitar sing”. That’s the vibe I got from Vai’s part. He could’ve riffed like a madman, I was also expecting such. But yea i really appreciate his part more because it diverges from what we would expect. This song is wonderful and interesting to pick apart.
It's also crazy that Tim and scott effectively re-wrote his solo. They talked about it on one of their interviews, they pulled it apart and re engineered it completely to sound like it does. And they broke Steve's speakers in the process.
Steve Vai showing that there are still levels to the game. What incredible and imaginative playing he laid down on this track while showing that you don't have to sacrifice soul and feel for technical wizardry.
It’s like mr. Vai is doing more with less. He makes the most out of every note he plays. Such a great juxtaposition to the complexity and awesomeness of Polyphia
Totally agree. One of my fav Vai things is just this. I will always love that first note he hangs on in The Riddle at the very beginning. It’s like a bar and a half of one note, yet you instantly know it’s Vai.
I've written this elsewhere, but I really think Steve Vai plays this with as much or more feel as he's ever played...anything. And I think it's a sign of his greatness and his respect for Polyphia.
I love that it starts with them ascending up, hitting the roof and meeting Vai, and then at the end demonstrating that all they do is linked to the Blues origins as they look up in awe at the raw brass playing physically elevated above them ^_^ Beautiful video choices!
Something he may like to learn is that Tim wrote a TON of songs by taking the chord progressions of popular songs, putting them in midi, going crazy, and then that's he polyphia song. He even admitted it.
@@DurealzForReal You seem like a charming individual. I post something informative and get called a prick. Imagine if this was the only video of him I saw? Glad you took the effort to reply and bump up my comment! 🤣
@@jendiart what tim said about look what you made me do is so good - the whole bit about just because you have a negative reaction to something doesn't mean it's not objectively good
Vai said in Guitar World that Polyphia cut up his parts into something completely unrecognizable from what he sent. Yet... He was still cool with it. Talk about Ego Death.
I love that this group feels like dream theater, days of the new, pink floyd, jimmy Hendrix, Stevey ray vaughn, apocalyptica. It’s just the vibe through out all compositions and allows all the group to breath. Just stellar and a rarity on this planet!!!
Clay's drum playthroughs collectively have millions of views and he's widely respected by modern musicians, I don't think underrated is the word you're looking for.
@@stillwaitingforblackmetalr2503 I mean if we’re going to talk about the most underrated and untalked about instrument in a regular band, it’s most definitely the bass. Which is sad because the bass is such an important, integral piece to any song.
It is quite literally psychedelic; the embodiment of a journey you go on leading up to Ego Death while on hallucinogenics. The hollow sound of Tim's playing in the beginning and the white room quickly builds from something sterile and mundane into something alive and dynamic with different textures and colors, but fundamentally doesn't change as they reach enlightenment by climbing higher through the building. Then Vai starts playing at which point there is a crescendo into the wailing throes of death followed by comparative quiet. Then the trumpet, singing as you enter into "heaven", a greater understanding of the world. You've died, but you're more whole than you were at the beginning. What a masterpiece.
Their music is so dense and complicated that it never occurred to me how simple the underlying chord progression was until you explained it here. Great breakdown!
Agree 100%. I never even thought about breaking this down. I could feel the progression in my soul but didnt care to examine it. I just enjoyed it. So effing good. The future of guitar rock.
That's what I thought! I don't remember if it's on this song or another one (with an acoustic guitar) but I definitely remember hearing echoes of some famous spanish singer of my childhood. But rock. It's so great to hear this style istg. These guys are truly creative.
The *beep* x 4 at 15:33 is an old Jeff Beck move. Adjust your bridge pickup closer to the strings but not so close it touches them. Now tap the string onto a pole piece. That's it. Note: Steve Vai has a hot rail type pickup in that position so he has a little more surface area to work with.
He has a lot of other drummers helping him co wrote these songs. So much of what they do is collab with other musicians that don’t get credit either it’s interesting.
The most popular comment on every video with this band is people saying “the drummer deserves more cred!” He gets more than their virtuoso guitarists ffs
@@yfz450rider39 The collaboration point is very true. Tim put out a "making of" video for Playing God a couple of weeks ago and he makes no secret about it. You should watch it, it's fascinating. Even in this track, I'd wager the piano part in the intro is Summer Swee-Singh who caught Tim's attention with a "fan cover" several years ago.
@@microchrist6122 That's not true. He even talks about how he came up with his beat to this song in a single day. I bet what you're thinking of is when he first joined the band, he had to replicate and even rework some tracks that were already created by the former drummer. They talk about this stuff a lot.
Clay on the drums said in an interview with Steve Vai that he came up with those drum parts in one day, and for most songs he does them directly as he hears the guitar parts, in the studio on the day of recording.. crazy
Weird cause Tim was saying on a behind the scenes on his RU-vid that clay gets a lot of help writing these songs from other drummers and they work them out for months…
@@microchrist6122 If you check out the video call they did with Steve, posted yestersay on their channel, the part where Clay explains it is a little after the 23:30 mark 👍
Having listened to lots of Vai, the biggest takeaway I get is that this is the condensed, straight to the core, recognizable in a thousand voices sound of Steve Vai. And knowing that what he sent to them is different than what is in the track speaks to Polyphia's ability to say "why did we ask steve vai to collab?" For a voice that no one else has, and absolutely nailing it. It's a gorgeous love letter where his own sound gets sent back to him as fan fiction that works so well. If anyone has any other channels that speak to the voices of other artists, would love to get that too. Some are so very recognizable they may as well be their own voices.
Love watching how into the music this guy is, I don't mind when he pauses a lot because he's in depth with it, this seems like Christmas morning excitement for him. Great video.
what i find remarkable about Tim's playing is the effortlessness... it's like he's totally in control and never really struggling to play and repeat those parts
It only looks like it, though. He said in a stream that in the scene with his part when he was in the throne he damn near had a mental breakdown because couldn't get it right
That song shot right to the top of my favorite all time songs. I almost shed a tear at the end when the video is circling the three of them. That shot and sound is out of this world.
By far my favorite part of the song. Like all the buildup finally resolves and comes together for one final climax, and the end always comes far too shortly after that. Seriously, it feels like that one final moment represents the entire song; that's the final moment of clarity just before death.
I watch a shit ton of guitar teaching vids but yours are the ones I always enjoy and learn the most from. Your honest style and knowledge , the fact you talk about production techniques make this in my opinion the best site going. Thank you Michael
Really awesome you pulled the chord progression out, Tim Henson has said in interviews he usually starts with a relatively simple progression and builds out from there so the insane arpeggios actually follow a recognizable sequence and cements the "feel" of the song so the band isn't just playing random sweeps and stuff. Good stuff as always!
I so liked this reaction! Thanks! Your genuine excitement, your understanding of the piece, but also your bowing before where they just leave earth. So good man!
Can we talk about how perfectly the two contrasting styles melt together, and polyphia just, lets Steve put his sweeping legato style front and center while they use their signature polytrhythmic style to back him in this glorious mix.. I think around 5 minutes is almost the most symphonic way to build and fade... So gosh darn beautiful.
Polyrhythmic? Polyphia pretty much only does 4/4, probably out of caution not wanting to melt too many listener brains. Check out Sungazer for polyrhythms.
@@rookiebeotch Not to mention, Vai didn't really do any sweep legatos, he stuck to his more experimental whammy bar stuff that sounded way fucking better paired with Polyphia
@@rookiebeotch not talking polyrhythm as it applies to meter, it's all the syncopation and such. Still polyrhythmic... Sungazer is great, I also appreciate Tool for the same reason.
I love how excited you are for polyphia. You can tell composition and voicing in these groups (periphery, animals as leaders, polyphia, etc) is paramount. Then sprinkle in the mastery of their instruments and you get these insane pieces. Keep up the content brother.
@@MarkMassengale Steve vai's Slides comes from exeptional strikes and timings coordinated with whammy adjustments. basically its a specific force played on a string while he slides he utilises a slight bend and adjusts it with the whammy to stay linear instead of just one way. Its very hard to do. His whammy pedal is actually more cry coordinated most of the time, but just gets used also with pinch harmonics since they even require bigger precision. i would say its just 1 in a million guitarists who can do it. never heared anyone doing it better than steve vai. I am practicing it myself too but even after 10 years it stays difficult while i do play stuff like dream theater genre.
You'd probably enjoy his interview from yesterday with the guys from the band. He explains how he first thought he only had audio to come up with for the song and stacked some bend harmonies together.. then when he learned there would be a video for the song he started practicing multiple different bends done at the same time with different fingers, which he calls "joint shifting", to reproduce those stacked bends in a live setting. Vai is a special beast
@@HOSTILEWORKPLACE Its on Music is Win channel. He talks about it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-Ks0EeVGtQCM.html And the interview is here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-VlO_Uly1H-o.html
I love how much you love Clay A and I share this love. The entire group are phenomenal but man...clays use of space, making and taking absolutely makes every lick of difference in their music and I'll die on that hill
love the way they all are having such intense conversations with their instruments and each other at the same time. the way the parts entwine is just perfect, and i love how steve moves with his guitar. they're just so in sync with each other and oh my god, when tim, scottie and steve came together shivers went down my spine.
I have been watching tons of reacts to this song and I think you were one of the first react channels I found to polyphyia years ago. I was WAITING for someone to call out that slide at 11:16. I think that little stunt is one of the coolest sounds in the entire track, and I'm so glad you gave it attention. Love your vids sir! Fantastic stuff
Every time I listen to Ego Death, there are 2 things I *have* to go back and listen to multiple times: Scott's repeating upslide and Steve's whammy-bar/pick scratching whistle thing. By far my favourite parts of the song.
Thank you Michael. YT suggested again made great job of suggesting me your video. I can feel you. I adore and respect the way you do it here. I hope you keep on going and doing what you do. Much love from Poland!
Hey man, I’ve been watching your fantastic channel for a while now & thought of telling you that I find it fantastic, you’re communicating music in such a professional yet a fun way. Thanks much, keep it up!
Growing up and idolizing Vai and Satriani when I started learning, and then to see these kids who probably weren't even alive when I was in college shredding with Vai and showing a particular style of virtuosic musicianship that in large part didn't previously exist is epic.
Palmisano is just the G.O.A.T of song react videos! It's such a pleasure to watch him all excited about a song, and having this really engaging conversation with us about its elements in a very accessible way. He's a great educator and a person really really passionate about music! Love from Brazil.
My first visit - astounded by Polyphia after my Guitarist magazine featured them, and now discovered your fascinating analysis of the basic elements which such virtuosity embellishes and magnifies. Been playing guitar for 65 years (and I wasn't born with one!) and still aspire!! Thank you so much Mike, that was so enjoyable.
This guy has one of the best guitar lessons you can purchase. I learned more from guitargate than I have in 25 years of playing on my own. It took me to the next level and I still benefit from it today.
Man, I crack up every time you say you're going to just let the song play. We all know you won't make it three seconds before you get excited about something else. I do the same thing when I show music to my son, which drives him nuts because he just wants to hear the song. We watched one of your videos together and between your pauses to talk about the song and my pauses to talk about how you listen, I'm pretty sure he wanted to shove me off the nearest cliff. Love it.
I just discovered Polyphia yesterday and ive been today hearing them for 6 hours straight and seeing interviews of Tim , and im so amazed as a drummer of alternative rock, as someone that plays guitar (mediocre) and just curious about music im so shocked how this is so different, your explanation helped so much in understanding but im so shocked but their style, im just so anxious about all the things they do, like i cant relate it to anything from my past, is so awesome !
It's impressive how you add more layers. More than just another reaction video, you walk through these brilliantly. You point out things I didn't notice the first time, and definitely made me appreciate this more. Always educational and entertaining, and I love your enthusiasm for music!
When you played the chord progression in the first few minutes made me realise it’s sultans of swing by dire straits. Always amazing how you can build massively different songs on the same chord progression.
Steve Vai is one of the few technical masters that can express feeling and emotion and knows how to let a song breathe. He doesn't have to "shred" non stop , he's musically brilliant on every level
been loving polyphias past couple albums, love the experimentation and digital aspects theyve added while still making the instruments the star of each song.
Thank you so much for reviewing this!! You introduced me to this band and they are amazing. Mesmerizing is one of the best words I’ve heard to describe them.
Thank you. When you hear something you like, sometimes you want to know why you like it. As someone with limited musical instruction, I needed to know why this hooked me. The brain knows what it likes, but not always why.
I was more impressed by it but then I learned that Tim and band edited what he submitted for it and cut it all up and reassembled it to what they wanted.
I knew it!! You pointed out the horn at the end. It's the guy from Brasstracks!!! I've seen a ton of people review this and no one seemed to notice! Those guys are INCREDIBLE producers and I could imagine they had a huge part in that super sticky progression. Thanks for doing this. I love your take as a guitarist!
Steve said he recorded some stuff for them and they chopped it up and made it into what you hear on the track. So its not exactly how he imagined it would be on his end. They kept some of his "vai-ness" but its definitely been "polyphormized" to fit their style.
I really appreciate this video. I know nothing about music composition but you help people grasp what keeps you captivated in the music. The layering overtop of the simpler stuff, no technical talk there but easy to understand. I almost see it as three layers, the basic chord progressions, then they throw some flair on top of that, then when they want things to climax it starts driving forward then resolves back into a variation of the basic chord progression. Maybe I'm reading that wrong but it's what I hear. Their outros for their songs are always so fascinating too, they know how to put a punctuation mark on the whole thing without going nuts, it's usually something quite simple yet feels like it's making some sort of statement about the music.
This is the best video analysis-reaction of Ego Death i've seen. Not making an overreaction of amazement and instead making a well constructed explanation about the song (and yet acknowledging these guys technical abilities like 11:02 )
Not sure if anyone has mentioned it yet but they just posted a video of polyphia talking to Steve on video. They go through a lot of Steve’s early career and Steve asks them about how they compose. Tim talked about starting with chords and then going from there. As for the sounds you heard that the drummer wasn’t playing, Tim also discusses that where he adds a bunch of different sounds into the song which isn’t easy to hear at first but it helps fill out the sound. I’m guessing that sound will be a pre programmed trigger during a live show. And awesome job explaining the song. I understood about 10% of what you said but my 15 year old who plays bass and guitar understood a lot more. Lol.
Virtuoso type acts like Polyphia need anchored in something generally attractive to be more than a niche "guitarists guitarist" kinda gig. Honestly the way they pull their hits off, and the fact that they found their formula and make it look so effortless is what attracted me.
Between your videos and Rick Beato I think I'm starting to get and even enjoy Polyphia. I think this new music from them is a huge departure from their early work which often left me in the dust I confess. Thank you for your wisdom! 😊
the song is super catchy. Even though the chords are normal pop, the voicing and variations is what surprises me and makes me smile. It's crazy how tight the bass and drums are. Without their foundation, it wouldn't be balanced or nearly as interesting. When vai does the cricket sound, it takes me back to 80's and hits a nostalgic bone.
I think the takeaway is spot on; when you have 2 guitars, even in the simplest configuration you have two choices: 1, play together, harmonize… 2, get out of each other’s way! They have mastered both and seem to flow from one mode to the other seamlessly. Excellent work. And of course, Vai set the bar with his smooth delivery…
To break it down even further it usually goes in 3's. They also love long phrases. The first pass is to get your ear familiar with it. The second pass throws a little sauce on it, the third full virtuosity. So there's something for everyone. They also do what TOOL does by starting with a motif and squeezing out every possible iteration of it throughout the song. They just have different skill sets and approaches. Either way, it's a mark of a great band and they are prodigies. Another cool thing I haven't heard anyone else bring up. Clay A. the drummer accents Scottie's solo on the cymbals perfectly. It sounds like it's Scottie's attack on the guitar, but it's Clay A! Such attention to detail, it's insane! Good work catching it Michael!
Steve Vai plays them frets like a violin. Absolute magician. Kudos to the Polyphia guys, what a talented bunch, this piece is simply an projectile ejaculation of musical perfection, if I was to put it mildly. Absolutely stunning!
Hey Mike, Never seen or watched any of your Videos until Now and I just checked these guys out and they are FLAWLESS!!! This Song EGO DEATH with Via is just Flawless. So Much Beautiful Feel for all us Old School Guitarist and it's guys like you and I that can see and hear the Awesomeness in this Music. Yeah that Pick Tap on the Pick up Vja does had me laughing like HELL YEAH!!!!! I bet I watched it About 200 times over and over... Hats off to Polyphia and Via..
