Listen: Steve Vai's rifftastic new song, Gravity Storm

You want to hear some monster riffing? Then check out Gravity Storm (above), the new song from Steve Vai, which will appear on his 16th solo album, The Story Of Light, to be released 14 August on the guitarist's own Favored Nations label.

The 12-song set, which continues a conceptual and cosmic narrative arc that began on Vai's 2005 release, Real Illusions: Reflections, is largely instrumental, but it does feature vocal performances by Aimee Mann, who duets with Vai on a song they co-wrote, No More Amsterdam, as well as Beverly McClellan, a season one finalist on The Voice, who appears on John The Revelator, a cover version of the Blind Willie Johnson blues standard (Johnson's acid-soaked vocals are worked into the mix).

"I'm always pursuing knowledge, I'm a seeker of spiritual equilibrium - and music is a big part of that," says Vai of the album's theme, which follows the journey of a man driven mad by grief, intertwining tragedy, revelation, enlightenment and redemption. "I've been obsessed with these kinds of ideas for years."

In the near future, Vai envisions a third set of songs that will complete the narratives that run through both The Story Of Light and Real Illusions: Reflections.

You can pre-order The Story Of Light on Steve Vai's official website.