Angel Vivaldi is an American prog-metal guitarist, composer, producer, environmentalist, and philanthropist from New Jersey. He is well known for a hard-won, inventive playing style and lavishly conceived music videos that have collectively been viewed some ten million times. Vivaldi began playing at the age of 15, influenced by Nirvana, Megadeth, Yngwie Malmsteen, and Eric Johnson. He did his woodshedding in bars and clubs between 2003-2007. His debut album, Revelations, was released in 2008. He has since disavowed it, and as a result wasn't available for many years. He followed it with the The Speed of Dark a year later and posted his first video -- a play-through of "Acid Reign" on YouTube -- just after displaying his technical virtuosity. Vivaldi's career has not followed music industry logic. He's a maverick who has insisted from the beginning on doing things his own way. For instance, in 2011, he issued Universal Language with producer Will Putney. It is a four-part EP suite. Its two music videos -- for "A Mercurian Summer" and "A Martian Winter" -- went viral and signaled to guitar fans the arrival of a major new talent. Vivaldi didn't tour at the time and for some years afterward. He was approached about joining supergroup Vext and recorded and performed on the band's debut EP, Impermanence. He left when the band was offered a recording contract, claiming he wasn't ready to get anchored to a label for any reason. In 2012, he joined the metal band I Legion, appearing on their debut Beyond Darkness. He simply kept on posting videos and releasing records, including the five-track Away with Words, Pt. 1 in 2014 -- whose songs were all titled in Morse Code. The same year, Vivaldi launched a live broadcast (with Chris Letchford of Scale the Summit) called "Shred for ALS," raising money for ALS research. He began formally touring as a headliner at the beginning of 2015, playing cities in the U.S. and Canada with the Algorithm. He continued to tour extensively through most of the following year. 2015 also saw the release of a cover version of Joe Satriani's "Crystal Planet" featuring Dan Sugarman. Its video went viral as well, tracking up well over a million views. Vivaldi's continued membership in I Legion resulted in the release of their sophomore effort Pleiona. His own The Speed of Dark: Revisited was issued in 2016, with Vivaldi re-recording the entire set, leaving the original in the dust of history. In October of 2017, Vivaldi issued the nine-track Synapse. Its opener, "Adrenaline," featured guitarist Julian Cifuentes (Sleepless Empire) as a guest. In terms of philanthropic work, Vivaldi was longtime performer in Steve Vai's JemFest(s), which benefits the latter's Make-A-Noise Foundation. He also broadcast six live-stream telethons to raise funds for the victims and families of the Orlando shooting in 2016. ~ Thom Jurek