Assembled by Steve Vai, Generation Axe are a touring rock supergroup comprised of five all-star guitar players fronting -- separately and together -- a rhythm section of equally fine session players. They have toured annually in North America and Asia since 2016; they have never recorded in a studio. As a group, their performances crisscross the spectrum, offering elements of metal, prog, hard rock, and blues rock from their individual careers, as well as focusing on originals and well-chosen covers. Vai, ever the conceptualist who began his career as Frank Zappa's transcriptionist, assembled the group with the idea of creating a seamless show with one band comprising five wholly accomplished guitarists in various configurations, performing some of their solo music then merging as cohesive co-creators of lushly orchestrated guitar extravaganzas. Vai's notion of playing as a group was to create parts for the members to play in harmony and off each other. To that end he recruited Yngwie Malmsteen, Zakk Wylde (Black Label Society), Tosin Abasi (Animals as Leaders), and Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme) to join him. The rhythm section includes bassist Pete Griffin, keyboardist Nick Z. Marino, and drummer Jean-Pierre Bouvet. On their first sold-out tour, they played 27 American cities in 34 days to universally positive reviews and enthusiastic audiences. In April of the following year they took the show to Japan, China, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Indonesia. In November and December of 2018, they played more than 30 American cities. In the late spring of 2019, Ear Music issued The Guitars That Destroyed the World: Live in China from their 2017 tour. It included various solo tunes and combinations of players in a series of covers and originals. Edgar Winter's "Frankenstein" and an epic-length reading of Deep Purple's "Highway Star" are highlights of the group's performances. Six months after the album's release, Generation Axe promoted the album with a tour of Asia. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi