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Review Summary: Alter Bridge make another album. I was so psyched for this album. I figured Alter Bridge would finally learn their lesson, dust off their ass and create something worth remembering through time. The last time they did that they brought us Fortress, a superior collection of hard rock and heavy riffs. The band have failed to capture lightning in a bottle past that point. They’ve made decent albums, but nothing close to being as creative.
Pawns and Kings brings back the heaviness to the forefront previously seen in Fortress. That in itself is a wonderful thing and it helped to keep me alert through the album. That, unfortunately, is the only real musical evolution here. The experience here involves a streamlined, heavy-centric focus that explodes due to immensely well produced instruments, but otherwise is a saltless and predictable heavy rock album. It’s Alter Bridge doing their thing, and it’s starting to sound recycled.
The album can seem like a heavier version of Blackbird at first due to repetitive, simple songwriting. Problematically, the catchy choruses in Blackbird are almost nowhere to be found. The creativity is also lacking, it can be heard in the mostly forgettable riffs, the overuse of high vocals to the point of annoyance, and especially the songwriting. There’s a lack of iconic moments here, which the band used to easily dish out. The only potentially iconic moments were from the sung chants and heavy riffs opening the song This is War, and the chorus for Silver Tongue. Aside from that - meh - there’s not too many standout moments.
With semi-relatable, filler lyrics that don’t mean anything substantial, there’s not much to dig into. It’s the same problem with the album, which never fails to dive into mediocrity. It’s a by-the-numbers release, a cheque to the bank for Alter Bridge, but they certainly aren’t progressing. This is a step down from Walk The Sky in terms of nuance, and while it’s good to hear the band heavier again, I’m looking for something more. This could’ve easily been a return to form, their magnum opus even, but Alter Bridge are still playing it too safe. The triteness of their sound has escalated to a boiling point, and it seems they may have already reached their peak long ago.
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Album Rating: 4.0
Riffs pretty hard and is enjoyable enough but lyrics are below average for them and Myles's voice hasn't been as good lately. I liked Walk the Sky sound-wise a lot but Tremonti's solo work is better than anything of AB's post-Fortress
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Honestly, This is their best record since Fortress because the last two records have filler tracks, TLH is their longest album, so, listening TLH can be tedious sometimes, WTS tried to be a conceptual album, but foto me failed too much because of some filler tracks AND its lack of heaviness. That's my opinion
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Honestly, This is their best record since Fortress because the last two records have filler tracks, TLH is their longest album, so, listening TLH can be tedious sometimes, WTS tried to be a conceptual album, but to me failed too much because of some filler tracks AND its lack of heaviness. That's my opinion
| | | Album Rating: 5.0
Honestly, This is their best record since Fortress because the last two records have filler tracks, TLH is their longest album, so, listening TLH can be tedious sometimes, WTS tried to be a conceptual album, but foto me failed too much because of some filler tracks AND its lack of heaviness. That's my opinion
| | | Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off
AB3 > Blackbird > Fortress, and then the rest that I haven’t listened to enough to rank.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Was disappointed with this. The wife and I are big AB fans and have something of theirs on everyday, but we both felt the same. What I really noticed, is the lack of creativity in Mark's solos which is rare. Say what you will about TLH, but between Show Me A Leader and My Champion, Mark was really nailing it in true musicianship and not just a run through scales. His solo efforts have been better than AB stuff since Fortress, by quite a bit.
A little controversial but I would say Blackbird --- Fortress --- ODR --- ABIII --- TLH --- PAK --- WTS
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
yeah this album as a whole is unimpressive, "This Is War" is a decent opener though.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off
The instrumentation caught me more on this album for sure, compared to the last two. The problem for me is the lyrical depth is gone, Myles dynamic is gone and the lyrics are missing that emotion that we’re all used to. I liked it more than their last two records but it doesn't leave me wanting to go back for much more unfortunately. The bass is the best thing about it.
| | | Album Rating: 4.0 | Sound Off
Blackbird is unmatchable. Having heard this once so far, I don't think it will even sound like approaching my number 3
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
This is dull. Entire album feels like a more polished up Walk The Sky. Ultimately forgettable, a couple of nice riffs and just generally tired sounding.
But I second that the closer is the best song here. It's pretty epic actually!
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
I'm only three songs in and the title of the review sums it up very well so far lol
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It was obvious they should have changed producers following The Last Hero, which didn't do so well. Their formula has gone beyond stale, even though it isn't bad per se.
| | | Album Rating: 3.5
Quite obviously their best since Fortress to me after the first listen. Not sure my 4 will stand the test of time, but I definitely enjoyed this more than TLH and WTS.
Sin After Sin and t/t are the best cuts for sure.
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I lost interest in this band when Tremonti started doing his far superior solo project. Still a let down to know this is yet another AB album written on autopilot...
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I lost interest in this band when Tremonti started doing his far superior solo project. Still a let down to know this is yet another AB album written on autopilot...
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
This is a bit of a mixed bag. Dead among the living, Stay and the closer are good though.
Tremonti's solo album released last year was so much better
| | | Album Rating: 3.0 | Sound Off
“ What I really noticed, is the lack of creativity in Mark's solos which is rare. ”
I think he’s just over worked at this point. He’s done quite a bit of recording and touring with his solo project and I think where he used to regard his solo stuff as secondary to AB, it seems he’s personally putting in more work and musical investment on the solo stuff over AB now. He just put out that Frank Sinatra tribute thing as well. I know I for one am enjoying his solo stuff more than I’ve enjoyed the last several AB albums.
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
Tremonti's last solo album is defs better than this. I got bored of this too, Fortress was as good as they got
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
I liked the most recent EP, and the same songs are good here too, but over the length of a whole album it got really stale
| | | Album Rating: 2.5
The bookends are solid but that's about it for high quality songs
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