Album Review: Alter Bridge - Alter Bridge

When a band releases a self-titled album well into their career, it can mean one of two things; either the band is completely out of ideas, or they are attempting to 'reset' expectations of who they are. Self-titled albums are viewed as being 'back to basics', and all about solidifying the band's identity. Perhaps that's what Alter Bridge needed to do, because they might be losing the thread as much as I am.

Over the years, as Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy have embarked on solo ventures, those projects and Alter Bridge have been converging on a single musical focus. Tremonti and Alter Bridge were supposed to be the difference between metal and rock, but these days they are distinguishable only by the different vocalists. Myles Kennedy started his solo work exploring folk and blues, but his latest album was also a heavy rock album not too dissimilar from Alter Bridge.

That leaves us with the inevitable question; if the two writers are already making Alter Bridge sounding music on their own, do we still need more Alter Bridge music?

I'm not sure I know the answer to that question. To be perfectly honest, I haven't been a huge fan of anything they have done since "AB III", which was another quasi-self-titled album whose name could take a few paragraphs to fully ruminate on. What has struck me about Alter Bridge since then is the shift in focus away from the hookiest heavy rock they could write to a sound that feels far more focused on the metallic riffing than on the ear candy that separated Alter Bridge from a lot of other bands. Combine the shift in focus with productions that emphasize the guitars that are tuned down so far they often sound more like basses, and it creates an atmosphere that can feel like an hour of soupy darkness.

The other aspect to the production is that it leaves the entire bright end of the spectrum to Myles' voice, which you might think means he has plenty of space for his voice to shine in the mix, but what it does is make clear the elements of his voice that can read as 'shrill' when he pushes himself. Still, none of this would matter much if the band is delivering top-notch material. The same issues could be raised about "AB III", but those songs hit me in a way that I seldom think about anything else when I'm listening to that album.

There are moments like that on this record. "Rue The Day" is classic Alter Bridge, with all the heavy riffs you could want, and a chorus where Myles locks in and delivers a stirring hook. It's the king of writing that is deceptively difficult, and an album that can do it time and again deserves all the praise we can muster. Unfortunately, these dozen songs aren't able to keep up that momentum from beginning to end. There are stretches where the songs get bogged down in the guitar churn, where Myles' melodies become flat drones rather than moving strings of notes.

Between the production and the melodies, the album's hour-long running time can be a chore. With the exception of the acoustic-based "Hang By A Thread", the rest of the album hits the same tone time and again, and the songs were not uniformly memorable enough to stand apart in my mind. The aforementioned are great, and "Playing Aces" fits that bill, but much of the record blends into itself. Going back for repeated listens wasn't exciting so much as it was work.

I've been wondering for a while now if putting out so much music between all these projects is not only making the sound too pervasive, but draining the creative well too quickly, and those questions are at the front of my mind after listening to this record. It isn't bad by any means, far from it, but it's one of those records I don't find enjoyable to listen to.