Album Review: Tremonti - The End Will Show Us How

We often talk about traits as being either good or bad, independent of the reality in which we live. A strong work ethic is a good thing, we say, even though there are time in which it isn't the best thing for us. That's the case in point today, as we address the new album from Tremonti. Between this project, Alter Bridge, and the reunited Creed, Mark Tremonti is nearly always hard at work on something. That is commendable, but when the cycle goes straight from one project to the next, with little to no time between them, the question needs to be asked whether this is in fact the best was of going about things.

Last year say Creed reunite and go out on a tour far more successful than it had any right to be. Seriously; does anyone else find it odd that Creed is more acceptably popular today than when they were actually at their height? Regardless, that tour was interspersed with the writing and recording of this new Tremonti album, which is coming out right as Alter Bridge is getting ready to write and record their next album. You see where I'm going with this, right?

Not only does that mean Tremonti never has a break for his creative muse to refuel, the constant churn is drawing the projects closer together with each passing album cycle. Tremonti sounds more like Alter Bridge which sounds more like Creed than ever before. There used to be a point to each of these projects being its own thing, but that is getting harder to discern. The songs all blend together, and it starts to become too much. I said the same thing about Myles Kennedy when his album came out last year, and I stand by it.

As the album opens, the initial songs bog down in the sludgier part of metal. The guitars are tuned so low the notes are slurs of distortion, while Tremonti's baritone adds no high end to the mix. The entire thing comes across sounding a bit dull and lifeless, because everything is sitting in the lower end of the register. A bit of brightness would liven things up, as my ears fatigue hearing nothing but bass frequencies for too long. Combined with the tempos, it doesn't get the momentum rolling in the right direction.

We hit the nadir with "It's Not Over", which is a slow burn that never ignites. The clean guitar arpeggios sit under a brooding vocal, and when the distortion kicks in... it barely kicks in. The entire song feels like it's waiting for the hook to come, but it never does. It's "Waiting For Godot", but without the meta-joke inherent in the premise.

The entirety of the album has that same feeling, where the songs never reach their top gear. They don't feel as powerful as they should when the band is hitting hard, and they don't feel as melodic as they should when the choruses come along. It's a very... subdued album for being as metallic as it is.

This where we could blame all the time spent playing Creed songs for the disappointment of this album, but I don't think that's fair. Creed actually had many songs that were more lively and engaging than these. I think it's more likely that Tremonti has simply written so many songs that the constant churn isn't producing the best results anymore. That has happened for so many artists, and I know for a fact some of them never admit it has happened. Tobias Sammet used to churn out albums every year, until he couldn't. Magnus Karlsson has written multiple albums every year, and now they're all mediocre. That's the route Tremonti seems to be on, and it's avoidable.

"The End Will Show Us How" is one of those albums that isn't bad at all, but there simply isn't anything about it that stands out, that I will remember, that I can say you need to hear. I hate to say it, but this album is a soundtrack to creative malaise. Knowing that Alter Bridge is already in the process of making their next album only makes this more difficult to listen to. It's not a harbinger of the future, is it?