The "Cauterize" Listener Review Thread - post yours here!

[AHart96]

Lots of people in the states received their pre orders today... I want mine!!

what the hell?? lol haven't even gotten a shipping confirmation yet need this to get here ASAP, hopefully before Tuesday

Same here. Still says processing. Did you get the hoodie bundle? Another person said the same thing on Facebook, and they had the hoodie bundle as well.

No, I just got a regular copy of the CD, not even signed! Really confused by that

Is that the version you preordered off the site? Or did you get the signed cd version? Because I you got the latter and they sent you the first; I'm worried that might happen to me. Of course I don't even know when or if to expect mine because I don't think they've sent us any emails or notifications regarding the CD. I got the signed version of the CD. But I live in Canada so shipping from the states at a normal rate means I usually have to wait a while.

No, I pre-ordered the CD by itself unsigned. I'm just confused to why I haven't even gotten a shipping confirmation yet. It's a small order, I thought it would've shipped out by Friday at least

[SHEAKENBAKEN]

Lots of people in the states received their pre orders today... I want mine!!

what the hell?? lol haven't even gotten a shipping confirmation yet need this to get here ASAP, hopefully before Tuesday

Same here. Still says processing. Did you get the hoodie bundle? Another person said the same thing on Facebook, and they had the hoodie bundle as well.

No, I just got a regular copy of the CD, not even signed! Really confused by that

Is that the version you preordered off the site? Or did you get the signed cd version? Because I you got the latter and they sent you the first; I'm worried that might happen to me. Of course I don't even know when or if to expect mine because I don't think they've sent us any emails or notifications regarding the CD. I got the signed version of the CD. But I live in Canada so shipping from the states at a normal rate means I usually have to wait a while.

No, I pre-ordered the CD by itself unsigned. I'm just confused to why I haven't even gotten a shipping confirmation yet. It's a small order, I thought it would've shipped out by Friday at least

Hmmm. That's strange.

[HappyHogJens]

Either this album has to grow on me.. or I just don't like it like I loved All I Was.

I feel like Mark has run out of good ideas for songs, both on guitar and vocals, and is now just presenting an album full of variations of previously used ideas.

Pretty sure Sympathy used to be an idea that used to be intertwined with the creation of AB's Ghost of Days Gone By, sharing the same tempo, feel and chords in the chorus.
Pretty sure Fall Again reminds everyone of AB's Save Me.
Not to mention Another Heart, which is basically the You Waste Your Time/So You're Afraid formula with a different set of chords and lyrics.

More than ever while listening an album of AB/Tremonti have I felt like "Gosh, he's using that lyrical/rhythmic thing again".
All I Was had groove. Cauterize is more about blasting. Not my cup o' tea.


There's some cool stuff in there, like the chorus of Arm Yourself which reminds me of rhythms used in Dubstep. Mark's vocal performance is stellar, but we've seen Mark ruin high notes during live performances, and I predict things won't be different this time around.

But I'm just not hearing enough interesting things. Many of the choruses are weak. Fall Again, Dark Trip for example, and to a lesser extent, Another Heart.

I'm just feeling like most of the choruses share this same feel. Even before Cauterize came out, we already had some choruses of other songs that shared the same feel. We had You Waste Your Time, So You're Afraid (which are basically already the same thing in terms of structure), Brains, Gone, Proof, All That I Got and even Brains, Decay and Doesn't Matter (albeit slower) which are all songs written with the same kind of chorus, while still retaining a certain originality with every song.
The same approach is used in half of Cauterize, and that bores me.

I think that's the best way to describe how I feel about this new album.

The songwriting on this album bores me in every way. I hope Dust will be more interesting and surprising, otherwise Tremonti might end up in the same bench as Breaking Benjamin for me, a band that released 4 albums which were practically the same thing.



So I guess that's just my two cents.

[Micky]

I ordered just a signed CD too and haven't gotten a shipping order or anything it just says processing for me too.

[Dolo]

I feel like Mark has run out of good ideas for songs, both on guitar and vocals, and is now just presenting an album full of variations of previously used ideas.

To be honest, this is how songwriting has been looking like for a few decades now. There are not a lot of very innovative musicians right now who would be capable of turning the world of music upside down like Zeppelin, Queen, Floyd etc. again.
Cauterize is imo, much more interesting in terms of songwriting than AIW. There are no tracks like Providence of Dark Trip on the previous record. There is still a plenty of speed-metal chuggy galloping rhythms but they are arranged better

[SHEAKENBAKEN]

Either this album has to grow on me.. or I just don't like it like I loved All I Was.

I feel like Mark has run out of good ideas for songs, both on guitar and vocals, and is now just presenting an album full of variations of previously used ideas.

Pretty sure Sympathy used to be an idea that used to be intertwined with the creation of AB's Ghost of Days Gone By, sharing the same tempo, feel and chords in the chorus.
Pretty sure Fall Again reminds everyone of AB's Save Me.
Not to mention Another Heart, which is basically the You Waste Your Time/So You're Afraid formula with a different set of chords and lyrics.

More than ever while listening an album of AB/Tremonti have I felt like "Gosh, he's using that lyrical/rhythmic thing again".

There seems to be a lot of discussion going around from people who I've either showed a song to or have heard the album that say Mark is being to repetitive or the music as a whole is too repetitive; But am I the only one who realizes that you can't ALWAYS be original? In a genre such as this where Mark and co. only use Vocals, Guitars, Bass, and Drums. I'd imagine it be pretty hard especially at his point in his career to manage to come up with 100% authentic material that hasn't ever been done before. Sooner or later bands all have to draw from themselves for others to make songs work and that's fine with me personally. I don't take reiterations of ideas too harshly in songs and sometimes the nods to previous songs add a bit of depth and appreciation.

There's some cool stuff in there, like the chorus of Arm Yourself which reminds me of rhythms used in Dubstep. Mark's vocal performance is stellar, but we've seen Mark ruin high notes during live performances, and I predict things won't be different this time around.

dubstep. I never thought of that. Every singer does that. Myles has done it plenty of times to. You have to remember these guys are not machines. They're human. You seriously can't expect them to pull of every single vocal note live as they do in the studio. Studio is designed to perfection in the final product. Live is a completely different beast. And even if Mark may not sound as good live sometimes; I personally think that's better than sounding like a robot doing the same version you hear on the album every single show.

But I'm just not hearing enough interesting things. Many of the choruses are weak. Fall Again, Dark Trip for example, and to a lesser extent, Another Heart.

I'm just feeling like most of the choruses share this same feel. Even before Cauterize came out, we already had some choruses of other songs that shared the same feel. We had You Waste Your Time, So You're Afraid (which are basically already the same thing in terms of structure), Brains, Gone, Proof, All That I Got and even Brains, Decay and Doesn't Matter (albeit slower) which are all songs written with the same kind of chorus, while still retaining a certain originality with every song.
The same approach is used in half of Cauterize, and that bores me.

Maybe this is just me; but I feel all the chorus' on the album are great. And in terms of chorus and song structure. I could see where some would get inevitably bored; but I personally think the formula is working great for Tremonti so far. I don't expect anything more or definitely anything less so anything else is a surprise for me.

I think that's the best way to describe how I feel about this new album.

The songwriting on this album bores me in every way. I hope Dust will be more interesting and surprising, otherwise Tremonti might end up in the same bench as Breaking Benjamin for me, a band that released 4 albums which were practically the same thing.

Sorry dude, but I think it's safe to say you'll experience the same let down. Mark hasn't been known to change things up that much; but what he does seems to work well for a vast majority of the fan base. Sucks you're having these feelings towards Tremonti (if you don't want those feelings) But I guess there's not much you can do about it. At least you gave the album a chance, though.

So I guess that's just my two cents.

Edited my response to HappyHogJens because some people take comments too seriously.

[Timotheus]

[quote="HappyHogJens"][/quote]
Not attacking your opinion here, just gonna give my thought on what you said about the choruses. I think the they're are a lot better written into the song then a lot of choruses on All I Was. I think Mark & Co have done a better job when it comes to writing full songs instead of pasting parts together. Most of the choruses feel really natural to me, which is a big part of my I prefer this album to All I Was.

[Andy92]

We finally get a chance for some discussion about the album, and Shea comes in with his typical "zomg are you crazy?!?" remark.

[Dan Dando]

We learn till we fall, seek change, change it all someway.

Love those lyrics in 'Providence'

[SHEAKENBAKEN]

We learn till we fall, seek change, change it all someway.

Love those lyrics in 'Providence'

Are you sure it's not "we learn to evolve"? That's what I hear every single time I listen to the chorus. Dammit Mark! Pronounce your words better! What makes more sense contextually?

[SHEAKENBAKEN]

We finally get a chance for some discussion about the album, and Shea comes in with his typical "zomg are you crazy?!?" remark.

I did not say "zomg are you crazy?!?", Andy. I only said he was pretty harsh on the album. Which is still true. It doesn't mean I'm saying he's wrong. It's his opinion.

[Dan Dando]

We learn till we fall, seek change, change it all someway.

Love those lyrics in 'Providence'

Are you sure it's not "we learn to evolve"? That's what I hear every single time I listen to the chorus. Dammit Mark! Pronounce your words better! What makes more sense contextually?

Now I can kinda hear evolve. Heh. I.... dunno

[SHEAKENBAKEN]

We learn till we fall, seek change, change it all someway.

Love those lyrics in 'Providence'

Are you sure it's not "we learn to evolve"? That's what I hear every single time I listen to the chorus. Dammit Mark! Pronounce your words better! What makes more sense contextually?

Now I can kinda hear evolve. Heh. I.... dunno

What we need is the CD lyrics booklet!

[BSC]

I only said he was pretty harsh on the album. Which is still true. It doesn't mean I'm saying he's wrong. It's his opinion.

Harshest Critic of the Year Award goes to...

You'd think people would be a bit more accurate when clarifying their own statements. You didn't 'only' say he was harsh on the album, you ridiculed him (or at least it came across that way to me) for having his opinion. From the perspective of somebody that doesn't post very often, you sometimes come across as a bit of an arsehole (I'm not saying you are an arsehole, I don't know you personally) at times, it makes me wonder why I still visit here.

[Fish Tacos]

I'm just feeling like most of the choruses share this same feel.

I don't disagree or agree with this statement per se. I was having this conversation with a coworker last week discussing how interesting I think it is for a singer to be able to take written words and generate a melody that works over a chorus. Somebody earlier said they felt it was hokey in a song like Cauterize where the voice melody matches what the guitars are doing (while they may be right and it did stand out to me the first time I heard it, I quite enjoyed it for that one song). I bring that up though because that is the exact opposite of what I'm referring to.

Artists like Rihanna treat their voices like an instrument and make their own melodies that complement and supplement the music, which is a major reason why I think she became popular in the first place. And I think that takes a lot of imagination! I would personally have a very difficult time coming up with a voice melody for a chorus if I had written the music itself and heard it 3,000 times already. Breaking out of that guided mindset to come up with something that sounds good, works, and doesn't follow the same flow would seem very difficult to me. This is something that a lot of artists do to an extent, but only a handful do well and truly shine at it. Myles seems to have started doing it more on his work with Slash lately (enter Bent to Fly and a few others).

So now looking at your statement again, I can see how you would say they share the same feel, because I think the above was something Mark focused a lot on in this album. But personally, I think he did a phenomenal job at exploring it not only with his own vocals but with the harmonization aspects as well from 2 different backing vocal voices doing their own things each adding their own layer of complexity, and it's one of the reasons I really love this album. A song like Arm Yourself has a riff that I enjoy, but the way it was recorded came off as too grungy/guttural for me like a lot of the All I Was tracks (Wish You Well comes to mind), but now every song has something I can look forward to and vibe with.

The concept of a catchy chorus, I think, can sometimes be rejected as being too mainstream or "radio rock-ish", but to me it really increased the lifespan of the album as there are likely fewer tracks I will skip in the future.

Anyway, those were just some thoughts I had recently, so I thought I'd share them.

[fix]

What we need is the CD lyrics booklet!

I think it's too bad we didn't get a digital booklet with the iTunes orders. I always like it when they do that, hopefully Fret12 can make it happen in the future. Shouldn't be too difficult.

[austinjhnsn]

Damn... TIM! Digital booklets would be rad!

[BMus1]

Either this album has to grow on me.. or I just don't like it like I loved All I Was.

I feel like Mark has run out of good ideas for songs, both on guitar and vocals, and is now just presenting an album full of variations of previously used ideas.

Pretty sure Sympathy used to be an idea that used to be intertwined with the creation of AB's Ghost of Days Gone By, sharing the same tempo, feel and chords in the chorus.
Pretty sure Fall Again reminds everyone of AB's Save Me.
Not to mention Another Heart, which is basically the You Waste Your Time/So You're Afraid formula with a different set of chords and lyrics.

More than ever while listening an album of AB/Tremonti have I felt like "Gosh, he's using that lyrical/rhythmic thing again".
All I Was had groove. Cauterize is more about blasting. Not my cup o' tea.


There's some cool stuff in there, like the chorus of Arm Yourself which reminds me of rhythms used in Dubstep. Mark's vocal performance is stellar, but we've seen Mark ruin high notes during live performances, and I predict things won't be different this time around.

But I'm just not hearing enough interesting things. Many of the choruses are weak. Fall Again, Dark Trip for example, and to a lesser extent, Another Heart.

I'm just feeling like most of the choruses share this same feel. Even before Cauterize came out, we already had some choruses of other songs that shared the same feel. We had You Waste Your Time, So You're Afraid (which are basically already the same thing in terms of structure), Brains, Gone, Proof, All That I Got and even Brains, Decay and Doesn't Matter (albeit slower) which are all songs written with the same kind of chorus, while still retaining a certain originality with every song.
The same approach is used in half of Cauterize, and that bores me.

I think that's the best way to describe how I feel about this new album.

The songwriting on this album bores me in every way. I hope Dust will be more interesting and surprising, otherwise Tremonti might end up in the same bench as Breaking Benjamin for me, a band that released 4 albums which were practically the same thing.



So I guess that's just my two cents.

100% agree with all of this! I'm glad to see someone shares how I feel. I think part of the problem was that Mark really wanted to use all of the music he wrote for these sessions, and is ending up releasing two albums. I feel like if he released one 10-12 song album and was more critical about some of the music, it would have been another masterpiece.

With that being said, I still do really enjoy the album, but I definitely don't think it stands up to All I Was, or Fortress for that matter.

[Andy92]

I only said he was pretty harsh on the album. Which is still true. It doesn't mean I'm saying he's wrong. It's his opinion.

Harshest Critic of the Year Award goes to...

You'd think people would be a bit more accurate when clarifying their own statements. You didn't 'only' say he was harsh on the album, you ridiculed him (or at least it came across that way to me) for having his opinion. From the perspective of somebody that doesn't post very often, you sometimes come across as a bit of an arsehole (I'm not saying you are an arsehole, I don't know you personally) at times, it makes me wonder why I still visit here.

Yeah that's the only reason I said anything. He doesn't mean any harm by it, but those types of responses come across as condescending and don't allow for any discussion. That's a big turnoff when this is a message board, a place for discussion.

[ToNsOFuN88]

Lots of people in the states received their pre orders today... I want mine!!

what the hell?? lol haven't even gotten a shipping confirmation yet need this to get here ASAP, hopefully before Tuesday

Same here. Still says processing. Did you get the hoodie bundle? Another person said the same thing on Facebook, and they had the hoodie bundle as well.

No, I just got a regular copy of the CD, not even signed! Really confused by that

Is that the version you preordered off the site? Or did you get the signed cd version? Because I you got the latter and they sent you the first; I'm worried that might happen to me. Of course I don't even know when or if to expect mine because I don't think they've sent us any emails or notifications regarding the CD. I got the signed version of the CD. But I live in Canada so shipping from the states at a normal rate means I usually have to wait a while.

I got the signed cd package myself. Still says processing (I know it's Sunday so nothing would happen today anyway.)