Carving out a devoted following all his own thanks to brutal riffs, incredibly infectious vocals and intricate guitar work, Mark Tremonti and his band of merry members Garrett Whitlock, Eric Friedman and Wolfgang Van Halen have made it their mission to redefine the word 'heavy'.
Fast-forward to the Cauterize/Dust double album sessions, and you've got an artist positively bursting with creativity. Cauterize is still for my money, a slightly better record overall (nothing will ever beat Sympathy or Another Heart), but as Mark noted in holding back a few of his initial favourite songs for this second release, there are some real gems making up the tracklist.
Truly, the thing that'll take your breath away - especially if you've been following Tremonti for a few years - is just how accomplished he is as a musician and composer. 2016 sees the band a learned, masterful and sonically experimental beast; one that'll warm your heart with a gorgeous chorus one minute, before collapsing the walls with a crushing breakdown the next.
It's this firm grasp of melody and dynamics that make Tremonti the finest bunch of hard rock musicians working today. Hell, despite this being a 'side project' for Mark in between touring with Alter Bridge, he's still birthed enough incredible songs to command a string of arenas.
Here's my track-by-track review, ranked for the sake of some fun debate. Let me know your own favourites in the comments below...
10. Tore My Heart Out
This midpoint track shows the album isn't slowing down for a second, despite any softer connotations the title may indicate. Instead, Mark continues to bellow out every syllable like his life depended on it, leading to a thunderous outro that carries everything off like a freight train.
A really cool takeaway though, is the solo - one of my personal favourites, it's a subtle yet soaring composition that uses the chorus melody as a jumping-off point, encapsulating the track and proving Mark can still play with your heart strings better than anyone.
9. Betray Me
In any other artist's hands, the lyrics "How could you betray me? Remember hope? Remember faith? Remember trust?" may have floundered, but Tremonti puts so much passion behind every word, it sells the lines like no other artist outside Alter Bridge's own Myles Kennedy.
By having the titular track's venomous name personify the sledgehammer chord-chokes and relentlessness therein, it leads to a guitar technique Mark very rarely uses, now immortalised on-record - sweep picking.
Yes, one of the most complex things to pull off is now firmly within his repertoire. Formerly seen in Alter Bridge's Cry a River where it appeared alongside a sliding variation, listen for the repeated passage of notes towards the close of this song's solo to hear it for yourself - and then see if you can keep up!
8. My Last Mistake
Talk about your pace-setting opening tracks. My Last Mistake easily lives up to the unabashed ferocity Radical Change debuted on Cauterize, this time playing to an off-kilter time signature that's as refreshing as it is pulse-pounding.
Once again - as should be the case when a lead guitarist takes the reigns on a solo album - the guitar solo itself is a marked highlight. Fans will recognise a brilliantly complex mix of smaller signature elements from all of Tremonti's past studio efforts, and there's everything from escalating dual-string bends to sliding octaves and of course, a lightning-fast legato run to wrap it all up.
Throw in one of the best choruses on the album and there's a damn good reason this was the second single preparing us for the full release. It's brilliant.
7. Catching Fire
In my notes for this song, I simply wrote down "BREAKDOWN RIFF", which should tell you all you need to know about which part took my face off.
That's not the only thing, Catching Fire marks one of two tracks that features a defining vocal intro alongside an increasingly heavy progression. With Tremonti in full-on vocal showcase mode, it's a more fun-sounding track, with repeated shouts of "You just let it go!", the whole band kicks in underneath, contributing to a lung-emptying chorus. I'll gush about Mark's vocals in Dust and The Cage, but Catching Fire puts his sheer power to a faster-paced use.
That riff breakdown though, holy Myles is that good. Beginning as a muted, descending piece that sets the tone, the actual passage itself bursts out the speakers like the mouth of Hell itself letting loose an epic roar.
Mark, Eric and Wolfgang go hell for leather on their guitars as Garrett backs it all up by smashing the living daylights out the kit. Like being baptised in the fires of heavy metal, it's quite the religious experience.
6. Unable To See
The second it starts, Unable to See is quintessential Tremonti. A light, fingerpicked intro melody (VERY reminiscent of Alter Bridge's Waters Rising), a strumming pattern that puts the emphasis on vocals, and lyrics that only grow and become more relatable as you take them in.
Starting with that basic sung delivery and building into a more throaty performance as each chorus line comes back around, this is easily the most 'feelgood' track on the album, if only in the way it asks you to look within yourself, and question whether you're really taking on board all the advice and influence around you.
Small note too, the end of this song's solo has one of my favourite little riffs on the record; a neat repeating run up and down the neck, followed by an even faster progession, before folding back into the gorgeous intro melody. Sublime.
5. The Cage
Following an intro that has a slight nod to Judas Priest's Painkiller, the dynamic completely changes as Tremonti decides to upend all your expectations, singing in a higher vocal register for the whole track.
It's things like this that prove he'll never be content releasing too much similar-sounding material, and I find it immensely refreshing to hear an artist genuinely challenge themselves.
This ethos transfers across into one of the more unique solos on the album, too. Featuring a complex escalating pattern that leads into an onslaught of hammer-ons and pull-offs, it ends by combining what sounds like a finger-tapped lick with another go-round of the same pattern played on two strings.
In short, it's a total standout, and no doubt fans will be eagle-eyeing Tremonti's fingers live, to see how it's really done.
4. Once Dead
If there's one thing the band understand more than any other hard rock musicians working today, it's the pleasure in cranking volume dials up beyond 11. Once Dead is an absolutely furious display of Garrett Whitlock's prowess behind the drums, a remarkable display of talent that takes blast beat sections even Slipknot would resign to specific pockets of a song, and fires through them for the duration.
It's psychotically fast and completely unrelenting, by far the heaviest track on the album, and one of the most brutally pleasurable songs Mark's ever put his name to, no matter which band you name.
The triple-cymbal intro is reminiscent of All I Was' You Waste Your Time, which just goes to show how much both Tremonti and the band have grown and flexed not only as musicians, but also as artists who know exactly what the fans want.
3. Rising Storm
Mark has always had a way with vocal highs and lows, and it's by demonstrating such confidence in his refined range, that he's able to craft choruses like Rising Storm's.
Only the great Myles Kennedy or perhaps Shinedown's Brent Smith tend to weave vocal lines this dynamically, and it's a testament to just how confident he's become as a vocalist, that the song exists as it does.
Rising Storm makes up the one-two punch that heralds in Unable to See alongside Never Wrong; a solid couple of crunchy songs with huge choruses and tight solos that segue into a really big, emotional finish. Perfect.
2. Never Wrong
Starting out with a supremely slick muted passage reminiscent of something from Slash & Myles Kennedy's World on Fire album, it sees Tremonti loosening up the more intense feel from the first half of the album, segueing into a bouncier chorus that became one of my personal favourites.
Such a positive mood only aids in how infectious it all is, and I found myself singing this one back to myself far more than the rest - at least for the first few days of living with the album.
Sometimes the best Tremonti tracks are the ones where you can tell both he and the band are just cutting loose and executing on what they know they can do best - like Cauterize's Tie the Noose. It shows that their baseline is already way higher than any contemporaries, and Never Wrong is a solid builder of a tune that would be the best song on here, if not for...
1. Dust
A song to build a career on, Dust is not only the finest track on the album, but one that perfectly reinforces the two sides of the Tremonti coin; melodies you'll wake up singing the next day... just before headbang-induced neck cramp kicks in.
As a statement of intent from both Mark as a performer and the band overall, it's already timeless. Seriously, I can't sing enough the praises of the vocals enough; the phrase 'singing your heart out' is more than apt. Give the above video a shot and just wait for the chorus, it's unbelievably emotive.
What he's penned here will put a smile on your face, summon the occasional tear, and everything in between. It's by far the most impressive song on Dust, and one of the greatest songs Tremonti has ever written.