Your "All I Was" Review Here

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DonHarry
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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by DonHarry »

I don't think he's currently happy, I just think a lot of the songs have been sitting around for a long time and come from different periods in his life. He's also renowned for being somewhat cryptic and metaphorical in his lyrics so perhaps some of them have a different meaning or reference point beyond the obvious.
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Ubik
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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by Ubik »

psycosquirrel789 wrote:True. Though it's not just the songwriting itself - but the presentation of the songwriting. There was no echoes, boomy sound, effects, blah blah.. before him. From the way I see it, that's all Elvis' influence. Going with what Elvis offered is different from wanting a particular sound. They agreed to it more than chose in my eyes. If Elvis wasn't part of the picture they probably wouldn't have developed that sound. But I guess we'll never know.
I can agree on the presentation (although there was something said recently that muddied those waters a bit, in terms of who's responsible for the clipping and such), or maybe the quality of the sound rather than its content. I'd thought you were talking more about the artistic direction the band went in. It really would be interesting to hear a few songs back to back using the different production styles. I'm not a particular audiophile so I don't tend to notice that stuff unless it's really blatant.
DonHarry wrote:I don't think he's currently happy, I just think a lot of the songs have been sitting around for a long time and come from different periods in his life. He's also renowned for being somewhat cryptic and metaphorical in his lyrics so perhaps some of them have a different meaning or reference point beyond the obvious.
A few of them aren't songs about himself either I think, more observations of others, even if he uses the first person in the song.
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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by Alter Bridge 23 »

Ubik wrote:
psycosquirrel789 wrote:
A few of them aren't songs about himself either I think, more observations of others, even if he uses the first person in the song.
:werd: Down to my last was wrote about a movie he watched if I remember correctly.

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phatnonphatness
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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by phatnonphatness »

Everyone criticising Mark is or has been a fan of him. Personally, it's clear that these guys are real seasoned musicians, and it makes me a little sad that they're not living up to their potential, and stylistically slowly becoming stale and predictable.

Or maybe I've created my own unrealistic expectations and Alter Bridge and Mark just aren't that good.

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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by Andy92 »

phatnonphatness wrote:Everyone criticising Mark is or has been a fan of him. Personally, it's clear that these guys are real seasoned musicians, and it makes me a little sad that they're not living up to their potential, and stylistically slowly becoming stale and predictable.

Or maybe I've created my own unrealistic expectations and Alter Bridge and Mark just aren't that good.
I don't really understand what there is to criticize to far extents though. If someone doesn't like All I Was, they don't like what's going on in the modern hard rock scene.
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phatnonphatness
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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by phatnonphatness »

Maybe they don't.

I was never really a fan of modern hard rock, Alter Bridge were the only real band that I listened to extensively that fell under the category of hard rock. They always seemed to differentiate themselves from the genre somehow. Now I just find Mark's writing getting a bit bland.

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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by Andy92 »

Maybe that's why I'm not as critical of Mark's stuff. I listened to a handful of other hard rock groups before I discovered Tremonti.

And I didn't mean that comment to sound demeaning or anything lol. I just think All I Was can stand up against about any modern rock record being released today.
anguyen92 wrote:Oh well. Deal with it.

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phatnonphatness
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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by phatnonphatness »

Yeah see Alter Bridge is the only standard sort of hard rock band that I've been listening to for the past 8 years or so, and Tremonti has been my favourite musician for those 8 years up until very recently where his playing has started to bore me.

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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by Andy92 »

I gotcha. I listen to a lot of the modern hard rock bands you hear on the radio. Tremonti's releases are always some of the most impressive in that category I think.
anguyen92 wrote:Oh well. Deal with it.

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psycosquirrel789
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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by psycosquirrel789 »

^ Well he doesn't have very much competition lol

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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by Andy92 »

Lol but my point is I'm not sure who people here are comparing him to? Mark's always written modern, radio digestible rock music. And his stuff his pretty creative for the genre.
anguyen92 wrote:Oh well. Deal with it.

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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by nagpo »

Well I just finished my first listen. Have to say I'm not impressed. Marks previous works have been much better. He's NOT a singer. Really wished Myles would've sang some of these songs. There was an extreme lack of variety on the record, they were all just loud metal type songs which really doesn't sound that great to me. I'd probably have liked the metal sound better if the melodies were any good. One of the few songs I like was New way Out, the more melodic song. At the same time it's not as heavy with the ridiculous drumming that can be found throughout the other songs.

I usually don't like stuff on the first listen, so my opinion may get more positive the more I listen and have more time to digest the work.

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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by itaughttremonti »

He sounds like the guy from five finger death punch at times. I think it is a solid album, better than ABIII in all aspects for me, and the beginning to one o the songs has that signature mark clean-ish tone from back in the creed/ODR days...brought me back to that old feeling...
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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by joey78 »

phatnonphatness wrote:Yeah, I don't think anybody here was expecting anything progressive (how many people here even listen to progressive music?), just maybe something a little less predictable.
Every single record from these guys is going to be rushed. That's how the music industry is these days. You cannot make a good record when you're working with timelines and when you havee multiple projects. That's why ODR and Blackbird were so good, they took their time.

Same with the Slash record, it has it's moments but it's one those records that will be forgotten in a few months.

" get into the studio with creed in Oct, finish the record by Dec. Tour from Jan through March

Studio time with AB in April. Release record by July. Tour in August,etc etc"

This is not the most productive way for bands to make records, but given the number of projects these guys are involved in, there doesnt seem to be any other way.

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phatnonphatness
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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by phatnonphatness »

That's the thing, once they all started up their side projects the quality of the music was always going to decline at least a little bit.

If they never take their time with another album then they'll never really make another great one. I don't know too many musicians who release quality albums every year or so...

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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by joey78 »

phatnonphatness wrote:That's the thing, once they all started up their side projects the quality of the music was always going to decline at least a little bit.

If they never take their time with another album then they'll never really make another great one. I don't know too many musicians who release quality albums every year or so...
I have practicaly accepted the fact there will never be another Blackbird - which for me was a complete record in every sense coz it was truly a spontaneous effort built from writing and living with the songs for 2 years. 4 guys dedicated to one single project, one single record.

Every AB/Creed record from now on is going to be a collection of pieced together riffs.

The Creed reunion in 2009 fucked everything. That was the catalyst for the whole Myles/Slash project which in turn became the catalyst for all the other projects.

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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by Rosenblaetter »

joey78 wrote: I have practicaly accepted the fact there will never be another Blackbird - which for me was a complete record in every sense coz it was truly a spontaneous effort built from writing and living with the songs for 2 years. 4 guys dedicated to one single project, one single record.
I must say I agree with that.
phatnonphatness wrote:If they never take their time with another album then they'll never really make another great one. I don't know too many musicians who release quality albums every year or so...
I thought about it and honestly I only came up with Joe Bonamassa.
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osmosis2259
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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by osmosis2259 »

I always liked the metal side of Tremonti more so I'm a big fan of this record.

For the people that say that this album is "too metal" or "too loud" etc... Is the music really that heavy for some people? There are some more thrash/speed metal riffs but most of these heavy riffs are pretty similar to AB however this time there is a drummer that incorporates double bass and more metal influence.

Trust me there is plenty of heavier music out there lol

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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by BSC »

I've listened to the album a few times now, so I may as well chip in here. I do like the album, but is disappointing to an extent, although I think my disappointment really started when You Waste Your Time was released, so overall the album met my expectations. I think this album needs to be heavier, there are some decent riffs, but they're always being squashed into this intro-verse-chorus-verse, etc structure, where the riff disappears, and the verses are always mellower than the riff, which is disappointing. Wish You Well is the only real metal song on this album, nothing else really counts as metal for me, so I do find it strange when people say it's too heavy for them. It's a typical Tremonti album with a few heavier riffs squeezed in.

Leave It Alone is cool, it hasn't really grown on me, but I have no reason to dislike it. I find So You're Afraid to be a bit boring and standard for Tremonti, the only thing it has in it's favour is the instrumental section, which even then feels slightly out of place, and then makes the last chorus anti-climatic when it kicks in. Wish You Well is brilliant, the heavy riffs stays, and the song gets even heavier during the instrumental section and some cool guitar/drum interplay during the last chorus, one of the best on the album. I really like Brains too, reminds of Alice In Chains, it's just a shame the song doesn't keep with the slow dark brooding intro, that intro is definately one of the highlights of the album, it's just disappointing when the rest of song is so different to it, this should have been an AB song, I think it'll get overlooked seeing as it's only a Tremonti song, Mark singing the verses, with Myles on the choruses would have been cool. I don't really get The Things I've Seen, it hasn't clicked with me, it's a bit boring. New Way Out is ok, I generally dislke AB/Creed's ballads, I think it's a shame it's not an AB song, this songs cries out for Flip's tasteful hi-hat work during the verses, and like Brains it'll get overlooked.

I really like Giving Up, it's heavy and there's lots of passion in Mark's voice, another one of my favourites. Proof is a bit dull for me, I do like the clean instrumental part. All I Was has grown on me since hearing it live, the heavy part is awesome, it's just a shame it's not heavy all the way through. Doesn't Matter hasn't really clicked with me either. Decay is awesome, I really like it, it's a favourite along with Brains, Wish You Well and Giving Up. The only disappointing thing is the effects on Mark's voice during the bridge, it removes the emotion and anger from his voice. I really liked the live version, and hearing the effects did put a bit of a downer on the song.

Overall, I think this album isn't heavy enough, it's definately not a metal album, and I think it would benefit from more consistent heavier riffing and possibly harsher, more raw vocals. This album has made me appreciate Alter Bridge more, and has even made more excited for the next AB album, as an entire album All I Was is a bit dull, the songs are too similar and they all suffer from simply not being heavy enough, with the heavy riffs being forced into a structure. Because of this I appreciate the diversity and dynamics on AB's albums even more. While Elvis' production isn't as bad as I expected I still really hope they get a new producer for the next album. I think this album is a 6/10, possibly a 7, with individual songs reaching atleast 8 or 9/10.

Wow - That turned out longer than I thought, sorry :lol

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Re: Your "All I Was" Review Here

Post by Macca »

Only had one listen so far. The album seems okay, it starts off strong but I feel it gets kind of monotonous towards the end with no real variation. Maybe with a few more listens the songs will start to differentiate themselves a bit more. It's definitely better than I expected to be, Mark's voice is a MUCH better fit for this kinda stuff than Myles' is. Technically he's maybe not the best singer in the world, but that doesn't really matter much in hard rock and metal. It sounds VERY like FFDP to me at times, both in terms of the music itself and Mark's vocals.

I prefer it to Blackbird, I dunno if I like it as much as ODR and ABIII though, it's pretty close with ABIII, ABIII prolly just edges it out due to the more diverse songs. But yeah, I'm pleasantly surprised, it's not a bad effort, just not great either. Hopefully with more listens I'll come to enjoy it more, and not less, which unfortunately I feel may be the case. This kinda stuff just doesn't have much staying power with me these days, but it's good to listen to once in a while.
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