TheAlterBridgeNation.com

One Day Remains 100/10
Fortress 9.5/10
Blackbird 8/10
ABIII 7/10
The Last Hero 6.5/10

The Last Hero is a 10 for me love every song and then its Fortress which is a 9 for me i only skip 2 songs All Ends Well and that In the blood song? ABIII is my next fav love that album 9 for me and then its ODR which is solid but a little to Creed for me so an 8 and then their most overrated album Blackbird with a 7

Ok, I think I'll give this a shot after fully digesting The Last Hero.

1. Blackbird 10/10, least amount of filler, best solos they've ever written, and the title track.

2. Fortress 9.5/10, closest they've come to topping Blackbird, Cry of Achilles and Fortress are guitar masterpieces, and Calm the Fire is a work of art.

3. The Last Hero 8.5/10, even the songs I didn't like at first are starting to grow on me, This Side of Fate and the title track are masterpieces, love Myles soloing more, and I don't really hear much of a difference in Myles voice compared to past records, he sounds great to me.

4. One Day Remains 8/10, love this album, it's definitely a rough draft of what the band is now, though, and they'll never sound like that again, so it's special. Mark writing pretty much everything showcases how talented he is. Burn It Down is a classic.

5. AB III 7/10, I enjoy this album, it's just completely on its own sound wise when it comes to their discography. Words Darker and STtV are fantastic songs, but this album has more 'filler' than the others and just doesn't grab me like their other albums do. Still a good album on its own, though.

1. Blackbird: 10/10, modern rock masterpiece, one of my favorite albums of all time, and contributes five of my ten favorite Alter Bridge songs. Their best riffs, Mark's best lead guitar work, Myles's best vocal performance. Hard to top this one. The sound of a band that had a point to prove.

2. One Day Remains: 9/10, another quality album and probably more consistent than Blackbird, just doesn't reach the highs of it. Love the stripped-down sound, especially in the wake of the last two albums. They'd do well to take a few pointers for the sixth one.

3. Fortress: 8/10, grown on me since release. A couple of brilliant songs (Cry of Achilles, Fortress), a handful of great ones (Farther than the Sun, Peace is Broken, Waters Rising, The Uninvited), plenty of alright ones (and one absolute abomination in All Ends Well), but they're let down by the production. Little did I know in 2013 that it would get so, so much worse...

4. AB III: 8/10, more or less level with Fortress. Mostly enjoyable stuff that doesn't quite hit the level of Blackbird and ODR, with a couple of highlights (Slip to the Void, All Hope Is Gone and WDTTW).

5. Last Hero:5/10. A couple of great songs that fall short of their very best (Cradle to the Grave, Last Hero, Crows on a Wire), a couple of decent ones and plenty of swings and misses, and they all sound like absolute s***. Virtually no memorable riffs, boring drumming, Tremonti's vocals are buried too deep in the mix, Myles's vocals are a bit too shrill and quadruple-tracked on seemingly every song.

Arctic wrote:Ok, I think I'll give this a shot after fully digesting The Last Hero.

1. Blackbird 10/10, least amount of filler, best solos they've ever written, and the title track.

2. Fortress 9.5/10, closest they've come to topping Blackbird, Cry of Achilles and Fortress are guitar masterpieces, and Calm the Fire is a work of art.

3. The Last Hero 8.5/10, even the songs I didn't like at first are starting to grow on me, This Side of Fate and the title track are masterpieces, love Myles soloing more, and I don't really hear much of a difference in Myles voice compared to past records, he sounds great to me.

4. One Day Remains 8/10, love this album, it's definitely a rough draft of what the band is now, though, and they'll never sound like that again, so it's special. Mark writing pretty much everything showcases how talented he is. Burn It Down is a classic.

5. AB III 7/10, I enjoy this album, it's just completely on its own sound wise when it comes to their discography. Words Darker and STtV are fantastic songs, but this album has more 'filler' than the others and just doesn't grab me like their other albums do. Still a good album on its own, though.

I was going to write up a post, but I'll just grab this. This is pretty much exactly how I would rank things.

Always a tough one as I think Blackbird is their best album, but ODR is my fave.
Fuck it
1. ODR/Blackbird 10/10. Both are just amazingly good hardrock albums with no filler.
2. Fortress 9.85/10 So close, but just a couple of lesser songs let it down.
3. The Last Hero 8/10 Growing on me more and more,b ut the production will always let it down.
4. AB11 7.5/10 While it has some great songs on it, this album has just never flowed well for me.

I can't rate them. I really can't anymore. I love them all for different reasons. ODR is pure, Blackbird is Blackbird (yes that's an argument ), ABIII is dark and has some of my fav AB songs, Fortress is versatile and has some great longer songs and TLH is like Fortress with an edge. All have songs that are on my top list and all have songs that are on my bottom list.

fix wrote:I can't rate them. I really can't anymore. I love them all for different reasons. ODR is pure, Blackbird is Blackbird (yes that's an argument ), ABIII is dark and has some of my fav AB songs, Fortress is versatile and has some great longer songs and TLH is like Fortress with an edge. All have songs that are on my top list and all have songs that are on my bottom list.

Ahahahaa, yes, definitely a valid argument!

ABIII does have some great songs on it, but to me it mostly feels like a collection of quality b sides that don't form a very coherent album when bought together.

1) One Day Remains

2) Blackbird




3) ABIII




.....

Currently re-listening to Fortress in full for the first time in quite a while, this is definitely top of my list by quite a wide margin. Life-changing album for me personally

It's right up there with Blackbird for me. Blackbird is the album I get those feelings with when I listen to it all the way through though.

ODR, Blackbird and Fortress all give me that feeling from start to finish. ABIII never has and Last Hero is yet to. I get the feeling on some songs, but not all the way through. ODR was a life changing album for me too. I was in a pretty dark place when that album dropped, and listening to that combined with seeing them live for the first 2 times really help lift me up again.

mikeyd23 wrote:

Arctic wrote:Ok, I think I'll give this a shot after fully digesting The Last Hero.

1. Blackbird 10/10, least amount of filler, best solos they've ever written, and the title track.

2. Fortress 9.5/10, closest they've come to topping Blackbird, Cry of Achilles and Fortress are guitar masterpieces, and Calm the Fire is a work of art.

3. The Last Hero 8.5/10, even the songs I didn't like at first are starting to grow on me, This Side of Fate and the title track are masterpieces, love Myles soloing more, and I don't really hear much of a difference in Myles voice compared to past records, he sounds great to me.

4. One Day Remains 8/10, love this album, it's definitely a rough draft of what the band is now, though, and they'll never sound like that again, so it's special. Mark writing pretty much everything showcases how talented he is. Burn It Down is a classic.

5. AB III 7/10, I enjoy this album, it's just completely on its own sound wise when it comes to their discography. Words Darker and STtV are fantastic songs, but this album has more 'filler' than the others and just doesn't grab me like their other albums do. Still a good album on its own, though.

I was going to write up a post, but I'll just grab this. This is pretty much exactly how I would rank things.

Haha you've got good taste dude.

WaywardOne wrote:

mradu1960 wrote:INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT for me:
1. One Day Remains A++
2. ABIII A+
3. The Last Hero A
4. Blackbird A
5. Fortress A-

I like this scale - it really emphasizes that just because you rank one of their albums at the bottom doesn't mean it's not amazing

Haha

Okay, if we're going to use this scale I'd go with the following:
Blackbird & Fortress: A+
The Last Hero: A
ABIII & ODR: B+

Alternatively I'd go with:
Blackbird & Fortress: 10/10
The Last Hero: 9/10
ABIII & ODR: 8/10

The Plotblocker wrote:ODR, Blackbird and Fortress all give me that feeling from start to finish. ABIII never has and Last Hero is yet to. I get the feeling on some songs, but not all the way through. ODR was a life changing album for me too. I was in a pretty dark place when that album dropped, and listening to that combined with seeing them live for the first 2 times really help lift me up again.

I'm right there with you on everything you said.

AB3
Last Hero
ODR
Fortress
Blackbird

Choosing a favourite record really depends on what defines an album as good or not good. In terms of the amount of extremely high-quality songs, Fortress would have a good shot because Cry Of Achilles, Bleed It Dry, Lover, Calm The Fire, Waters Rising and Fortress are all outstanding tracks. However, Fortress also has quite a few songs that are mediocre or at least not that good, like The Uninvited, Cry A River, Farther Than The Sun and All Ends Well (which is actually a good song, but it's ruined by the fact that it's a bland copy of the much better Life Must Go On). The same goes for The Last Hero which has outstanding songs on it like Cradle To The Grave, This Side Of Fate and Island Of Fools, but at the same time pretty weak tracks like Losing Patience, Crows On A Wire and You Will Be Remembered.

To me, the more important aspect is whether I can enjoy an album in its entirety, although whether it has great tracks on it obviously also plays a major role. That's why ABIII is definitely the best Alter Bridge record for me. It only has one filler track (Breathe Again, which is a worse Before Tomorrow Comes), a few outstanding songs (Show Me A Sign, Words Darker Than Their Wings) and a lot of great tracks that all have a shot at my all-time AB top 10 (pretty much every track except Still Remains and Breathe Again actually). It has a definite style that I absolutely LOVE, and I think it's way more cohesive than Fortress or The Last Hero. Most songs may be a bit more straight-forward than what these albums have to offer, but overall, I think it's the record that defines Alter Bridge for me.

Ordering their albums by how much I like them would probably look like this:

1 - ABIII
2 - Fortress
3 - The Last Hero
4 - Blackbird (I love the title track and it has some amazing songs on it, but most Blackbird tracks can't compete with the better tracks from the three other albums)
5 - One Day Remains (BY FAR their worst album; it's still great, but definitely inferior to all their other work)

Blackbird wrote:Choosing a favourite record really depends on what defines an album as good or not good. In terms of the amount of extremely high-quality songs, Fortress would have a good shot because Cry Of Achilles, Bleed It Dry, Lover, Calm The Fire, Waters Rising and Fortress are all outstanding tracks. However, Fortress also has quite a few songs that are mediocre or at least not that good, like The Uninvited, Cry A River, Farther Than The Sun and All Ends Well (which is actually a good song, but it's ruined by the fact that it's a bland copy of the much better Life Must Go On). The same goes for The Last Hero which has outstanding songs on it like Cradle To The Grave, This Side Of Fate and Island Of Fools, but at the same time pretty weak tracks like Losing Patience, Crows On A Wire and You Will Be Remembered.

To me, the more important aspect is whether I can enjoy an album in its entirety, although whether it has great tracks on it obviously also plays a major role. That's why ABIII is definitely the best Alter Bridge record for me. It only has one filler track (Breathe Again, which is a worse Before Tomorrow Comes), a few outstanding songs (Show Me A Sign, Words Darker Than Their Wings) and a lot of great tracks that all have a shot at my all-time AB top 10 (pretty much every track except Still Remains and Breathe Again actually). It has a definite style that I absolutely LOVE, and I think it's way more cohesive than Fortress or The Last Hero. Most songs may be a bit more straight-forward than what these albums have to offer, but overall, I think it's the record that defines Alter Bridge for me.

Ordering their albums by how much I like them would probably look like this:

1 - ABIII
2 - Fortress
3 - The Last Hero
4 - Blackbird (I love the title track and it has some amazing songs on it, but most Blackbird tracks can't compete with the better tracks from the three other albums)
5 - One Day Remains (BY FAR their worst album; it's still great, but definitely inferior to all their other work)

Good post.

I went with sheer number of top-quality songs over consistency when doing my ranking. If I were to rank each song on each album and take an overall average (I actually have done this, on a particularly exciting work day...), One Day Remains would be my number one album. Pretty much all the songs there are at least solid, whereas Blackbird has a couple of mediocre ones (Break Me Down, Rise Today, Wayward One) that drag down the overall average. But Ties That Bind, Come to Life, Brand New Start, Buried Alive, Coming Home, Blackbird and White Knuckles are all songs I'd place in the band's top 15 ever. None of the other albums can match that for me.

In fact, very few of the albums I've ever listened to start off with 5 songs that I consider among the band's very best . The only other one I can think of off the top of my head is Superunknown.

1. Fortress/One Day Remains
2. The Last Hero/Blackbird
3. ABIII

I can't really seperate them all as I rank a couple as high as each other but it's fairly clear cut for me. Every AB album (with the exception of ODR) is overlong to me and I've personally cut each one down into a 50 minute album in my playlists. Fortress & ODR are the ones that are the most consistent IMHO and the highs are really high.

Blackbird and TLH both contain brilliant high points but Blackbird has far too much filler for me and the B-sides from that album are universally superior to some of the track chosen in their place. TLH has a few lame ducks (Twilight, Losing Patience, SMaL) and is dragged down a tad by the production but generally, when cut down, is a great album.

ABIII has some brilliant songs and, in hindsight, the production is actually pretty clean sonically. There are a few too many echoes here and there but in general it sounds nice and crunchy. The problem is that it is WAAAAYYY overlong and has far too much filler. There are some good highs (Words, Ghosts, Isolation etc) but nothing as good as the other albums. I actually struggled to fill the 50 minute playlist with this album whereas I had trouble knowing which ones to cut with all the others.

TLH ranks pretty highly for me and with re-arrangement and cutting I've been listening to it pretty consistently.

1. Blackbird
1. Fortress
2. One Day Remains
-----------------------------
3. AB III
4. The Last Hero