Dan Dando wrote:Troops4Tremonti wrote:Dan Dando wrote:Troops4Tremonti wrote:Ehh it's okay. I like the way it starts so I can at least reward this album a good opening, extending Mark's streak to 12 albums with a good/great opening
The verses are good, the chorus is not and the solo is too familiar. There's your candid review, short and to the point. lol
Will be intrigued to read your thoughts on the album as a whole when it's out. Noticed you rank Creed's 'Full Circle' higher than anything AB or Tremonti has done over the past six years.
I'm a melody junkie. I've always considered Creed to be melody-heavy and Alter Bridge to be dynamic-heavy. Full Circle grew into that ranking for me, though I still nearly loathe Stapp's vocals on it.
Cool, man. That's fair enough. After that post last night I was thinking... "Hmm, hope he doesn't think I'm having a go here." - That wasn't my intention, was just genuinely curious. Bit of a follow-up question coming up. What works and doesn't work for you on AB3 and Fortress?
Nah, I didn't think you were bro.
What doesn't work on Fortress is the easier question so I'll start there. I don't like how nearly all the songs on the album start really good and then the chorus comes and the rhythm pattern feels slowed. It's rather anti-climactic. The melodies in a lot of the choruses don't appeal to me much. Also, the vocal melodies don't seem to fit the instrumental melodies in some parts. I actually like ABIII more than Fortress, and I realize that's not very popular either.
The biggest problem Alter Bridge has for me, from day one, is that they don't make a lot of songs that I love every second of. A lot of the time, and though I still enjoy it, I would do something different in the chorus or the bridge, in a part here or there. They have a tendency of not playing every note of a chord (like bar chords, for example) and I think that leaves a lack of accent to a song or melody, makes it sound incomplete in a way. Especially when you're dealing with minor chords. Coeur d'Alene is a good example of Mark playing the minor chords in the verses perfectly (to me). The sweet spot of a minor chord is that note that separates it from a major chord, and that note is missing a lot of the time. Sometimes it works to play chords incomplete, but most of the time, to me, it sounds better to nail that major note or minor note in the chord and I feel like Mark did/does that with Creed.
Tremonti's solo stuff is rockin, but it's not as substantive as Creed or Alter Bridge.
ABIII just barely falls behind Full Circle because it doesn't have as many all-around gems. There are several musical parts on ABIII I really enjoy, but it lacks in great songs 'front-to-back', if you will. Full Circle has Overcome, A Thousand Faces, Away In Silence, Full Circle (song), Time, Song You Sing. All songs that are great front-to-back or nearly great front-to-back. ABIII has Slip to the Void, Isolation, Ghosts of Days Gone by, Still Remains, Show Me A Sign, Coeur d'Alene, Life Must Go On. ABIII has one more notable than Full Circle, but the quality of great in Full Circle is higher than that of ABIII. Like I said, very close.
