The Last Hero - AB Nation Discussion
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2016 6:05 pm
So I figured I'd save all of us some time and open this thread so it'd be open on the day that the album comes out.
*Post your review of The Last Hero here on October 7th*
With the release of The Last Hero, Alter Bridge have once again shown their resistance to complacency and stagnation, though that does not mean the album is without its faults.
The Last Hero showcases some of the band's most brilliant work to date while failing to be a cohesive album as a whole. There are songs for everyone, which is good in some aspects, but this "something for everyone" approach makes the album feel it has no identity; it tries too hard to be everything and the collection of songs just don't work together as well as the band's past work.
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The album opens up with Show Me a Leader, which has a brilliant, moody guitar intro by Myles Kennedy, though if I'm being honest, sounds entirely out of place with the rest of the track. The intro itself outshines the rest of Show Me a Leader, which is standard radio fare and to be honest, boring. Tremonti does showcase his guitar prowess well on this song, but also repeats a pretty memorable phrase from one of his solo tracks, The Cage, and the main riff is pretty nondescript for the most part. I also appreciate the subject matter of the song, but the intro and lyrics aren't enough to save this song from mediocrity.
The second track, The Writing On The Wall, is a slightly better offering than Show Me a Leader, but not by much. It is an entirely straightforward guitar driven track with a decent solo and a beginner's djent bridge back into the chorus. While nothing is wrong with the song, it's just a token heavy track from AB. This track might have impressed listeners when AB were transitioning into their heavy direction for the first time, but not now.
Up next is The Other Side, and while it retains AB's predictable song structure, the song itself is one of my personal favorites in their entire catalogue. Myles has come up with a haunting intro that leads way to one of Tremonti's heaviest riffs in AB history. The lyrical content is extremely dark for Alter Bridge, and to me it sounds as if the song's subject matter is religious terrorism. The swinging, doomy chorus is one of the best pieces of music that I think AB have ever written, and I truly do love this song. Repetitive, yes, but oh so good. If you liked ABIII, you will probably like this one.
Batting fourth we have My Champion, and this is one of my least favorite songs out of the AB catalogue. With a tonal sound that seems lifted straight from a Slash album, My Champion is utterly cheesy from beginning to end. If Writing On The Wall was the token heavy song, then My Champion is the token uplifiting song...only AB have written uplifiting songs in the past that far surpass this one. I don't really have anything good to say about this other than Myles' vocals sound good.
The fifth track, Poison in Your Veins, starts out promising enough (though the riff in this and Writing are far too similar for my tastes. They both have this rolling quality that I like, but there's nothing really unique about them) but soon descends into radio single territory. There's no new ground treaded here aside from Tremonti fully exploring a shreddy-blues solo that could easily rival Slash's signature sound/technique. The song's subject is nothing we haven't seen before and it again follows the same predictable song structure.
Cradle to the Grave is next up, and this is truly an exceptional track, the likes of which we have not seen from AB before. The lyrics are downright heartbreaking and you can kind of tell what you're going to be in for when the track switches from a pretty fingerpicked pattern to a much darker wall of noise. Right after that we have the chorus, and it is a thing of beauty. Its melody is very moody and the lyric is quite sad with Myles asking "Who'll be my hiding place when you're gone?" The bridge is pretty far out in left field and will certainly please the guitarists among you as will the solo. Overall this track is bound to be an underrated gem.
Losing Patience is another bit of a token heavy track with the same issues that plagued Writing on the Wall: bendy, rolling intro riff with a radio friendly chorus. I'll admit that I like this one far better than Poison/Writing/Leader, but that just boils down to it having a slightly darker sound than the aforementioned tracks. There's nothing really special about this track aside from the cool sounding bridge (you can hear a bit of Creed's "Bullets" here), but if I had to pick between the radio sounding material, I'd choose this track.
We reach the halfway point of the album with This Side of Fate, and I was honestly very grateful for this one. This song is without a doubt one of the BEST songs that AB have written to date. It's easily their most progressive song besides the title track, and there is a lot to love about this one if you favor AB's more progressive side. The lyrics are definitely the weakest part of the song, but that can be forgiven due to the way that Myles sings them. After two choruses, the song just takes a sharp turn with a very Dream Theater-esque riff that then leads into the most grandiose vocals/bridges that AB have produced so far. It's truly a magnificent moment for the band and one that will have your jaw on the ground by the time it's over. This track is nothing short of an amazing experience.
It's time for a breather, and You Will Be Remembered will certainly help you slow down after This Side of Fate. Alter Bridge always have one or two ballad/softer tracks on the album, so it should come as no surprise that this track exists. The lyrics are kind of sappy, but they serve their purpose as a gift to our heroes/soldiers. The chorus melody is quite good and overall I honestly enjoyed this track far more than My Champion. It's not a standout track among their discography due to tracks like Watch Over You and Wonderful Life existing, but it'll do. *It is pretty sad listening to it with context, FWIW*
This will likely be an unpopular opinion once the album is out, but Crows on a Wire is my least favorite song on the album next to My Champion. Crows starts out promising enough, but then the chorus hits, and I'd honestly rate this track higher if the chorus sounded different. It sounds like Myles made a conscious decision to parody his own vocal range multiple times in the chorus and it just ruins the entire track for me. Instrumentally, the track is on point (Myles' solo is really good) and so are the lyrics, but chorus is repeated so many times during the song that I just can't get over the vocals.
When I read the lyrics to Twilight that got posted long before the album came out, I thought for sure that I'd hate the track, but I was totally wrong. If you like the tonality/instrumentation of ABIII, then Twilight will be right up your alley. The upbeat tone juxtaposes the lyrics/meaning of the song in a way that's reminiscent of Ghosts of Days Gone By, and the song features one of my favorite bridges on the entire album and quite possibly their discography. In short, I really like this one.
Holy hell, Island of Fools is nuts. The intro riff (which Myles wrote) is quite possibly the most brutal riff (Gojira/Mastodon for comparison) among their 5 albums so far, and it only gets better from there. Island of Fools is definitely one of the fastest, heaviest tracks on TLH and will certainly quench the thirst for metal that some of you have. Myles definitely deserves recognition for his solo on this due to his phrasing and restraint, and the reason I mention restraint is because I feel Mark just wanted to play fast for his solo. It's just unrestrained speed in the beginning coupled with his wah, which makes the first half of his solo sound like a garbled mess. Aside from that, this track is phenomenal.
Finally...the pinnacle of the album has arrived: The Last Hero. The title track is easily one of the best Alter Bridge songs EVER. The intro riff is extremely clever and the instrumentation only tightens/gets better from there. The lyrics are extremely poignant throughout the entire song and are the most well written on the album in my opinion. Once we get past 2 choruses, we're treated to an immediate onslaught of riffs coupled with a panick striken Myles who practically screams when asking "Tell me where are the heroes?!" And from there, we are treated to the most technical solo that Myles has ever played on an album. Seriously, it sounds nothing like him and instead sounds like the guys approached John Petrucci to guest solo. Once that's over, we're treated to a very cynical and droning bridge that segues into a softer version of the intro lyrics. After one last chorus, we get a remarkable solo from Mark (Myles belts his vocals over this and it's incredible) that leads into the intro riff which has lyrics sang over it ala the end of Cry of Achilles...and that's the end of it. This song is Alter Bridge at their very best and is truly their finest piece of work in my honest opinion. The Last Hero is their finest hour.
*Symphony of Agony* I honestly have no idea why this track is a b-side when tracks like Writing and Losing Patience made the cut as A-listers. This is a well put together track that could have made the album more cohesive had it been placed somewhere in the first half of the album. It's very reminiscent of the ABIII sound with it's heavy guitars, dark lyrics (the song is about murdering ants, FYI) and a very dark/moody bridge. This song also features the cleanest vocals on the album (Myles is quite nasally on a lot of the album) so that bumps Symphony of Agony up a few notches for me already.
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Lyrics: There are good, bad (looking at you, My Champion) and middling lyrics on this album. Compared to the other 4 albums, this may be the weakest of the bunch with a few exceptional tracks.
The Good:
The Last Hero:
"Can you hear the marching
The beating of the drums
Once again, the dogs are out for blood.
Words and accusations, history revised
But time is gonna tell that you were right.
Oh how you tried
I know that you tried to save us
Save us"
Cradle to the Grave:
"From the cradle to the grave
It's a fear I can't escape
Where would be my hiding place
When you're gone?
There's no way to deny
The brevity of life
As time keeps marching on
All we have is lost"
Twilight:
"Where do we stand? It feels like the end is near
I remember everything you said and what would come to be
A prophet of the future, now the future is reality"
"Divided by differences, now everything is torn apart
Tomorrow is contingent on the tolerance of every heart"
"I looked at the sky, praying for time
Hoping for what hasn't come
The dream's still alive but the nightmare just won't come undone
The tyrants will rage, there's no time to waste
There's no telling what we'll become
If we don't sustain
Some hope from tomorrow with love"
Symphony of Agony:
All of it.
The Bad:
My Champion:
All sorts of generic up in here.
"May this lift you up
When you feel you'll fall again
You cannot win, no
Hope these words are enough
For you to be strong, my friend
Sometimes you fall before you rise
Sometimes you lose it all to find
You've gotta keep fighting
And get back up again
My champion
Oh, my champion"
This Side of Fate:
The lyrics for this are overly simplistic/repetitive and seem rushed.
"We had a dream
Now it's gone
A future revealed
We were all so very wrong
We were all so wrong
This side of fate
Is blind
The choice has been made
It is time"
Losing Patience:
Very cliche and overly done in AB's case.
"Are you finally losing patience?
May you rise, your time has come
May you fight for what's been taken
Find your strength when there is none"
"This may be the only way you've got
A second chance to turn the page, move on
If you choose to wallow in these sorrows what will be the cost?
If you did and follow your tomorrow, find where you belong"
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Instrumentation:
Again, good and bad things abound in TLH.
The Good:
Myles is the MVP of this album without a doubt. His guitar/writing on the title track is nothing short of stellar, and even Mark said he just couldn't keep up with Myles on that track. If you missed it in my track by track, that first solo in the title track is Myles, and that's just one example of his playing. His guitar work on this album is near perfection and I'm extremely happy that he finally showed how fantastic he is on a studio album. Mark also recently stated that Myles prepared 90% of his solos before hand and it REALLY shows as he takes a more refined, technical approach to his writing.
Examples of his playing:
-The brilliant intro to Show Me a Leader.
-The first solo in This Side of Fate and The Last Hero.
-Mark said most of the riffs in The Last Hero were written by Myles.
-That stupidly heavy riff in Island of Fools.
-The solo in Crows on a Wire is fantastic (I THINK this is Myles).
-The e-bow in This Side of Fate is a nice touch.
-The slow burn intro to The Other Side is a perfect set up to Mark's riff.
Mark does well in certain places on the album and shows him moving towards a very loose, bluesy style with his solos.
-The Poison in Your Veins solo is extremely impressive and technical, and sounds like it would fit right in with 80s rock.
Despite not liking the song at all, I really liked this solo.
-The clean intro to This Side of Fate is beautiful and the bridge riffs are exemplary and really fit with the melody of the song. Some of their most complex work to date.
-The doom & swing riffs in The Other Side are great and work wonderfully with the vocals.
-The clean guitar that matches Myles' vocal melody in Cradle to the Grave is extremely well done, the bridge riff is killer and the solo is REALLY good.
-That Twilight solo, though.
There are a LOT of layers in this album and it's going to take a LOT of listening to hear all of it. The Last Hero is easily their most complex guitar work/writing so far, but it can be overwhelming at times and certain bits are easily missed. However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, folks.
The Bad:
Surprisingly, this all has to do with Mark for the most part.
This album is lacking in identifiable riffs/licks in a really big way. Songs like Show Me a Leader/The Writing on the Wall/Poison in Your Veins/Losing Patience all have extremely similar riffs that have a heavy rolling sound that makes them far too alike for their own good. There's nothing unique about those riffs at all to me, and that's cause for concern when Mark has already been awarded the "Riff Lord" status and been called someone who "revived the riff." There are riffs that are very good and identifiable, but I'll list those out later.
The next thing that I have gripes about are Mark's solos. In the past his solos used to have very interesting phrasing and were generally well thought out, but on TLH he seems to just aim for frenetic speed and loose blues licks in a lot of cases. Island of Fools is one of the worst solos I've heard from him in a long time and it just sounds like slop to be frank. This is similar to what I said about the riffs: quite a few of these solos are far too similar and lack unique qualities that Mark used to be able to bring to almost every solo in the past. Honestly, it feels like he started to run out of ideas after writing so much for his solo band and Alter Bridge.
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Vocals:
I'm not going too in depth in this section, but holy shit there is a TON of nasal on this album and almost no low end/bite from Myles save a few sections. Another HUGE gripe is that the production is so muddy that I cannot hear Mark's harmonies/backing vocals whatsoever. If you were hoping for anything like the bridge to Peace is Broken, too bad. Whenever I used to show people examples of how amazing Myles' vocals were in the past, I could pick out almost any AB song, but I can't do that with TLH as there are just so many ear piercing nasally passages.
Examples of noticeable nasal:
-The Other Side chorus
-"We need you now" in This Side of Fate.
-Twilight. There are numerous spots in this song where nasal is present.
-The Last Hero: "Save us." "Have we lost all the heroes?"
"Build them up to tear them down. What we've done, I'm far from proud."
-Crows on a Wire. It's everywhere, and then there's the god awful chorus.
Of course there are also very, very good vocals throughout the album and I won't spoil them, but listen hard to This Side of Fate and The Last Hero specifically.
I understand that Myles just can't sing like he used to without destroying his voice, but I refuse to believe that the very, very noticeable Slash/nasal tone isn't of his own doing. Island of Fools and Symphony of Agony have next to no nasal in them whatsoever, and if it is there the production is masking it with layered vocals. I also would have loved to hear Mark's harmonies/vocals because his voice has always been a huge boon to their tracks, but I seriously cannot hear it at all on this album. It's like he's just been omitted entirely.
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Overall, this is a good album, but it is nowhere near the perfect album that so many media outlets are making it out to be. The Last Hero contains some of the best tracks the band has ever written but also contains some very mediocre/run of the mill tracks as well.
If you're a huge fan of the band, you'll certainly enjoy it, but tracks like This Side of Fate and The Last Hero hint towards what the band could be if they would just make the leap into more progressive areas. Tremonti even recently stated that the band flat out knows that they are at their best on these types of tracks and it saddens me to see them hindered by trying to write so many mainstream tracks to appeal to every type of fan. The Last Hero is a perfect example of what happens when you clip a bird's wings.
Tracks I actually enjoyed:
The Other Side
Cradle to the Grave
This Side of Fate
Twilight
Island of Fools
The Last Hero
Symphony of Agony
Keep in mind that this is just my opinion, and in my opinion, this album is 1 step forward and multiple steps back.
*Post your review of The Last Hero here on October 7th*
With the release of The Last Hero, Alter Bridge have once again shown their resistance to complacency and stagnation, though that does not mean the album is without its faults.
The Last Hero showcases some of the band's most brilliant work to date while failing to be a cohesive album as a whole. There are songs for everyone, which is good in some aspects, but this "something for everyone" approach makes the album feel it has no identity; it tries too hard to be everything and the collection of songs just don't work together as well as the band's past work.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The album opens up with Show Me a Leader, which has a brilliant, moody guitar intro by Myles Kennedy, though if I'm being honest, sounds entirely out of place with the rest of the track. The intro itself outshines the rest of Show Me a Leader, which is standard radio fare and to be honest, boring. Tremonti does showcase his guitar prowess well on this song, but also repeats a pretty memorable phrase from one of his solo tracks, The Cage, and the main riff is pretty nondescript for the most part. I also appreciate the subject matter of the song, but the intro and lyrics aren't enough to save this song from mediocrity.
The second track, The Writing On The Wall, is a slightly better offering than Show Me a Leader, but not by much. It is an entirely straightforward guitar driven track with a decent solo and a beginner's djent bridge back into the chorus. While nothing is wrong with the song, it's just a token heavy track from AB. This track might have impressed listeners when AB were transitioning into their heavy direction for the first time, but not now.
Up next is The Other Side, and while it retains AB's predictable song structure, the song itself is one of my personal favorites in their entire catalogue. Myles has come up with a haunting intro that leads way to one of Tremonti's heaviest riffs in AB history. The lyrical content is extremely dark for Alter Bridge, and to me it sounds as if the song's subject matter is religious terrorism. The swinging, doomy chorus is one of the best pieces of music that I think AB have ever written, and I truly do love this song. Repetitive, yes, but oh so good. If you liked ABIII, you will probably like this one.
Batting fourth we have My Champion, and this is one of my least favorite songs out of the AB catalogue. With a tonal sound that seems lifted straight from a Slash album, My Champion is utterly cheesy from beginning to end. If Writing On The Wall was the token heavy song, then My Champion is the token uplifiting song...only AB have written uplifiting songs in the past that far surpass this one. I don't really have anything good to say about this other than Myles' vocals sound good.
The fifth track, Poison in Your Veins, starts out promising enough (though the riff in this and Writing are far too similar for my tastes. They both have this rolling quality that I like, but there's nothing really unique about them) but soon descends into radio single territory. There's no new ground treaded here aside from Tremonti fully exploring a shreddy-blues solo that could easily rival Slash's signature sound/technique. The song's subject is nothing we haven't seen before and it again follows the same predictable song structure.
Cradle to the Grave is next up, and this is truly an exceptional track, the likes of which we have not seen from AB before. The lyrics are downright heartbreaking and you can kind of tell what you're going to be in for when the track switches from a pretty fingerpicked pattern to a much darker wall of noise. Right after that we have the chorus, and it is a thing of beauty. Its melody is very moody and the lyric is quite sad with Myles asking "Who'll be my hiding place when you're gone?" The bridge is pretty far out in left field and will certainly please the guitarists among you as will the solo. Overall this track is bound to be an underrated gem.
Losing Patience is another bit of a token heavy track with the same issues that plagued Writing on the Wall: bendy, rolling intro riff with a radio friendly chorus. I'll admit that I like this one far better than Poison/Writing/Leader, but that just boils down to it having a slightly darker sound than the aforementioned tracks. There's nothing really special about this track aside from the cool sounding bridge (you can hear a bit of Creed's "Bullets" here), but if I had to pick between the radio sounding material, I'd choose this track.
We reach the halfway point of the album with This Side of Fate, and I was honestly very grateful for this one. This song is without a doubt one of the BEST songs that AB have written to date. It's easily their most progressive song besides the title track, and there is a lot to love about this one if you favor AB's more progressive side. The lyrics are definitely the weakest part of the song, but that can be forgiven due to the way that Myles sings them. After two choruses, the song just takes a sharp turn with a very Dream Theater-esque riff that then leads into the most grandiose vocals/bridges that AB have produced so far. It's truly a magnificent moment for the band and one that will have your jaw on the ground by the time it's over. This track is nothing short of an amazing experience.
It's time for a breather, and You Will Be Remembered will certainly help you slow down after This Side of Fate. Alter Bridge always have one or two ballad/softer tracks on the album, so it should come as no surprise that this track exists. The lyrics are kind of sappy, but they serve their purpose as a gift to our heroes/soldiers. The chorus melody is quite good and overall I honestly enjoyed this track far more than My Champion. It's not a standout track among their discography due to tracks like Watch Over You and Wonderful Life existing, but it'll do. *It is pretty sad listening to it with context, FWIW*
This will likely be an unpopular opinion once the album is out, but Crows on a Wire is my least favorite song on the album next to My Champion. Crows starts out promising enough, but then the chorus hits, and I'd honestly rate this track higher if the chorus sounded different. It sounds like Myles made a conscious decision to parody his own vocal range multiple times in the chorus and it just ruins the entire track for me. Instrumentally, the track is on point (Myles' solo is really good) and so are the lyrics, but chorus is repeated so many times during the song that I just can't get over the vocals.
When I read the lyrics to Twilight that got posted long before the album came out, I thought for sure that I'd hate the track, but I was totally wrong. If you like the tonality/instrumentation of ABIII, then Twilight will be right up your alley. The upbeat tone juxtaposes the lyrics/meaning of the song in a way that's reminiscent of Ghosts of Days Gone By, and the song features one of my favorite bridges on the entire album and quite possibly their discography. In short, I really like this one.
Holy hell, Island of Fools is nuts. The intro riff (which Myles wrote) is quite possibly the most brutal riff (Gojira/Mastodon for comparison) among their 5 albums so far, and it only gets better from there. Island of Fools is definitely one of the fastest, heaviest tracks on TLH and will certainly quench the thirst for metal that some of you have. Myles definitely deserves recognition for his solo on this due to his phrasing and restraint, and the reason I mention restraint is because I feel Mark just wanted to play fast for his solo. It's just unrestrained speed in the beginning coupled with his wah, which makes the first half of his solo sound like a garbled mess. Aside from that, this track is phenomenal.
Finally...the pinnacle of the album has arrived: The Last Hero. The title track is easily one of the best Alter Bridge songs EVER. The intro riff is extremely clever and the instrumentation only tightens/gets better from there. The lyrics are extremely poignant throughout the entire song and are the most well written on the album in my opinion. Once we get past 2 choruses, we're treated to an immediate onslaught of riffs coupled with a panick striken Myles who practically screams when asking "Tell me where are the heroes?!" And from there, we are treated to the most technical solo that Myles has ever played on an album. Seriously, it sounds nothing like him and instead sounds like the guys approached John Petrucci to guest solo. Once that's over, we're treated to a very cynical and droning bridge that segues into a softer version of the intro lyrics. After one last chorus, we get a remarkable solo from Mark (Myles belts his vocals over this and it's incredible) that leads into the intro riff which has lyrics sang over it ala the end of Cry of Achilles...and that's the end of it. This song is Alter Bridge at their very best and is truly their finest piece of work in my honest opinion. The Last Hero is their finest hour.
*Symphony of Agony* I honestly have no idea why this track is a b-side when tracks like Writing and Losing Patience made the cut as A-listers. This is a well put together track that could have made the album more cohesive had it been placed somewhere in the first half of the album. It's very reminiscent of the ABIII sound with it's heavy guitars, dark lyrics (the song is about murdering ants, FYI) and a very dark/moody bridge. This song also features the cleanest vocals on the album (Myles is quite nasally on a lot of the album) so that bumps Symphony of Agony up a few notches for me already.
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Lyrics: There are good, bad (looking at you, My Champion) and middling lyrics on this album. Compared to the other 4 albums, this may be the weakest of the bunch with a few exceptional tracks.
The Good:
The Last Hero:
"Can you hear the marching
The beating of the drums
Once again, the dogs are out for blood.
Words and accusations, history revised
But time is gonna tell that you were right.
Oh how you tried
I know that you tried to save us
Save us"
Cradle to the Grave:
"From the cradle to the grave
It's a fear I can't escape
Where would be my hiding place
When you're gone?
There's no way to deny
The brevity of life
As time keeps marching on
All we have is lost"
Twilight:
"Where do we stand? It feels like the end is near
I remember everything you said and what would come to be
A prophet of the future, now the future is reality"
"Divided by differences, now everything is torn apart
Tomorrow is contingent on the tolerance of every heart"
"I looked at the sky, praying for time
Hoping for what hasn't come
The dream's still alive but the nightmare just won't come undone
The tyrants will rage, there's no time to waste
There's no telling what we'll become
If we don't sustain
Some hope from tomorrow with love"
Symphony of Agony:
All of it.
The Bad:
My Champion:
All sorts of generic up in here.
"May this lift you up
When you feel you'll fall again
You cannot win, no
Hope these words are enough
For you to be strong, my friend
Sometimes you fall before you rise
Sometimes you lose it all to find
You've gotta keep fighting
And get back up again
My champion
Oh, my champion"
This Side of Fate:
The lyrics for this are overly simplistic/repetitive and seem rushed.
"We had a dream
Now it's gone
A future revealed
We were all so very wrong
We were all so wrong
This side of fate
Is blind
The choice has been made
It is time"
Losing Patience:
Very cliche and overly done in AB's case.
"Are you finally losing patience?
May you rise, your time has come
May you fight for what's been taken
Find your strength when there is none"
"This may be the only way you've got
A second chance to turn the page, move on
If you choose to wallow in these sorrows what will be the cost?
If you did and follow your tomorrow, find where you belong"
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Instrumentation:
Again, good and bad things abound in TLH.
The Good:
Myles is the MVP of this album without a doubt. His guitar/writing on the title track is nothing short of stellar, and even Mark said he just couldn't keep up with Myles on that track. If you missed it in my track by track, that first solo in the title track is Myles, and that's just one example of his playing. His guitar work on this album is near perfection and I'm extremely happy that he finally showed how fantastic he is on a studio album. Mark also recently stated that Myles prepared 90% of his solos before hand and it REALLY shows as he takes a more refined, technical approach to his writing.
Examples of his playing:
-The brilliant intro to Show Me a Leader.
-The first solo in This Side of Fate and The Last Hero.
-Mark said most of the riffs in The Last Hero were written by Myles.
-That stupidly heavy riff in Island of Fools.
-The solo in Crows on a Wire is fantastic (I THINK this is Myles).
-The e-bow in This Side of Fate is a nice touch.
-The slow burn intro to The Other Side is a perfect set up to Mark's riff.
Mark does well in certain places on the album and shows him moving towards a very loose, bluesy style with his solos.
-The Poison in Your Veins solo is extremely impressive and technical, and sounds like it would fit right in with 80s rock.
Despite not liking the song at all, I really liked this solo.
-The clean intro to This Side of Fate is beautiful and the bridge riffs are exemplary and really fit with the melody of the song. Some of their most complex work to date.
-The doom & swing riffs in The Other Side are great and work wonderfully with the vocals.
-The clean guitar that matches Myles' vocal melody in Cradle to the Grave is extremely well done, the bridge riff is killer and the solo is REALLY good.
-That Twilight solo, though.
There are a LOT of layers in this album and it's going to take a LOT of listening to hear all of it. The Last Hero is easily their most complex guitar work/writing so far, but it can be overwhelming at times and certain bits are easily missed. However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows, folks.
The Bad:
Surprisingly, this all has to do with Mark for the most part.
This album is lacking in identifiable riffs/licks in a really big way. Songs like Show Me a Leader/The Writing on the Wall/Poison in Your Veins/Losing Patience all have extremely similar riffs that have a heavy rolling sound that makes them far too alike for their own good. There's nothing unique about those riffs at all to me, and that's cause for concern when Mark has already been awarded the "Riff Lord" status and been called someone who "revived the riff." There are riffs that are very good and identifiable, but I'll list those out later.
The next thing that I have gripes about are Mark's solos. In the past his solos used to have very interesting phrasing and were generally well thought out, but on TLH he seems to just aim for frenetic speed and loose blues licks in a lot of cases. Island of Fools is one of the worst solos I've heard from him in a long time and it just sounds like slop to be frank. This is similar to what I said about the riffs: quite a few of these solos are far too similar and lack unique qualities that Mark used to be able to bring to almost every solo in the past. Honestly, it feels like he started to run out of ideas after writing so much for his solo band and Alter Bridge.
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Vocals:
I'm not going too in depth in this section, but holy shit there is a TON of nasal on this album and almost no low end/bite from Myles save a few sections. Another HUGE gripe is that the production is so muddy that I cannot hear Mark's harmonies/backing vocals whatsoever. If you were hoping for anything like the bridge to Peace is Broken, too bad. Whenever I used to show people examples of how amazing Myles' vocals were in the past, I could pick out almost any AB song, but I can't do that with TLH as there are just so many ear piercing nasally passages.
Examples of noticeable nasal:
-The Other Side chorus
-"We need you now" in This Side of Fate.
-Twilight. There are numerous spots in this song where nasal is present.
-The Last Hero: "Save us." "Have we lost all the heroes?"
"Build them up to tear them down. What we've done, I'm far from proud."
-Crows on a Wire. It's everywhere, and then there's the god awful chorus.
Of course there are also very, very good vocals throughout the album and I won't spoil them, but listen hard to This Side of Fate and The Last Hero specifically.
I understand that Myles just can't sing like he used to without destroying his voice, but I refuse to believe that the very, very noticeable Slash/nasal tone isn't of his own doing. Island of Fools and Symphony of Agony have next to no nasal in them whatsoever, and if it is there the production is masking it with layered vocals. I also would have loved to hear Mark's harmonies/vocals because his voice has always been a huge boon to their tracks, but I seriously cannot hear it at all on this album. It's like he's just been omitted entirely.
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Overall, this is a good album, but it is nowhere near the perfect album that so many media outlets are making it out to be. The Last Hero contains some of the best tracks the band has ever written but also contains some very mediocre/run of the mill tracks as well.
If you're a huge fan of the band, you'll certainly enjoy it, but tracks like This Side of Fate and The Last Hero hint towards what the band could be if they would just make the leap into more progressive areas. Tremonti even recently stated that the band flat out knows that they are at their best on these types of tracks and it saddens me to see them hindered by trying to write so many mainstream tracks to appeal to every type of fan. The Last Hero is a perfect example of what happens when you clip a bird's wings.
Tracks I actually enjoyed:
The Other Side
Cradle to the Grave
This Side of Fate
Twilight
Island of Fools
The Last Hero
Symphony of Agony
Keep in mind that this is just my opinion, and in my opinion, this album is 1 step forward and multiple steps back.