AB VI Speculation

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Jaded Rescue
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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by Jaded Rescue »

anguyen92 wrote:
Jaded Rescue wrote:
TenaciousBe wrote:I worry that the band is going to get away from me. I worry that it might be another TLH and not really grab my soul the way the other records did. I worry that I'm getting older and I just generally don't connect with the hard rock scene like I did 10 years ago.
My best advice (if you're interested in advice) would be to start exploring other genres and music artists outside of your comfort zone. I feel the same way about The Last Hero, and finding other music that lights that spark for me is what keeps me going. AB will always be there to go back to if I need to hear something from their first 4 albums, which were all fantastic to my ears, but I've also found things very much outside of the hard rock realm that I connect with now. This probably sounds cliche, but music's about the journey. We don't have to follow a set "path" and stay on the hard rock road just because that's what we've done before.

This is all coming from an AB fan who listens to way too much Carly Rae Jepsen, so take it with a grain of salt. :lol
You know, that's a great point. There are days I feel like Hard Rock had become pretty monotonous and repetitive at times. I feel it lacks an exciting journey to embark on and it lacks all of us here being along for the ride excited for the next best thing to come along. Don't know why I feel that way, but it could be due to burnout for me. I still will defend modern hard rock/active rock radio to the core for the most part, but I need to know what else is out there that I can enjoy (you would not hear me say that sort of comment, six years ago). Discovering other stuff does help a lot so that when a new Alter Bridge album is going to be around the corner, it helps us get more excited for it.

Btw, what would be a great album to listen to from Carly Rae Jepsen? I've been meaning to listen to one of her albums after her collab with Owl City (which is something that I have been listening to way too much in the interim, which is a good thing honestly) in the song, Good Time.
To your bit about hard rock becoming monotonous: I totally agree. I played for about two years in a hard rock band with some friends, writing original tunes. While I love what we wrote, it was starting to feel like it was difficult to do anything new, at least if we continued following the general formula setup by bands in the 90s and early 2000s. Maybe this is just from the benefit of hindsight, but most hard rock today sounds like it wouldn't shock me all that much if I heard it 10 years ago. I don't feel like I hear these bands (AB included, to some degree) doing anything in particular that someone else wasn't doing back in the mid 2000s.

As far as CRJ goes, check out Emotion for sure. If you're looking for something even more deeply personal (though pretty much all of her music is), check out the Emotion B-sides EP she put out that's about 6 tracks long. She's got a lot of range between the dance-friendly stuff she puts out and the more contemplative emotional stuff. I catch a lot of flack from friends in a joking way for being so into her music, but I value how genuine her writing is, which always keeps me coming back. I find that the older I get, I care less about genre and more about the sincerity of the artist.

Jaded Rescue
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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by Jaded Rescue »

TenaciousBe wrote:
Jaded Rescue wrote:
TenaciousBe wrote:I worry that the band is going to get away from me. I worry that it might be another TLH and not really grab my soul the way the other records did. I worry that I'm getting older and I just generally don't connect with the hard rock scene like I did 10 years ago.
My best advice (if you're interested in advice) would be to start exploring other genres and music artists outside of your comfort zone. I feel the same way about The Last Hero, and finding other music that lights that spark for me is what keeps me going. AB will always be there to go back to if I need to hear something from their first 4 albums, which were all fantastic to my ears, but I've also found things very much outside of the hard rock realm that I connect with now. This probably sounds cliche, but music's about the journey. We don't have to follow a set "path" and stay on the hard rock road just because that's what we've done before.

This is all coming from an AB fan who listens to way too much Carly Rae Jepsen, so take it with a grain of salt. :lol
I've definitely done that. I used to have a modern rock station that came from the nearest "big" town, so that's what I listened to all night every night at work. A few years ago, they changed format to "superhits" (80's, 90's, generic easy listening stuff) so I sort of lost my connection to what was happening in the rock world beyond the AB/Tremontiverse and Foo Fighters who I'd follow to the ends of the earth. There is another rock station, but I'm just far enough away from it that it sometimes comes in in my car, and almost never on radios at work, unless I stream it, but I also move around the plant a lot more than I did back then... aw hell, I'm ramblin again. Point being, I don't really listen to a lot of current rock anymore, but I've found some other genres and bands to follow. Walk The Moon is fantastic. Maroon 5 is kinda formulaic but they still put out some decent tunes. I don't listen to a lot of folk music, but there is a folk-ey band locally that I'm friends with that, I swear, really scratch me right where I itch (https://whalenandthewillows.bandcamp.com/).

The good news is, I busted out TLH the other day, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I really do like it. Maybe the wall of sound just turns me off, but the songs are still fantastic, and I LOVE the sense of angst and anger in the first few songs. Maybe I just needed a little time away.
That sucks to hear regarding your local radio. I agree that Walk the Moon is fantastic. They're doing some really cool stuff I haven't heard before.

I feel the same way about TLH. I really do like the composition of some of the songs, the wall of sound just kills me. I don't know if I've ever been more let down by an album just for that reason. I really wanted to love it. My feelings on TLH are very similar to my feelings on Batman vs. Superman. Haha.

Side note: I just listened to "Diseased" and "Ash" by Whalen and the Willows. Oh man. I get what you mean. "Ash" just hit me hard, in a good way. They have such a nice tone.

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TenaciousBe
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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by TenaciousBe »

Jaded Rescue wrote:
TenaciousBe wrote:
Jaded Rescue wrote:
TenaciousBe wrote:I worry that the band is going to get away from me. I worry that it might be another TLH and not really grab my soul the way the other records did. I worry that I'm getting older and I just generally don't connect with the hard rock scene like I did 10 years ago.
My best advice (if you're interested in advice) would be to start exploring other genres and music artists outside of your comfort zone. I feel the same way about The Last Hero, and finding other music that lights that spark for me is what keeps me going. AB will always be there to go back to if I need to hear something from their first 4 albums, which were all fantastic to my ears, but I've also found things very much outside of the hard rock realm that I connect with now. This probably sounds cliche, but music's about the journey. We don't have to follow a set "path" and stay on the hard rock road just because that's what we've done before.

This is all coming from an AB fan who listens to way too much Carly Rae Jepsen, so take it with a grain of salt. :lol
I've definitely done that. I used to have a modern rock station that came from the nearest "big" town, so that's what I listened to all night every night at work. A few years ago, they changed format to "superhits" (80's, 90's, generic easy listening stuff) so I sort of lost my connection to what was happening in the rock world beyond the AB/Tremontiverse and Foo Fighters who I'd follow to the ends of the earth. There is another rock station, but I'm just far enough away from it that it sometimes comes in in my car, and almost never on radios at work, unless I stream it, but I also move around the plant a lot more than I did back then... aw hell, I'm ramblin again. Point being, I don't really listen to a lot of current rock anymore, but I've found some other genres and bands to follow. Walk The Moon is fantastic. Maroon 5 is kinda formulaic but they still put out some decent tunes. I don't listen to a lot of folk music, but there is a folk-ey band locally that I'm friends with that, I swear, really scratch me right where I itch (https://whalenandthewillows.bandcamp.com/).

The good news is, I busted out TLH the other day, and I was pleasantly surprised at how much I really do like it. Maybe the wall of sound just turns me off, but the songs are still fantastic, and I LOVE the sense of angst and anger in the first few songs. Maybe I just needed a little time away.
That sucks to hear regarding your local radio. I agree that Walk the Moon is fantastic. They're doing some really cool stuff I haven't heard before.

I feel the same way about TLH. I really do like the composition of some of the songs, the wall of sound just kills me. I don't know if I've ever been more let down by an album just for that reason. I really wanted to love it. My feelings on TLH are very similar to my feelings on Batman vs. Superman. Haha.

Side note: I just listened to "Diseased" and "Ash" by Whalen and the Willows. Oh man. I get what you mean. "Ash" just hit me hard, in a good way. They have such a nice tone.
You know, after stepping away from it for a while, I've been playing TLH in my car again lately and I dare to say, I'm digging it more than ever. Maybe I was overblowing the "wall of sound" thing in my head, cause it doesn't seem so bad now. Or maybe the sound is just better in my new vehicle.

And that makes me really happy that you enjoyed W+TW! Diseased is my favorite song of theirs, but Ash is wonderful as well. I'll pass on the kind words. :)
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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by MuffinMcFluffin »

TLH cannot sound good no matter how good or calibrated of a system that you have. It has clashing frequencies, harsh mixing (near distortion/clipping levels), and no dynamic range. I don't know how to be finicky with any of the tools, but I wish I could have been sitting right there with 'Elvis' and stated my opinion on things until he tweaked them to toleration.

Not only that, but I would have rearranged a lot of the songs... not in the overall composition, but just in terms of how many vocal layers are engaged, when a second guitar part should kick in, etc. That in itself would have gone a long way.

The songs themselves are fine for a new album. Granted, the lead track was starting to sound a bit different (breaks in the chorus, sounded like it was with Slash, etc.), Losing Patience has the "swarm of bees" riff with filtered vocal verses, and Twilight is just filler... but the rest is a legitimately good album. Not great, but ODR good. Then it was hampered by poor arrangement and mixing. The poorness of arrangement is subjective, but the poor mixing has to be objective. It simply did not create solid auditory fidelity.

That being said, those tracks did make for an impacting concert experience and they sounded exactly as they did in studio, which in many ways is actually a plus.

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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by GassMoney92 »

I’d love to hear them take a darker, AB III route again. Def more Myles and Mark vocal switch-ups. Just something far away from TLH.

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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by riemslag1 »

Well, as ABIII is my personal alltime favourite album I for sure would like them to reach back to that dark atmosphere, perhaps combined with a little Fortress energy and production. Will be wishfull thinking I think..........

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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by Jaded Rescue »

I just want Butch Vig to produce an Alter Bridge record. Just to see what it would be like. But it'll never happen unfortunately.

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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by AB4Lyfe »

Do they even need to announce Elvis as the producer for this record, or is it just implied?
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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by melodifyer »

I honestly think TLH was a very solid album. The long epic songs in specific, This Side of Fate, The Last Hero, Cradle to the Grave, were really well structured. Ofcourse, nothing compared to Achilles, Fortress or Blackbird but still very impressive. I appreciated the hard rock songs like Crows on a Wire, The Writing On The Wall, Island of Fools, Show me a Leader was a great single . The rest of the album was a bit too poppy for me with alot of similar filler songs.

Regardless, for AB VI I'd like the epic songs to continue, more riffage from mark, more solos from myles and even dual solos from both like they did in blackbird or fortress. Myle's lower register would be great but also I'd appreciate a few more extreme high notes such as in Words Darker Than Their Wings.

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Looking forward to it

Post by poshisjarker »

But yeah it still blows me away that they all listened to TLH and thought it sounded even sonically adequate. There are several almost comedically bad moments of compression throughout...one being Mark's solo in Island In Fools which is nearly inaudible. Ya know when i listen to music like AB with a lot of cool stuff going on, I actually want to be able to hear it without straining to catch any of it flying by. No room to breathe...i reaaaaaally hope this next one is as far away as possible. And on the note of production and other music for those looking to branch out...gotta check out stuff like Hiatus Kaiyote, Moses Sumney, Lianne La Havas, Snarky Puppy, Vulfpeck. All of these artists so funky and soulful and full of character AND the production is low volume/crystal clear. I see no reason why hard rock/metal can't to some extent take a similar approach in production. The loudness war is not doing any rock musicians any favors. I go back to stuff like Zeppelin and it's so glorious how every single instrument stands out and dynamics abound. I mean if that band is so widely renowned and the standard, why the heck can't we reel back the modern production a bit?
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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by Troops4Tremonti »

riemslag1 wrote:Well, as ABIII is my personal alltime favourite album I for sure would like them to reach back to that dark atmosphere, perhaps combined with a little Fortress energy and production. Will be wishfull thinking I think..........
I've had this long held theory that ABIII is sort of the brainchild of Creed. Before AB recorded ABIII, Creed was motoring along again and I think that revisiting old Creed songs and playing them over a whole tour influenced the writing of ABIII.

I particularly notice a specific use of minor chords in ABIII that reminds me of how well Creed executed minor chords and the transitions to minor chords therein. The Coeur d'Alene intro/verses, Ghost of Days Gone By intro/verses (could have been written during Creed), All Hope Is Gone intro/verses, Still Remains chorus

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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by Ubik »

@alterbridge
New album coming in the fall no worries
1:29 PM - 26 Jan 2019

Was thinking the other day we'd usually heard about them meeting up by this point. Guess things are delayed due to other commitments at the moment but good to hear they're still on track for autumn.
For all of the hope that it brings...

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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by anguyen92 »

Well, there's a recent Mark interview and he says that he has like 4-5 song ideas demoed already and that he hopes to have like 10 songs demoed by March to get ready for pre-production. The same goes for Myles has well.

https://livemetalblog.wordpress.com/201 ... ssion=true

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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by Ubik »

anguyen92 wrote:Well, there's a recent Mark interview and he says that he has like 4-5 song ideas demoed already and that he hopes to have like 10 songs demoed by March to get ready for pre-production. The same goes for Myles has well.

https://livemetalblog.wordpress.com/201 ... ssion=true
Cool link, also mentions another potential 2 day period at the Albert Hall which is exciting again.
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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by riemslag1 »

So he mentions entering the Royal Albert Hall again and do something different after the orchestra has already been done. Are we in for a treat of a fantastic acoustic session coming up ?

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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by Jaredr24 »

Just got a chance to read everything but I’m excited for AB VI even though TLH was kind of a let down to me (still like several of the songs and elements they used and went with but the whole album lacks a little more than precious four did). That being said, my personal AB VI wishlist would be:

- more dynamics. I thought TLH lacked dynamic range. They had some slower songs but still sounded big, not many quiet moments.
- at least one GOOD ballad. God I’ve missed a true acousticy, pop-y ballad from these guys. I know they’ve all tried to go with heavier stuff which I like but a solid ballad is long overdue.
- some more slower, lower tuned progressive songs. I love that they decided to break out the seven string guitar a little on TLH and I’d like to see more but with some more prog, epic songs. Would open up them playing some normal stuff on the six strings like normal and then at a big part bring in that seventh string.
- at least one opus (six or seven minutes +). Some of my favorite songs from these guys are the long epic songs. Just hope there’s a good dark, moody opus like BB or Fortress.
- more acoustics/clean parts. Doesn’t have to be just for a full song but the clean intros on past AB albums are some of my favorite things I’ve learned on guitar. Something like Broken Wings, BB, All Hope Is Gone type stuff.
- more open tunings. I LOVE the songs they’ve done with open tunings. It’s one of the many things that makes the band so unique musically with open G, D5, etc. would love a couple of songs with some Mark tunings.
- deep, emotional lyrics. I like the stuff that TLH touched on (especially Cradle to the Grave) but as a whole I think it lacked a little bit. Myles (and Mark too) have written some of the most meaningful and memorable lyrics and I’d love to see more of those lines that we end up putting in our sigs and get tattooed. I agree with the people that said Myles doesn’t need to deny anything on this album and Mark sings with actual lyrics instead of Ohs.

I’d love to see a new direction with AB VI but still touching on some of the things they’ve been so great at. I love heavy stuff but I don’t want a full album just of crushing riffs. Hoping for an AB renaissance in late 2019/2020.
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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by MuffinMcFluffin »

^ Great list.

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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by Timotheus »

Parallax Orchestra was featured on Bring Me The Horizon's new album. They performed with them in the Royal Albert Hall a year before Alter Bridge did. The last section of BMTH's Wonderful Life is so well done it makes me want AB to work with Parallax Orchestra on the new album even more.
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anguyen92 wrote:
Oh well. Deal with it.

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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by Jaredr24 »

Not a whole lot of details in this but the guys are starting work on the album next month! Also said that AB will tour this winter. Nothing too shocking.

http://loudwire.com/alter-bridge-work-n ... ext-month/
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Re: AB VI Speculation

Post by TenaciousBe »

Troops4Tremonti wrote:
riemslag1 wrote:Well, as ABIII is my personal alltime favourite album I for sure would like them to reach back to that dark atmosphere, perhaps combined with a little Fortress energy and production. Will be wishfull thinking I think..........
I've had this long held theory that ABIII is sort of the brainchild of Creed. Before AB recorded ABIII, Creed was motoring along again and I think that revisiting old Creed songs and playing them over a whole tour influenced the writing of ABIII.

I particularly notice a specific use of minor chords in ABIII that reminds me of how well Creed executed minor chords and the transitions to minor chords therein. The Coeur d'Alene intro/verses, Ghost of Days Gone By intro/verses (could have been written during Creed), All Hope Is Gone intro/verses, Still Remains chorus
DUDE. I never even thought of that, but you're so right. I'm going to have to give ABIII a re-listen now with that in mind. Good call!
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