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Track 11 Winner: The End Is Here

PLEASE DO NOT VOTE "WALK THE SKY" SONGS JUST BECAUSE THEY'RE FRESH IN YOUR MEMORY. PLEASE CONSIDER ALL SONGS AND HOW MUCH YOU LOVED THEM WHEN YOU FIRST HEARD THEM. TAKE YOUR TIME VOTING.

Oh boy. This one is difficult. I'm gonna need an hour or two to mull it over.

It'll probably be either Fortress or Walking on the Sky.

It's Fortress for me. Shame for Walking On The Sky and Island Of Fools, because both are some of the best on the last two albums.

Island of Fools for me. Best track on TLH. Fortress and Walking on the Sky are both amazing, but for some reason Fortress has always been underappreciated by me (probably because the chorus is a bit too weak for an epic track). Island of Fools is as great as a straight-forward melancholic rock track that's not an epic can be. Amazing chorus, great solo at the end, and the intro gives me chills every time I hear it.

This is a pretty strong battle in general. White Knuckles is an amazing kick-ass song, but it's even better live than on the album. Coeur d'Alene could make it to top 2 or 3 in a lot of battles (but that's the case for almost every AB III song for me). The only weak track in this list is Save Me.

Island of Fools
Fortress
Walking on the Sky
White Knuckles
Coeur d'Alene

Save Me

Golly this is a strong round.

As much as I'm currently obsessed with "Walking on the Sky", I've got to vote for "Fortress". It almost rivals "Blackbird" as one of Alter Bridge's crowning achievements. The melodies, the musicianship, the four-part dueling guitar solo... it's Alter Bridge at their best. "Island of Fools" is close for me as well – so heavy and powerful.

"White Knuckles" is a classic as well, especially live. I was lucky enough to see its live debut in 2007 at the Underground in London before Blackbird came out. My only thought was, "what the fuck just happened?!" Myles apologized and said something like, "sorry, that's a lot of notes."

"Coeur d'Alene" is probably somewhat underrated as far as AB III goes. One of the more innovative tracks on the album, and a standout main riff. "Save Me" is probably the most basic song Alter Bridge have ever written. I like it, but it definitely falls short of the others here. One thing I noticed while listening to it just now: compared to Mark's more recent guitar work, the verse riff is quite loose and the palm mutes seem kinda random – it's almost like Mark was just learning how to gallop!

Ranked:
Fortress
Walking on the Sky
Island of Fools
White Knuckles
Coeur d'Alene
Save Me

Wow, what a set in that top three. This is a tough one and not easy to rank, but alas it has to be done.

Fortress
Island of Fools
Walking on the Sky
Couer d'Alene
White Knuckles
Save Me

Island of Fools is the "hidden gem" of The Last Hero, though. Such an incredible track, it is.

I basically really like the first five songs. I don't care to ever hear Save Me again, though. Perhaps one of the worst AB songs, if not the worst one.

Someone recently used this forum as a place to cyber bully me so I have to be careful what I vote for

The answer is clearly The Song You Sing...

I'm going to go with the title track of Fortress. It's probably the obvious choice, but I'm going to tell my personal reason why.

Around that time the album came out, a personal friendship/relationship, whatever dynamic that was had with a woman that I've known for over 15 years at the time was deteriorating. I'm not certain what happened. Maybe I was too pushy of wanting to spend more time with her or maybe she was at that stage in life where she wanted to hang out with certain good people and it turns out that I'm not going to be part of that picture. Or maybe both.

In any case, an album like Fortress really helped me put things in perspective when it comes to this kind of stuff back in 2013 regarding the subject matter of all good things may be bound to deteriorating leaving someone with nothing (which is why the album cover in hindsight was great). In fact, I can easily say that all of their albums releases that came out when I started following them has helped put things in perspective for me when it comes to the main subject matter of those albums AB III onwards (I wasn't around when Blackbird was officially released even I did being a fan around the Blackbird period 12 years ago).

Going back to the Fortress title track, there were other songs that I have listened to life that puts that relationship in perspective (Ed Sheeran's Happier, Zac Brown Band's Goodbye in Her Eyes, Stone Sour's Dying, etc.), but none more impactful than the title track of Fortress. It also helps that it's a very well-crafted song and that the bridge section was awesome with Mark and Myles trading solos left and right from each other. I don't know why Ultimate-Guitar nominated Bleed It Dry's solo an option as the best solo of the decade when you got this solo section in Fortress.

Anywho, title track of Fortress is the best song of the album for me and this is a natural easy pick for this battle of the track numbers although, aside from Save Me, the other tracks are very great and can easily be a top 3 song of their respective albums on any given day. In particular, I really been enjoying listening to Walking on the Sky since the album came out. Sometimes, I could wish I can adapt more of a daredevil-like approach on life and the metaphorical walking on a tightrope in the skies with a free-spirit attitude. Oddly enough, when I'm listening to Walking on the Sky, I'm thinking more about WWE wrestler, Jeff Hardy, when he was doing those big dives off the top of ladders in his prime. That fearlessness, that risk knowing that it can end badly (and he actually have some dives where he didn't land on his opponent), and he still went with it in the moment. That track is probably the obvious pick of my favorite song of the album, and naturally the song of the year for me.

Wow I apparently really like song #12 on every AB album. Much like what has already been expressed this is the strongest group for me. I would take a handful of these songs over some of the other winners. *Edit - Even Save Me is solid although the weakest of the pack. That huge Myles note and sick pinch harmonics.

Fortress when it first came out was a middle of the road track with a great solo. It did not take long for it to become more for me, now my favorite track on the album and in my top 5 AB songs.

12 is a really strong track position...

I went with Fortress, but Island of Fools and Walking on the Sky are both amazing. Always liked White Knuckles and Coeur d’Alene as well.

Easy the most difficult one for me. I simply love Couer d'Alene, I instantly fell in love with Walking on the Sky, Island of Fools ist just badass, but I had to go with Fortress. That middle section with the guitar solos is one of the best things the guys have ever produced, in my opinion.

Very strong songs in this one. I went Fortress. Runner up is probably IoF.

Andy92 wrote:12 is a really strong track position...

Yep, I like every song in that poll quite a lot. In the end I voted for Coer D'Alene, or as Mark and Myles say Corda Layne.

Fortress
Walking On The Sky
Couer D'Alene

The rest

Best song on Walk the Sky, against the best song on The Last Hero, against the best song. Fortress wins but this is the god tier track number.

Aw crap.

I would vote for White Knuckles over almost any Alter Bridge song...but not over Fortress. Walking On The Sky deserves a better fate, too. And Cd'A is such a beautiful song. Tough round.

Fortress
White Knuckles
Walking On The Sky/Coeur D'Alene
Island of Fools
Save Me

Poor Save Me...

Timotheus wrote:Poor Save Me...

It's one of their worst songs. Bottom 3 easily.

It's in the bottom quarter, but I don't think it's that bad. Just a bit awkward.

Just asking out of future reference: are any of the following songs going to be considered for ranking down the line?

Solace
Cruel Sun
On My Way Now
Never Born to Follow
We Don’t Care At All

And not that it would likely change much, but will Breathe still be associated with TLH instead of ODR?