What's Next Musically for Alter Bridge? A Concept Album?

[The Dissident]

Will someone please explain to me in layman’s terms what a concept album is?

I love music! I don’t know what a concept album is and why it’s significant.

I need some education here...

A concept record is an album which tells a singlular story throughout. Some examples include:Tommy, Quadrophenia, The Wall, Operation: Mindcrime, Metropolis Part 2: Scenes From A Memory. Basically the whole album is meant to be listened to as a singular piece of music, there is often musical call backs throughout the albums.

Think of it like a movie, but music.

[MuffinMcFluffin]

Will someone please explain to me in layman’s terms what a concept album is?

I love music! I don’t know what a concept album is and why it’s significant.

I need some education here...

Just a rock album with some central theme... or concept, if you will.

The Last Hero was a borderline concept album, for example. Some (like myself) argue that a lot of it was politically-driven. That doesn't mean the songs were about politics, but it was around election time that half the songs ideas came to them regarding leadership. When you listen to it from beginning to end, you feel out a story being told.

EDIT: Didn't see the above post before making my post since it was on a different page. I think he explained it better.

[anguyen92]

Other examples would also include Year of the Tiger, I think, which tells a story of the experiences Myles and his family went through the year his father passed away.

A Dying Machine was also kinda a concept album, although, the album doesn't tell a story in in order of its track listing and that's where the novel helps puts the order together to where the songs form a story? (I don't know. Never read the novel before.)

Rush's final album, Clockwork Angels, was a concept album, as well, as it told the story of a sheltered person in a boring farm that wanted to go on an adventure and experiences a lot of unique stuff in a steampunk setting and eventually grows as a person in that experience and reflects on his life in what was truly a fitting final song for the album, and for Rush as a band, The Garden.

I would think that concept albums would be pretty much like a novel, but told in the forms of songs rather than chapters.

[MaraCarr]

You guys are great! Thank you so much...So...



Hmm? Makes sense...I Did read the Dying Machine novel! Loved it. Some parts more than others. I can see how they fit together and it’s beautiful.

One of my favorite Alter Bridge songs is “Slip to Void”... that song in itself could multiply into a novel and concept album.

Also as I read you guys posts ...What came into my mind... was “Weathered” ...Do you think that was a concept album? .... because the first time I listened to that album it felt like a story from beginning to end. I remember feeling that way but didn’t know the terminology just that it felt like an incredible story! I wonder if it was intentional or just creative synchronization.

[Andy92]

You Also as I read you guys posts ...What came into my mind... was “Weathered” ...Do you think that was a concept album? .... because the first time I listened to that album it felt like a story from beginning to end. I remember feeling that way but didn’t know the terminology just that it felt like an incredible story! I wonder if it was intentional or just creative synchronization.

I’ve seen different interpretations of what concept albums are over the years so there isn’t a strict rule to it. Personally though I consider there to be a difference between an album that carries a common theme throughout (like Weathered) and a true concept album. The Wall is one of the staple examples of a concept album. It’s a specific story that is told from beginning to end, basically a book in the form of music. I would consider A Dying Machine to be a concept album, but that one tends to be more “a group of songs influenced by the book” to me. Like some concept albums will go as far to include actual character names in the lyrics. A Dying Machine doesn’t take it that far lyrically but does include some lines straight from the book text. It also doesn’t contain any musical callbacks to my memory (same piece of music played in more than one song), which is something I tend to look for in records labeled as concept albums.

There’s no set rule here, but a lot of albums will keep a common theme throughout. That doesn’t necessarily make it a full on concept album in my eyes. I tend to think of albums like Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory when I hear the term “concept album.”

[The Dissident]

Other examples would also include Year of the Tiger, I think, which tells a story of the experiences Myles and his family went through the year his father passed away.

A Dying Machine was also kinda a concept album, although, the album doesn't tell a story in in order of its track listing and that's where the novel helps puts the order together to where the songs form a story? (I don't know. Never read the novel before.)

Rush's final album, Clockwork Angels, was a concept album, as well, as it told the story of a sheltered person in a boring farm that wanted to go on an adventure and experiences a lot of unique stuff in a steampunk setting and eventually grows as a person in that experience and reflects on his life in what was truly a fitting final song for the album, and for Rush as a band, The Garden.

I would think that concept albums would be pretty much like a novel, but told in the forms of songs rather than chapters.

Off topic, but I personally believe The Garden is the greatest Rush song of all time and upon first listen skyrocketed into my top 10 songs ever and holds a position in the top 3 songs I've heard. Brilliant and perfect song.

[MaraCarr]

Great song!

[mirko.volpon]

https://www.emp-online.it/p/walk-the-sk ... 79680.html

[mirko.volpon]

Walk the sky 2.0 ep

[mirko.volpon]

Tracklist ep


1
Last Rites (new studio track)

2.

Wouldn't You Rather (Live)

3.

Pay No Mind (Live)

4.

Native Son (Live)

5.

Godspeed (Live)

6.

In The Deep (Live)

7.

Dying Light (Live)

[Mr. Slash]

Available 06. November for 10 bucks. Yeah, why not.

[SHEAKENBAKEN]

$10 for 1 new song; assuming it's legit.... sure why not

[anguyen92]

I'm reading it from the link as 10 euros. Is that correct? Nothing announced from AB's twitter about it yet. We may have stumbled upon a link of something unannounced. Please don't blame us, Timmy, for finding it.

[MuffinMcFluffin]

I'll tell you what, as a whole I don't like the song In The Deep, but it's one of those songs I'd love to hear live. Not just a "live track," though. I actually mean in concert.

I feel like this would have been a good time to get an acoustic album out, though. Perhaps that's "next" as they still have to ride their WTS wave as long as they can.

[joshuabeau]

Well, Tim did say on one of the facebook groups a couple weeks back that they had "refocused and made something new for the fans to help keep folks entertained during all this craziness. More news on that in a bit."
Also, said that he had heard new AB ideas and it was back to the prog epics.
This was around July 18th and i just have the screenshot on my phone, so i just typed this out while looking at my picture. So, that could actually be real. Here's hoping.

[Ubik]

Gah I missed an EP presale accidentally going live?! Dammit. Last Rites is a cool title, was that what the EP was supposedly called? Bummed it doesn't have Take the Crown on there though.

[joshuabeau]

Gah I missed an EP presale accidentally going live?! Dammit. Last Rites is a cool title, was that what the EP was supposedly called? Bummed it doesn't have Take the Crown on there though.

It was just called "Walk The Sky 2.0"

[TenaciousBe]

Personally, what I'd really like to see is for AB to go back to the lyrical themes of The Last Hero, but really dig in and go full Rage Against The Machine on it (minus the rapping). I listen to stuff like Writing on the Wall which is clearly about Trump and the science/climate change deniers, or even the milder generic "make the world a better place" stuff like Rise Today, and I hear someone who's trying desperately to take a stand against those kinds of forces in our world, but is also trying to toe the line and keep things simple enough not to alienate any of the fanbase by being too "political." But I mean, at this point, I've seen full-blown QAnon conspiracy theorists who are still waving the AB flag, so I don't think they'd be in any danger of losing any fans over it.

Still, I feel like the chances of that actually happening fall somewhere between "Stapp joins the band" and "Flip does a solo album full of funk and disco covers" (which, let's be honest, would be dope as hell), so other things I'd like to see them do... these guys really shine when they strip it down and play acoustic, so I'd love to see a full-on acoustic show DVD akin to Sevendust's Southside Double-Wide. I keep a playlist going on YouTube of all the best pro-shot acoustic versions of things I can find, and I pull that up every so often to listen to it like a standalone album, and it's just wonderful.

Aside from acoustic, the other place these guys really shine is doing covers. I think a covers album / EP / set of EPs could do them wonders, especially if they were to do something that's already a big mainstream song the way Bad Wolves hit with Zombie a couple years ago. Back on the ODR tour, their propensity for covers was amazing, Zeppelin, The Who, Aerosmith, they played that stuff just flawlessly and having them get into the studio and put those songs out there for realsies? Would be incredible to hear. That video of them doing Kashmir at Pinkpop has blown my mind countless times over the last decade or so, and I think they could tear it up on some stuff like that and really turn some heads.

I think their next studio album is just going to be what it's going to be, whatever they feel is right, whatever the next evolution of AB is. But especially with things on Covid lockdown, I think this would be a time to just hop in the studio and crank out some of this kind of stuff. Especially the covers, they could put those out there with hardly any effort and reap maximum benefit.

[nagpo]

Dude, because of that political shit was why most people think TLH was their worst album, along with the subpar music. AB has never been a political band and should never be one. Political music fucking sucks regardless of what it's talking about. Don't let the current political climate make you want them to make a record about it. This shit will be over in like 2 weeks

[TenaciousBe]

^^ I respect that opinion, but I've wanted them to go full political since hearing some of that stuff on TLH. It feels like a tease and they just didn't quite go for it, and I'd love to see them really go for it. But, that's just me. I've never thought TLH was their worst album, but I can see how others would, especially when stuff like Blackbird and Fortress are so good, they're hard to continually live up to album after album.