Best and worst Alterbridge album

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nagpo
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by nagpo »

Box Of Frogz wrote:Fortress is my favourite, Last Hero least favourite.
this guy gets it

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UninvitedZero
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by UninvitedZero »

This is like choosing children... Blackbird is the first Alter Bridge album I heard. But I was really on board the Fortress hype train for the months/weeks leading up to release day during my one unsuccessful year of college. I'd say that album has become my favorite. The songs, the sound, the artwork, everything is killer.

My least favorite though, The Last Hero. I was chomping at the bit, pacing the cage awaiting this album. It fell totally flat for me at first. I've grown to love most of the tracks (fanboy), but the bloated production sours even some of the best musical moments...
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austinjhnsn
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by austinjhnsn »

Fortress and Blackbird are the best.

Fortress is the proggier album. Its so dynamic, not really any filler, other than Cry A River, and the production is the best of all the AB records. Some of the best vocal work from Myles on here, the riffs are simply off the charts and I love the darker vibe of a lot of the songs. Also, Cry of Achilles.

Blackbird is just a rock masterpiece, and it has Ties That Bind, Watch Over You and Blackbird, some of the best tracks the band has ever wrote. The true introduction to what Alter Bridge is; every track has something special about it.


ABIII is in 2nd, but not too far behind.. I adore that album but its unnecessarily lengthy. If certain songs were cut, it would be tied for first. I like the bsides from ABIII much more than a couple songs that actually made the cut, but those sides are damn good songs in general. Words Darker Than Their Wings is half the reason I love this album so much.

ODR is a great album, but like others have said its really kind of a very Creed-esque album. It really is a beautiful piece of art. Plus, Myles voice was in top shape on this record. Every song belongs, I personally dont see any of it as "filler", which is not true for the other albums. Each track belongs, all of them are awesome in their own way, but its not really AB as we know it.

The Last Hero is last. As much I want to love it, I just dont feel a connection like I did with the other albums. The highest amount of filler, and it seems kind of unfocused if Im being completely honest. Its not a bad album, but it isn't great by AB standards. Its just good, with a little bit of great thrown in.
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Ubik
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by Ubik »

Fortress

Blackbird/ABIII/Last Hero
One Day Remains

But they all good.
For all of the hope that it brings...

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Vaux
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by Vaux »

ODR is the best, followed by a tie between Blackbird and Fortress, then ABIII and The Last Hero is..... last.

kantkalmthefire
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by kantkalmthefire »

Fortress is undeniably my favorite album but 'slip to the void' I like so much that I'd listen to just that track over Fortress heh. :shifty

As for 'the last hero....' I thought that was by a band other than Alter Bridge right? :facepalm

Thomz87
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by Thomz87 »

1. Fortress
2. The Last Hero
3. Blackbird
4. ABIII
5. One Day Remains

Fortress is a masterpiece, just perfection. The Last Hero I liked very much, too. Blackbird has some songs on it, I listened a few times but I don't consider them above (AB-)average (One by One, Break Me Down, Buried Alive, Rise Today). On ABIII, I loved WDTTW and Coeur d'Alene. One Day Remains is of course a very good record, too, but not as good as the rest :)

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VigilantSteve
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by VigilantSteve »

Fortress/Blackbird (too hard to decide)
The Last Hero
ABIII
One Day Remains

I'm still surprised by the number of people here that dislike The Last Hero.

Andy92
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by Andy92 »

VigilantSteve wrote:I'm still surprised by the number of people here that dislike The Last Hero.
I'd rank it last, but I wouldn't say I dislike it. It's just missing something overall. The lyrics don't hit me very hard in comparison to the other records, the production makes the record sound too harsh at times, and the solos, while good from a technical standpoint, aren't as memorable to me on that album.

I actually do think it's a solid album. The title track is one of the best pieces they've ever written. Better production would've helped it a lot.
anguyen92 wrote:Oh well. Deal with it.

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TenaciousBe
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Re: Best and worst Alter [SPACE] Bridge album

Post by TenaciousBe »

Each album has something that I like and dislike, so ranking them is really hard. But if I must...

1. Blackbird
1a. Fortress
3. One Day Remains
4. ABIII
5. The Last Hero

And even then, it pains me to rank ODR halfway down the list, but Blackbird and Fortress are just God-tier albums. The feel, the production, the performance, everything is top notch on those two albums. ODR is a beautiful masterpiece on its own, but as many have said, it's sort of its own beast with the band not really having come together to find its sound yet -- it's like the first Foo Fighters record essentially being just a Dave Grohl solo album, while The Colour and The Shape was the first "band" album. ABIII, I've said this before but I feel like the second half of the album just all sort of flows together and feels like a bit of filler, even though I love each song individually.

Then TLH... man, I want to love this album so bad. I'm a big fan of the political bite of the lyrics. The songs are big and bombastic. But listening to the album, it just gets overwhelming. Fatiguing. It's so in-your-face the whole time, and even when the music itself is dynamic, the production keeps the quiet parts filling the entire spectrum of sound. It makes me feel like Huey Lewis in Back To The Future.

Also, not to beat a dead horse, but it's Alter Bridge. 2 words.
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scarecrow
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by scarecrow »

The first three and last two tracks on AB III are some of my favorite songs they've ever done but I almost never listen to the middle of the album. That makes this especially tough.

5. The Last Hero
4. AB III
3. One Day Remains
2. Blackbird
1. Fortress

MuffinMcFluffin
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by MuffinMcFluffin »

Rankings are below. I hath justified my reasons here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=1595&p=184469#p184469

1) AB III
2) Blackbird
3) Fortress
4) One Day Remains
5) The Last Hero

Sergey
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by Sergey »

Absolutely best: Blackbird
Worst: The Last Hero

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\m/Tremonster\m/
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by \m/Tremonster\m/ »

Favourite: Fortress

Least favourite: ODR
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Crumbso
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by Crumbso »

Best - Fortress
Worst - TLH/AB3
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Jim
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by Jim »

Alterbridge?

After 14 years; you'd think people would know how to spell their name by now...

You wouldn't say Blackstonecherry or Ironmaiden would you? Nah

And Blackbird is the best album, by 400 miles.
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Jim
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by Jim »

Least favourite, The Last Hero
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Flet
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by Flet »

1 Fortress
2 The Last Hero
3 AB III
4 Blackbird
5 One Day Remains

Fortress wins out simply because it has MUCH better production than The Last Hero which was somehow muffled. If only the guitars, and all instruments, were easier to pickout in the mix, TLH may have won.

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TenaciousBe
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by TenaciousBe »

Tangent question -- everyone seems to dislike the production of The Last Hero, myself included. Yet, the new albums this year by Tremonti and Myles have both been, sonically, leaps and bounds better, and both still produced by Elvis. So what happened? Why does the Alter Bridge album feel so over-produced, while the Tremonti album sounds incredible? I know Tremonti isn't the same band, but it's a close cousin and produced by the same person. Amazing how different the two projects sound on their albums.
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anguyen92
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Re: Best and worst Alterbridge album

Post by anguyen92 »

TenaciousBe wrote:Tangent question -- everyone seems to dislike the production of The Last Hero, myself included. Yet, the new albums this year by Tremonti and Myles have both been, sonically, leaps and bounds better, and both still produced by Elvis. So what happened? Why does the Alter Bridge album feel so over-produced, while the Tremonti album sounds incredible? I know Tremonti isn't the same band, but it's a close cousin and produced by the same person. Amazing how different the two projects sound on their albums.
It could very well be how the process of writing the album, recording the album, mixing it, etc. are so different among an AB album, a Tremonti album, Year of the Tiger, etc. that can affect things from the production side.

For Myles, he came up with the melody "In the Year of the Tiger" while mowing his lawn and then chased the idea all the way. Mark, he had the genesis of the idea for A Dying Machine during an AB soundcheck in Hungary and then of course, he chased the idea all the way as well.

It seems like with how great the partnership that Mark and Myles has over the history of Alter Bridge, it could look very hard to find the perfect idea/concept/riff/melody/whatever out of the blue and then both guys chase it down all the way. They also really don't have that sense of space to wait too long, especially with the way both guys operate with their other bands creating and releasing full length albums with them. I really hope it does not come to a point where AB's biggest asset, i.e. the songwriting partnership of Mark and Myles has now become their biggest weakness. That's something to really look out for, I think, over the writing/production of AB VI.
Last edited by anguyen92 on Fri Jul 06, 2018 12:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

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