Fortunately, the perfect remedy is provided by “Clear Horizons”, a song that becomes more than the sum of its parts, with one of the albums best riffs and a stop-start chorus that brilliantly balances a heavy edge against the melody.Īlter Bridge are well known for turning dark subject matter into a hopeful and uplifting sound. “Forever Falling” in particular is guilty of this, with the aggressive and thrashy riff completely at odds with the rest of the song (one that features the now token lead vocal performance from Tremonti, who is rapidly becoming as good a vocalist as he is a guitarist). My frustration grew with tracks like “Indoctrination” and “Forever Falling”, where the main musical idea/riff never seems to fulfil it’s potential, either being followed by a lack lustre chorus or change in direction that messes up the flow. The downside is that it makes later track “Take The Crown” less effective as the main riff uses an almost identical rhythmic pattern. For lead single, “Wouldn’t You Rather”, the riff hits you like a thunderclap: crushingly heavy and perfectly in sync with a thick rhythm section. The chorus brings the hopeful sound you now expect from the tracks, with lyrics that speak of beginning anew after the light has faded.Įlsewhere on the record it’s near enough business as usual, albeit with less emphasis on chordal work and more on straight forward riffing, with mixed results. Album closer, “Dying Light” has a similar vibe, with a lead guitar line that adds dissonant bending of notes, creating an atmosphere that feels like a mournful ending to a chapter. Unlike other tracks, the electronic parts aren’t just forgotten about half-way through either: the way they are added to the underlying guitar part during the chorus adds an unsettling edge and creates a dark atmosphere that harks back to Blackbird.
#ALTER BRIDGE WALK THE SKY HAS IT LEAKED FULL#
Add in the ever-reliable rhythm section of Brian Marshall (bass) and Scott Phillips (drums) and you get a full yet ambient sound. Title track “Walking On The Sky” also makes good use of sound experimentation, combining acoustic backing guitar with an effects laden lead guitar line. The opening keyboard section sounds more like Chvrches than Alter Bridge, but then those huge guitar chords hit and after that it’s a textbook example of why Alter Bridge are masters of the rock anthem. Written about the passing of a life-long friend of Tremontis, it is a celebration of the positive effect of that person rather than mourning what could have been. The real highlight for the live show will be the uplifting “Godspeed”. The pre-chorus upsets the flow of the song but the chorus itself is bound to go down well live. Elsewhere, “Pay No Mind”, balances electronic melodies against guitar chords to great effect. We are introduced to this straight away on opening track “One Life” (the only ‘intro’ style track the band have ever written) where droning guitar lines underlay some soft crooning from Kennedy. The most notable new addition is the sprinkling of John Carpenter style electronics over the record. As the marketing team have put it, they are ‘pushing sonic boundaries’ and, while I reckon said boundaries haven’t really moved in the grand scheme of things, Walk The Sky definitely covers new territory for Alter Bridge. The band have been focusing their creative efforts elsewhere this time around.
Every track has a nice regular riff-verse-pre chorus-chorus structure and there is little in the way of extended instrumentals. No one other than the band themselves can say for certain whether this had an adverse effect on the writing process, but after a couple of listens this is clearly one of the most straightforward records Alter Bridge have ever written, at least structurally. What with Kennedy’s other commitments to some guitarist called Slash, it’s almost a miracle that they had time between them to get a new Alter Bridge album written at all.ĭue to this hectic schedule, Walk The Sky, is the first Alter Bridge album where the two guitarists wrote their ideas separately and close to completion before they even sat in a room together. If that wasn’t enough, singer/guitarist Myles Kennedy produced one of the best albums of 2018 with is debut solo album, Year of the Tiger, and guitarist Mark Tremonti released a close contender with his fourth solo album, A Dying Machine (plus an accompanying novel). Of the five albums they have made so far, at least three ( Blackbird, ABIII and Fortress) are classics of the modern genre, combining technical prowess with arena shaking riffs and soaring melodies.
For fifteen years now, Alter Bridge have been masterfully bridging the gap between hard rock and heavy metal.
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