Blackbird --- Alter Bridge --- 2007 (Universal Republic)
Formed out of the ashes of Creed, and then continued when Creed reformed in 2009, Alter Bridge are a band who have feet in many camps. In addition to working with Slash, other members of the band have solo or associated projects, so they're hardly ever inactive it would seem. This is their second album and was something of a commercial flop for them. It opens with "The ties that bind", nice throaty guitar sound joined by another guitar and then kicking up in an almost progressive metal style. Good vocal harmonies and singer Myles Kennedy has a good clear strong voice. Bouncing, rocky track to get us going, then "Comes to life" has an almost Evanscence feel to it, slower but no less heavy.
Nice laidback track then in "Brand new start", lot of heart and soul in it. It's not a ballad but it is quite relaxing in its way. Kicking the power back up then with "Buried alive" and a feeling of triumph in "Coming home", then you can see why "Before tomorrow comes" was released as a single. Very catchy, very commercial but surprisingly did quite badly of the singles taken from the album. Another such was "Rise today", but this did much better, being used in various TV shows and promos, and is in fact Alter Bridge's best known song. It has a nice laidback guitar line in the intro, and in fact it's the only track on which Myles Kennedy plays guitar. With a theme of doing something to change the way the world is, it's very upbeat in message if not in tempo.
The title track starts off yearning and almost acoustic, but something about it tells you that it's about to flare up into a hard grinding rocker, and indeed it does, though it returns to the somewhat contemplative style of the opener throughout its run. And it's some run: the song is two seconds short of eight minutes and becomes really epic later on, with a fine passionate vocal from Kennedy and a great outro solo from Mark Tremonti. Definitely highlight of the album so far, and I like pretty much everything I've heard up to now. Compared to "Blackbird" the next track is a little tame, but "One by one" has a great energy about it, and some interesting guitar moments.
Lovely acoustic ballad in "Watch over you", very evocative lyric and expressive guitar as the lead is plugged in and acoustic becomes electric, returning to acoustic for the ending. "Break me down" is a good punchy powerful rocker with great vocal harmonies, and "White knuckles" swaggers along nicely with what sounds like keyboards but I think is guitar fills. We end on what starts off slow so could be a ballad, with an echoey guitar and restrained vocal. "Wayward one" has a very dramatic and cinematic feel with a great vocal and some fine guitar work, and though it turns out not to be quite a ballad it's a great closer to a really great album.
TRACKLISTING
1. Ties that bind
2. Come to life
3. Brand new start
4. Buried alive
5. Coming home
6. Before tomorrow comes
7. Rise today
8. Blackbird
9. One by one
10. Watch over you
11. Break me down
12. White knuckles
13. Wayward one
Having listened to "Blackbird" I couldn't say for certain whether Alter Bridge can be considered metal. They're certainly heavy but I don't know if they qualify as a heavy metal band or just a rock one. But they're certainly heavy enough for inclusion here, and whatever they are, I like them on the basis of this album. Feel I may be checking out some of their other material in the near future.
Read more here [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alter_Bridge]/url]