One of the reasons I never got into Alter Bridge is because they are ¾ of Creed. And let’s face it, Creed were Pearl Jam light and as Pearl Jam weren’t anything I’d put my money into in the first place, their sloppy seconds weren’t exactly at the top of my list. So I never really gave Alter Bridge a fair chance. I gave their two first albums a quick run through, but nothing really stuck. But for some reason I thought I’d give this, their third CD, a fair shot as I heard people say that it’s heavier than before and that it didn’t had one thing to do with the Creed sound at all – and I’m glad I did, because this CD really is the shit. It’s heavy, it rocks and every song kicks ass and besides, I discovered Myles Kennedy through the Slash CD on which he sang two songs. What an amazing singer he is, probably one of the best rock singers that are out there today.
With the songs they have found the perfect mix between heaviness and catchiness. They’re heavy enough for every rocker out there to love, still melodic enough for both airplay and chart success. Like ”Slip Into The Void” are just heavy shit and ”Isolation” is still heavy, but really catchy. And there’s a lot more where that came from. ”Ghost Of Days Gone By”, ”Still Remains”, ”Wonderful Life” and ”Breathe Again” are all brilliant rockers that stands every chance to become hits – and, I might add, every song on here feels like they are written with a live environment in mind which gives the album a live feel. The production is also great. Big sounding, but not overproduced. In ”Life Must Go On” they have an awesome ballad that could, with a bit of luck, take the album past the rockers into the mainstream. My guess is that, even without releasing the ballad as a single, this album will sell millions anyway. Let’s forget about the Creed connections and just let Alter Bridge stand on their own. Because they are a great band and this is a great album.
Jon Wilmenius (8/10)
Tracklist:
01. Slip To The Void
02. Isolation
03. Ghost Of Days Gone By
04. All Hope Is Gone
05. Still Remains
06. Make It Right
07. Wonderful Life
08. I Know It Hurts
09. Show Me A Sign
10. Fallout
11. Breathe Again
12. Coeur D’Alene
13. Life Must Go On
14. Words Darker Than Their Wings
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