The Creed/Alter Bridge guitarist has had an incredibly successful solo career outside of both bands, releasing a whopping six solo albums including this one. We even reviewed his last one when we were still starting out, loving it (it’s definitely higher than what I gave it!). The hype around this album is high, especially given the impressive singles so far and renewed eyes on him from the Creed reunion. So no pressure, but let’s dive in and see if it lives up to all of our hopes!
The album opens incredibly strongly with single ‘The Mother, The Earth and I’. An ominous guitar builds perfectly into Tremonti’s signature style of heavy, awesome riffing. Surprising it drops back a little again for the verses, the time signatures also pretty interesting. It gives off Chevelle vibes in all the best ways. It all builds perfectly to that HUGE riff again, acting as a chorus as Mark’s powerful vocals belt out a catchy hook over it. The Chevelle and even Tool feel continues through the bridge; an insane lower riff with some very Justin Chancellor bass behind it. And we even close out with a fantastic guitar solo like only Tremonti can! It’s an awesome track and the perfect way to open this album!
‘One More Time’ is heavy, almost giving off Gojira energy with that opening. Heck, the whole thing could be modern Gorjira if it wasn’t for the clean vocals. However, Mark’s vocals sound amazing on this track, showing that he really is one of the most underrated singers currently around. Everything about this track is amazing, from the heavy riffing to the insanely catchy chorus to the technical masterclass of a guitar solo. It’s a fantastic choice of another single as it’s a huge highlight of the album, and easily makes it onto our playlist! Amazing stuff!
The lead single of the album, ‘Just to Much’ has a bit of groove and swagger to it compared to the previous too, having vague Black Label Society vibes, mixed with Tremonti’s more technical early 2000s alt rock sound. Unsurprisingly, this is also an incredible track throughout, and another big highlight of the release. Everything about it just clicks perfectly for me, and is easily up there with one of my favourite tracks from this band, alongside the previous one. The guitaring is insanely talented, especially when Mark is also singing at the same time. But the rest of the band are also more than pulling their weight, making everything sound so good. And the production is top notch, just like everything he’s been on for over a decade at this point.
The first album track of the album, ‘Nails’, goes just as hard as the other songs! It combines the heaviness of ‘One More Time’ with the atmosphere of the opener, to fantastic results. And that chorus, fuck, it’s SO GOOD. I cannot get over just how good the riffing is throughout. You’d have thought that after all these years of writing killer riffs, Tremonti would have run out of them by now. You’d have thought wrong! And we’re treated to yet another fantastic solo tucked away in the middle of it all, too. It’s another big highlight on an album so far full of them!
Finally, we get some chill with ‘It’s not Over’, followed by the title track. However, both tracks are still awesome and no less epic. The former is honestly beautiful, and the lyrics have even more weight and power with Mark’s delivery. Meanwhile the latter feels more like old-school Tremonti, or even that debut Alter Bridge album, which I love! They were a very appreciated and interesting change of pace on a very full on album so far, and both are awesome tracks!
‘Tomorrow We Will Fail’ is another old-school Tremonti track, packed full of interesting riffing and a pretty decent chorus. Then the heaviness picks back up for the awesome ‘I’ll Take My Chances’. I love the low, dirty bass under the verses, the guitaring really reminding me of ABIII era stuff. And it’s yet another fantastic, arena-filling chorus. It’s an amazing track and another easy highlight of the album!
I found ‘The Bottom’ a really interesting track. There wasn’t anything especially weird about it, structurally, but it did have a slightly different sound to it that I wasn’t really expecting heading into this review. It was enjoyable, the riffing and vocals being awesome throughout. It just had a different energy to it which I again really appreciated with this sort of length of album.
I have to admit, as good as ‘Live in Fear’, ‘Now that I’ve Made It’ and ‘All the Wicked Things’ were, I was starting to get a little fatigued by this album by this point. Even with the variety throughout, when it’s 12 five-plus minute songs, it’s still a long-ass release. I also don’t think it helped that both slower tracks were bunched together in the middle? I’m clearly getting old, as I can’t seem to cope with an hour of fantastic music by one artist in this style any more. That and I have the attention span of a goldfish. I blame streaming. My favourite of the three is definitely the closing track, it being a six-minute epic and a fitting way to close out such a release!
Overall: This is an awesome album! I have to admit that, while clearly enjoying every other album they’ve done, I never quite ‘got’ them. However, now I feel like I finally do. This was great from front to back, and while it was a touch long and front-loaded, I really enjoyed so much of it. It’s a solid alt-metal album, especially for this early in the year, and it will surely be in the conversation of our albums of the year list come December!
The Score: 8.5/10