ALTER BRIDGE — AB III (review)

Album · 2010 · Alternative Metal

4.5/5 · 2010-12-31
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The album that singlehandedly made me believe in Alternative Metal as a viable metal sub-genre...

It’s not often that I choose to start one of my reviews off with a heading such as the one above, but for Alter Bridge’s third album, the simply titled AB III, I have to make an exception. For this group’s first two albums, One Day Remains and Blackbird I have had the band pigeonholed as a hard rock act and a very good one at that. When I heard that AB III was in production I expected more of the same – some catchy hard rock with great riffs and awesome vocals from the band’s singer Myles Kennedy. We’ve got that and in all honestly we’ve got it better than ever before, but there is also a very new feel to Alter Bridge as of AB III and it’s that this can be considered a metal album and the only metal sub-genre that it accurately fits in is Alternative Metal, which is something that prior to AB III I didn’t believe in for any group that the media branded the tag with. To me Alternative Metal has always been just another name for Hard Rock music, possibly coined due to some sort of need to call a band metal even when they are a Hard Rock band. I’ve never really had any problem with people who would use this tag for band’s I wouldn’t call metal myself, since it’s all a matter of opinion really. AB III is the album that has changed this view in my case, and it will likely from now on effect the way I view groups that get tagged as Alternative Metal.

Now onto the review proper. In generally what we have here is still very Alter Bridge, but lyrically this semi-concept album has a much darker tone to it, and musically opening track Slip to the Void quickly shows that it has been written to match the darker lyrics with a creepy intro which after a bit bursts into that classic Alter Bridge hard rock sound, at least that’s what my initial impression was. It becomes quickly apparently the guitar has been delivered it a much heavier fashion on AB III, it sounds fuller and more developed. Guitar riffs included feel much more towards metal in terms of technique as well as heaviness, and that’s really what makes AB III a metal album instead of a hard rock album, because Alter Bridge was always a pretty heavy band, but to be metal technique is just as important as heaviness and on AB III while we still have riffs that would have worked on One Day Remains or Blackbird, we also have stuff coming out of Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy’s guitars that is closer is still to traditional Heavy Metal and sometimes even Thrash Metal. Even the second track which is the album’s lead single Isolation isn’t spared this heavier treatment. This song combines the best of the old and the new Alter Bridge. Kennedy’s vocals are excellent here and the lead guitar is great and continues to be throughout. Later track Coeur D'alene is another than has a similar feel to it as Isolation.

For the next track, Ghost of Days Gone By, things are taken down a step because this one’s more of a rock ballad. Like the track’s that precede it however the music is excellent. At about two and a half minutes in things start getting really dark and things start get heavier in the build up to the solo section and near the end they start throwing in some really heavy riffs, as if at this point they needed to reassert their place as a metal band. Fourth track All Hope Is Gone isn’t the faster of pieces on offer either, but what’s good to note about AB III on this track is that four tracks in we’ve had four songs that don’t follow the same formula, which is great for any album since it my opinion one can only take so much of formulated music before getting bored. Some great heavy riffs in this one as well. Wonderful Life, which is a few tracks down the line is another ballad, this one getting more of the acoustic treatment than what’s we’ve had before it, though like many ballads it gets more rocky as the song progresses.

Still Remains is a heavy track, following the album’s trend of having some great guitar riffs with great vocals. I realise that I keep praising Tremonti and Kennedy in this review. Don’t worry, the bass and the drums are just as top notch on AB III, it’s just that with this sort of music the vocals and guitars being the most prominent in the mix it’s easier to forget the other band members, but this really is a great job all around.

Some songs still have more of a hard rock feel than any sort of metal feel (though that metal feel can still generally be heard, if in moderation). Make It Right is one of these but the guitar still leans towards metal rather than hard rock. A great song nonetheless, as is I Know It Hurts (at least at first), which follows it. This is the album’s shortest track and would be a good choice for a single. This song gets heavier nearer to its conclusion, with some riffs that have that real dark vibe to them again. The atmosphere of this album is great. It should also be noted that Alter Bridge isn’t afraid of throwing the odd curveball on AB III, some things that we get to hear here come across as ever so slightly progressive than what one may expect from a band of this style, whether one ultimately considers Alter bridge and AB III Hard Rock or Alternative Metal.

Fallout is one of my favourites from the album. I love the chorus in this one and the nice mix of acoustics with electric guitars, it gives a very atmospheric feel to the song that suits its dark lyrics but also manages to be pretty sing-along with that addictive chorus hits. I guess this can be considered one of those slightly progressive moments I mentioned with the way the feel of this song changes, especially with its heavy and downright weird sounding outro. Life Must Go On features another example of mixing acoustics and electric guitars to great effect.

The band closes AB III with Words Darker Than Their Wings, which is sung as a duet between Kennedy and Tremonti. This song feels slightly more uplifting that the others on the album, less focus on the dark, and that in a way is what tells us that it’s time for the album to come to an end.

Overall Alter Bridge have delivered a real cracker of an album with AB III, it is easily one of the best releases from 2010 and Alter Bridge’s best album to date. I’m very impressed and I highly recommend it, even if you’re one of those people that doesn’t believe in Alternative Metal, because after all, what’s in a tag? Whether or not at the end of the day you’ll consider this, like me, to be a metal album or a hard rock album is irrelevant, because it’s just so good.

(Review originally written for Heavy Metal Haven)