The Official Alter Bridge Thread v. PAWNS & KINGS

[wolfking]

Symphony Of Agony

Shit, I need to hear this.

Damn, not on youtube.

[Basekick]

Symphony Of Agony

Shit, I need to hear this.

Damn, not on youtube.

It's the same song as "Last of Our Kind", if that helps.

[wolfking]

Symphony Of Agony

Shit, I need to hear this.

Damn, not on youtube.

It's the same song as "Last of Our Kind", if that helps.

Of course, silly me, duh! 

[RuRoRul]

Yeah, didn't mean to mislead anyone with that title   . According to this track by track interview (which also contains the comments I was talking about) the song title was meant to be changed to Symphony Of Agony, but got put on the album under the working title. So the band want it to be known as Symphony Of Agony, but the CD has it as Last Of Our Kind so that's what most people will know it as, so I figure I'll use Last Of Our Kind / Symphony Of Agony.

[wolfking]

Yeah, didn't mean to mislead anyone with that title   . According to this track by track interview (which also contains the comments I was talking about) the song title was meant to be changed to Symphony Of Agony, but got put on the album under the working title. So the band want it to be known as Symphony Of Agony, but the CD has it as Last Of Our Kind so that's what most people will know it as, so I figure I'll use Last Of Our Kind / Symphony Of Agony.

That's a pretty big stuff up.

[Accelerando]

I forget if it was ABIII or Fortress where the first batchful of CDs misspelled Myles with "Miles"

[wolfking]

I forget if it was ABIII or Fortress where the first batchful of CDs misspelled Myles with "Miles"

 

[mikeyd23]

The bonus track on Fortress was the exact same situation. On all or most CD pressings the song was labeled as "Outright". The actual title of the song was meant to be "Never Say Die".

[wolfking]

I don't think I've ever checked that song out.

[Anguyen92]

^^ It's actually somewhere on Youtube.  Another fine track.  Is pretty positive sounding compared to the darker/moodier tones of Fortress, but is more upbeat and not a ballad like All Ends Well.  Maybe a predecessor to My Champion in terms of lyrics?

[wolfking]

Just had a listen, it's alright, but can see why it's the bonus track.

[mikeyd23]

Just had a listen, it's alright, but can see why it's the bonus track.

Yup, it's a cool song, but a logical B-side for that record. Too much other strong material that made the cut.

^^ It's actually somewhere on Youtube.  Another fine track.  Is pretty positive sounding compared to the darker/moodier tones of Fortress, but is more upbeat and not a ballad like All Ends Well.  Maybe a predecessor to My Champion in terms of lyrics?

Kev, I know you are a pretty active poster in this thread and on the AB forums, but I don't know if I've seen your thoughts on TLH (apologies if you posted them and I missed them). How are you feeling about the new record?

[kaos2900]

I can with confidence say that The Last Hero has moved past Fortress as my favorite AB album. I didn't think it would be possible but this album gets better with each listen. The melodies are just amazing on every song which is what gives it the edge over Fortress. Also, as much as I love Fortress, it being so heavy throughout while The Last Hero is more varied helps push it to the top. The Last Hero has the heavy edge of Fortress with the melodies of ODR. Perfect combination. Album of the year so far and it's going to be really hard to beat.

[fadetoblackdude7]

I can with confidence say that The Last Hero has moved past Fortress as my favorite AB album. I didn't think it would be possible but this album gets better with each listen. The melodies are just amazing on every song which is what gives it the edge over Fortress. Also, as much as I love Fortress, it being so heavy throughout while The Last Hero is more varied helps push it to the top. The Last Hero has the heavy edge of Fortress with the melodies of ODR. Perfect combination. Album of the year so far and it's going to be really hard to beat.

That's a pretty bold statement. I still think The Astonishing hold album of the year for me, or the new Thrice.

I agree that it gets better with each listen but I still feel that Fortress has something the other albums don't. Can't quite pinpoint it yet. Could be an atmosphere thing or a structure thing or just the overall songwriting.

[Anguyen92]

Kev, I know you are a pretty active poster in this thread and on the AB forums, but I don't know if I've seen your thoughts on TLH (apologies if you posted them and I missed them). How are you feeling about the new record?

Pls don't call me Kev here.  It's a nice inside joke at the AB Nation forums.  You can refer to me as Kev there, but otherwise, call me Anguyen or Andrew here.  Anywho.  As for my thoughts.  Here's what I stated after hearing the album.  My thoughts remanded about the same on the album after two weeks.  It's a solid album.  I just hope they play a lot from it live.

Well, finished listening to the album. Felt fast as well despite its long length. For me, there are no bad Alter Bridge albums. Just albums that has various degrees of greatness and pretty much albums that I would easily state as the undisputed favorite album of the year. For The Last Hero, that is no exception.

I understand the fair criticisms (the loudness, the multiple Myles vocal layerings, them going for a heavier direction, etc.) that these fair people in these boards has. Yet despite these gripes, I enjoy the album. It felt like they had more of a sense of urgency in these songs and they should have that, given the theme of the album. I will echo that Cradle to the Grave was an immediate first favorite of the album, straight away. Twilight, surprisingly to me, was another favorite. I thought Twilight would be a sappy ballad like All Ends Well (I do like me some sappy ballads like All Ends Well though), but it had the vibe of Make it Right, but more enjoyable to hear. The only gripe was that it ended so sudden. One of the many great qualities of AB (and there are a lot) was that they end their songs strong without any suspense, but Twilight did not have that which just frustrates me, since it was such a strong song to me.

I like how with The Last Hero song, they went straight away with the verses, no great/epic instrumental intro. Just "Can you hear the marching, beating of the drums?......." and I say they once again delivered another solid title track song and another great closing album song. The Last of Our Kind was really good, filling that one AB bonus track song that somehow is more enjoyable than some of the songs in the album. Breathe is all right, I guess. A bit on the short end though, but that's fine.

In the end, I think AB knew their strengths, musically, and filled out what I expected them to do. I don't think I had that feeling where I was like "They didn't do this in a song. Why??" I guess some production parts could have been tidied up better and maybe they could have not gone too crazy with the multiple Myles vocals, but aside from that, this was just another top-caliber album from AB. I won't bother with the rating and stuff. I just know I'm probably not going to hear another album, this year, that's as enjoyable to me as The Last Hero.

Favorites: Cradle to the Grave, This Side of Fate, Twilight, Island of Fools, and The Last Hero.

[mikeyd23]

Gotcha, sorry about that, didn't think it was exclusive.

Good write up on it overall. I totally agree that I hope they play a lot of this material live. In a perfect world I'd love to see 5, 6, maybe even 7 of these songs played live but there's no way AB will do that. I'm guessing they play 4 songs from this record live and everything else will be the usual. I hope they prove me wrong.

[fadetoblackdude7]

Gotcha, sorry about that, didn't think it was exclusive.

Good write up on it overall. I totally agree that I hope they play a lot of this material live. In a perfect world I'd love to see 5, 6, maybe even 7 of these songs played live but there's no way AB will do that. I'm guessing they play 4 songs from this record live and everything else will be the usual. I hope they prove me wrong.

Well that's because they insist on playing over half the Blackbird album every show in favor of the new stuff, which needs to change!

[kaos2900]

They played a ton of stuff off of Fortress when I saw them a few weeks ago.

[mikeyd23]

Well that's because they insist on playing over half the Blackbird album every show in favor of the new stuff, which needs to change!

Yup. I think in their eyes, they have a lot more old standards than they really do. Fortress and TLH were both so strong, I'd be totally cool with them focusing on those albums more live.

Off the top of my head, they usually play like 18 songs in a headlining set. I'd be totally fine with them only playing 2 or 3 songs from ODR, BB, and ABIII each. Then all the remaining songs in the set could be between Fortress and TLH.

[Anguyen92]

Good news, people that reads this thread and is from Australia.  AB has got themselves booked into some sideshows.  The other act playing is not Steel Panther, thankfully.  It's Living Colour.

https://themusic.com.au/news/all/2014/01/17/alter-bridge-and-living-colour-lock-in-two-sidewaves/

I decided to quote this for a reason.  Good news, people that reads this thread and is from Australia.  They got some more headlining shows (more than 2, the count is 4 in Australia and 1 in New Zealand) in the land down under in April 2017.



https://mjrpresents.com/alterbridge/

[wolfking]

Fuck yeah, I'm there!!!

[Adami]

Listened to it again. Much better than I previously thought, but still a few criticisms.

1) The production really hurts the heavy sections. It's just really hard to tell what's going on beyond "HEAVY NOISE".
2) The vocals are way to layered. Too many layers of Myles and he sounds thin and whiny. On the songs where he mainly sticks to 1-2 layers, he's much better and bigger sounding.
3) Still not really diverse. All the choruses are typical AB choruses, and all of the heavy parts could have easily been on a Tremonti album. I just wish they'd really try something new beyond just heavier and darker.

Still, most of the songs are much better than I thought. Well composed mostly, for what it is, and great performances by everyone, especially Scott who is really bringing it recently.

[RAIN]

Am I the only one who doesn't have a problem with the mixing/mastering?

No you aren't, there are hundreds of others at least that are not happy with the production.  This is a great album that we can not really hear because it's so muddled.  You can barely make out all the guitar riffs.  And that is a shame, because, this is a guitar driven band.
Shame.

[mikeyd23]

I decided to quote this for a reason.  Good news, people that reads this thread and is from Australia.  They got some more headlining shows (more than 2, the count is 4 in Australia and 1 in New Zealand) in the land down under in April 2017.



https://mjrpresents.com/alterbridge/

That's awesome! *Waits for US dates....*

Listened to it again. Much better than I previously thought, but still a few criticisms.

1) The production really hurts the heavy sections. It's just really hard to tell what's going on beyond "HEAVY NOISE".
2) The vocals are way to layered. Too many layers of Myles and he sounds thin and whiny. On the songs where he mainly sticks to 1-2 layers, he's much better and bigger sounding.
3) Still not really diverse. All the choruses are typical AB choruses, and all of the heavy parts could have easily been on a Tremonti album. I just wish they'd really try something new beyond just heavier and darker.

Still, most of the songs are much better than I thought. Well composed mostly, for what it is, and great performances by everyone, especially Scott who is really bringing it recently.

Hard to argue with any of that. I think they definitely fell into a trap of too many layers both in regards to the guitars and the vocals. A little less layering here and there would have gone a long way to help the sonics out.

Also, I know you historically want AB (and Mark in particular) to write a different style of chorus, but these guys seem to really like the big, open chords approach to choruses, not sure that's going to change anytime soon.

Oh, and I agree about Scott's playing. On TLH and Fortress I think he really upped his game and laid down some of his best work.

[Adami]

Oh, I know they'll probably ever change their approach to choruses. At this point it's obviously a Mark Tremonti thing. I currently own 12 albums of him playing what is essentially the same chorus on almost every song.

However, I know he can do different stuff. When he tried new ideas with Creed (of all bands) it always worked out well.

[sylvan]

US dates are up. No Florida 

I'm inclined to agree about the mix. I mostly listen with Phillips in ear headphones while I run, and they're decent quality, but not nearly as good as the Beats sport in ear headphones I wear at the gym or while I'm walking. When I listen with he high quality Beats, it gives me a headache, even at lower volumes. I don't get this with any other albums. But, it doesn't bother me with the other headphones, so whatevs.

[mikeyd23]

US dates are up. No Florida 

Yeah... There's nothing within like 5 or 6 hours of me...Seems like a pretty small tour, more dates in the future?

[Anguyen92]

20 shows so far.  They could make another round back during the period of the US Festivals (Rock on the Range, Carolina Rebellion, Welcome to Rockville, etc.).

1/21 — Mobile, Ala. — Saenger Theatre
1/22 — Atlanta, Ga. — Tabernacle
1/24 — Royal Oak, Mich. — Royal Oak Music Theatre
1/25 — Chicago, Ill. — Riviera Theatre
1/27 — Sioux City, Iowa — Anthem at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
1/28 — North Kansas City, Mo. — Voodoo Lounge at Harrah’s Casino
1/31 — Niagara Falls, N.Y. — Rapids Theatre
2/1 — Toronto, Ontario — Phoenix Concert Theatre
2/3 — Montreal, Quebec — Metropolis
2/4 — Philadelphia, Pa. — Electric Factory
2/7 — Boston, Mass. — House of Blues
2/9 — New York, N.Y. — PlayStation Theater
2/10 — Silver Spring, Md. — Fillmore
2/12 — Raleigh, N.C. — The Ritz
2/14 — Houston, Texas — House of Blues
2/16 — Las Vegas, Nev. — Brooklyn Bowl
2/18 — Tempe, Ariz. — Marquee
2/19 — Los Angeles, Calif. — Wiltern
2/20 — San Francisco, Calif. — Regency Ballroom
2/22 — Seattle, Wash. — Moore Theatre

https://loudwire.com/alter-bridge-north-american-headline-tour-2017/?trackback=tsmclip

I will be there during The Wiltern show in LA.

[Adami]

You know what's annoying? The only chorus I actively dislike is the one to Show me a Hero and god damn it's stuck on repeat in my head!!!

[axeman90210]

I'll be out of town for the NY show... sad feels (although I can't complain too much as I'll be in the middle of Cruise to the Edge).

[mikeyd23]

20 shows so far.  They could make another round back during the period of the US Festivals (Rock on the Range, Carolina Rebellion, Welcome to Rockville, etc.).

1/21 — Mobile, Ala. — Saenger Theatre
1/22 — Atlanta, Ga. — Tabernacle
1/24 — Royal Oak, Mich. — Royal Oak Music Theatre
1/25 — Chicago, Ill. — Riviera Theatre
1/27 — Sioux City, Iowa — Anthem at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
1/28 — North Kansas City, Mo. — Voodoo Lounge at Harrah’s Casino
1/31 — Niagara Falls, N.Y. — Rapids Theatre
2/1 — Toronto, Ontario — Phoenix Concert Theatre
2/3 — Montreal, Quebec — Metropolis
2/4 — Philadelphia, Pa. — Electric Factory
2/7 — Boston, Mass. — House of Blues
2/9 — New York, N.Y. — PlayStation Theater
2/10 — Silver Spring, Md. — Fillmore
2/12 — Raleigh, N.C. — The Ritz
2/14 — Houston, Texas — House of Blues
2/16 — Las Vegas, Nev. — Brooklyn Bowl
2/18 — Tempe, Ariz. — Marquee
2/19 — Los Angeles, Calif. — Wiltern
2/20 — San Francisco, Calif. — Regency Ballroom
2/22 — Seattle, Wash. — Moore Theatre

https://loudwire.com/alter-bridge-north-american-headline-tour-2017/?trackback=tsmclip

I will be there during The Wiltern show in LA.

Yeah, I'm just disappointed they aren't coming close to me at all (I'm near Pittsburgh). There are some really random locations there too...Tempe, Mobile, Royal Oak, Sioux City, etc...

[Anguyen92]

^^ Closest show to you is probably Philadelphia.  Drive too long for you?

[mikeyd23]

^^ Closest show to you is probably Philadelphia.  Drive too long for you?

Pittsburgh to Philadelphia is about a 6 hour drive. If I was still a single dude, I'd probably do it (in the past I've driven over 6 hours to see AB) but with a wife and kid now, I probably won't make that far of a trip. Depending on where Silver Spring actually is in MD (I have NO clue, haha) that actually might be closer.

Usually if a tour skips Pittsburgh, it usually hits Cleveland or Columbus which are both within 3 hours from me, that's usually doable because it does require an overnight.

[Accelerando]

Woo! 2/19 in LA! Right on time for my 30th birthday!

US dates are up. No Florida 

There was no Florida dates for the ABIII tour, and living in Orlando at the time, I was really hoping for some days in Central Fl. Last Florida show I saw them in was in St. Petersburg in August 2008.

[kaos2900]

Hmmm, Sioux City is tempting. I just saw them a month ago so I'm curious to see how different the setlist would be. I'm guessing they'd throw in a lot more new songs.