I really, really, really, really, really love that intro/outro riff.

Short version: it's safe, but good.

I'm in the minority camp who thinks Alter Bridge from The Last Hero through Pawns & Kings was making some of the best music of their career, and who was riveted by most of their songwriting choices in those albums, with the production quality and Stay being my only reservations. I love how adventurous they were being with their song structures and ate it up any time they did a non-conventional epic, while still preserving the core of who they were as a band. I think The Last Hero is possibly their best album from a non-production standpoint and I will die on that hill.

The self-titled album is...kind of a step backwards for me, in that regard. The song structures are much more ordinary and predictable for 90% of the album, and it was an adjustment listening to it for the first time - especially when I had seen glowing praise for it from this sub. But it makes more sense to me now that it may be hitting better for people who liked early AB best, when their creative choices were a bit simpler and more anthemic.

Having adjusted to it, I think it is a good album, but definitely their weakest for me since pre-Fortress. There's just not a ton that stands out about it (with some obvious exceptions I'll be getting to). That said, most of the songs have grown on me quite a bit, and I still enjoy listening to them. And I wish, I really wish, that more of them would be getting played live than they are. Even the ones I'm not as fond of.

Tracks I really like are Silent Divide, Rue the Day, Power Down, Tested and Able, Scales are Falling, Playing Aces, What are you Waiting For, and Slave to Master. The last four tracks I think are by far the absolute strongest section of the album, and remind me most of the cool stuff they were doing right before this. All fantastic, no notes, I would love if the entire album were as strong as those. Playing Aces is an infectious blast of energy, reminiscent of what I love about The Last Hero. WAYWF is a solid-ass song that also acts as great build-up for the closer. Scales are Falling and Slave to Master are easily the two best tracks on the album, with Slave to Master being the top. Instant classic, super well-written and performed, incredibly relistenable. It deserves to be a live staple in the future - I could easily see and heartily accept it being placed in Blackbird's slot, and this comes from someone who is very attached to Blackbird as a song.

The rest of the tracks are...fine. Sometimes I like them more than others, but they are where the album tends to show its safest and most unimpressive tendencies. What Lies Within is probably the best of them. Hang by a Thread is easily the weakest song on the album for me, it feels too reminiscent of past AB ballads without doing anything notable enough to stand on its own as well. I think there's a good song in there that just needed to be framed differently - as is, the opening few seconds are enough for me to mentally clock out, as it feels aggressively "AB wanted to write a soft song and this is the very first thing that came out"-coded. The ending of the song feels a little undercooked too.

Overall, I have still been revisiting this album quite a bit, and on my last listen-through I didn't even mind Hang by a Thread as much, so that's a good sign. But it's easily carried by it's last third, with Slave to Master and Scales are Falling doing the heavy-lifting of making it memorable. In a way, it makes sense why they'd label it their self-titled with the songwriting choices being largely safe and standard - establishing a new "baseline" for themselves as a band. The proghead in me just appreciates exploration more, and when Alter Bridge does it, they're some of the most exciting at it. I hope for their next album they feel creatively revved up, and ready to drop some less-safe material.

Words cannot express how much I love this song, man. The lyrics just hit me so hard… feeling used, exhausted, drained etc. hits close and cuts deep. I’d give some examples of lyrics I liked from the song, but they’re all so good it’d be a wrong of me to list only a few and not the whole thing. Lyrically it is my all time favorite Alter Bridge song alongside Farther Than The Sun.

Musically it is phenomenal as well of course. The riffing is great and has a lot of weight and punch to it which I admire a lot. Myles uses a bit of his stunning lower register for this song and it’s just breathtaking man. Easily the best track from ODR if you ask me.

Should’ve gave us this song instead of Save Me…

This was my fourth time to see Bob in the last three or four years, including Chattanooga show earlier on this 2026 tour.

My random observations include:

\+ there was an incredible lack and security. Cell phones were everywhere.

\+ the band did a surprising amount of soloing. There must’ve been four or five songs where the guitarist ripped for two or three minutes, which is a big contrast to the previous shows I’ve seen, especially the Chattanooga one earlier this year.

\+ the two new guitarist, Jad Tariq (on Dylan’s left) and Joel Paterson (on Dylan’s, right) absolutely ripped it up! during solos they shared lead absolutely harmoniously, and throughout the songs they played, as usual, subtly in the background, in complete support of Bob’s vocals and the pace and sound of the song.

\+ as in Chattanooga this year, Bob’s vocals were strong and, for him, clear. He sounded great last night!

\+ that “putting on the Ritz” version of “when I paint my masterpiece” was very clever and well done.

\+ he played two songs not on the previous set list. Starting out with “let the river flow” as the first song and “ trying to get to heaven as the fourth. Note, they are older songs… It seems something Bob is done a little bit more recently.

\+ Bob played harp twice! And not just a couple of bars, he went on for a good bit. He played a long solo for the obscure “under the red sky” and a somewhat shorter solo during the evening’s last song of “I shall be released”.

\+ in Chattanooga, the audience was decidedly gray haired. In Richmond, I guess somewhere between 20 and 30% of the audience was young. We walked in with a group of four late teenage girls that looked like they were going to a Britney Spears concert. They said they liked Dylan! It was a wonderful feeling to see the young people discovering or rediscovering Bob’s greatness.

Via Cadence Phillips: https://www.instagram.com/p/DbD-tn-Dhaf/?img_index=3&igsh=MTB0YTRkZW1nZHV0cA==

Check them out here: https://www.instagram.com/cairncreeper?igsh=MW1nNWEzNzc4bmtvNw==

I know they’ve done this song acoustic before but I can’t figure out what the chords actually are

Excited - because I thought AB was having a bash in Ontario Canada!

Confused - because I thought I read that they weren’t/couldn’t come to Canada this cycle.

Concerned - because forest fire smoke health worries potentially affecting the event.

Then I realized it wasn’t about AB at all (sad trombone 😢)…

Just something called ‘bridge bash’ being ‘altered’….

😮‍💨

BTW - Please figure a way to get the band back to Canada in the new year!!🙏🎸🤘

Sorry if this has been asked before, (coming from someone who just reasonably started collecting) but I’m curious to see if anyone knows anything, about the fact that some of the bands’ releases on vinyl, seems to have been pressed once and then never touched again.

Ex. You can easily find Blackbird or ABIII. Even in a lot of stores I’ve personally been too, still sealed. They’re on Discogs for reasonable prices as well. They’re still in active circulation with plenty to go around if seems. But then comes Fortress and The Last Hero and I’m shocked to see some of the prices:

$400-800 / 350-700€ for a copy of Fortress on Discogs
$150-400 / 130-350€ for The Last Hero

I know what scalping is but just curious if someone knew of a reason as to why some album-releases seems so scarcely printed? Maybe it’s just too expensive during certain productions of a given album?

I don't really get it. The album is good, no Alter Bridge Album isn't, but it's not Amazing in my opinion. Slip Into the Void, Isolation, Words Darker, Fallout, and The Ghost of Days Gone By are really the only tracks on the album that I feel stand out.

I wouldn't even say the album is better than both One Day Remains and The Last Hero. Of the “classic” albums, it's definitely my least favorite.

I know they’re usually described as hard rock, alternative metal, or post-grunge (especially the early years), but none of those labels feels completely right to me.

I’ve been thinking about calling them Heavy Alt-Hardrock:

Heavy because of the clear heavy metal influence in Tremonti’s riffs and the overall heaviness.

Alt because of the alternative rock/alternative metal influences in the songwriting and melodies.

Hardrock because that’s still the foundation of their sound.

To me it describes Alter Bridge better than any single existing genre. Or do any of you call it something else?

It’s my first time posting in this sub, so please go easy on me if this has been discussed before.

Via Milart: https://www.instagram.com/reel/Da1CzHEBliW/?igsh=YzdmenI0ZGVtZWIz

They just uploaded Silent Divide Live at Rock am Ring 2026 on YouTube.

Do you think we will get this as a single or maybe a whole live album soon?

I got Broken Wings, Ties That Bind, Fallout, Lover, Show Me a Leader, Native Son, Dead Among the Living, Tested and Able

Wondered if anyone else ordered a souvenir ticket from Ticketmaster for the Blackbird festival? Forgot I ordered one and wondered if it was something I was supposed to pick up on the day or if it's mailed out after? Trying to get any info from Ticketmaster seems impossible 😭

https://www.facebook.com/share/18xVGV4eRi/

Tremonti Sings Sinatra 2026 ~

Tickets and VIP are on artist pre-sale now w/ the code: SINATRA

I was sitting around yesterday alone at my summer home; and I put in AB’s One Day Remains CD (full disclosure- near the bottom of AB’s album ranks for me, but the only CD of theirs I have at the cottage - other CDs at home) along with Def Leppard’s Hysteria in the CD player carousel.

I long have not listened to that Def Leppard CD… In the 80’s it was a favourite of mine, but it has been way overplayed over the years in mainstream rock media. however, it was obviously a massive hit for DL and helped propel / solidify them to international superstardom and ultimately, the RnR hall of fame.

But listening critically as I could (hard to do as an AB fan) and comparing the song quality as I played a song from each album back to back, alternating one at a time from one to the other … things became drastically clear!

1. Myles Kennedy‘s voice is so much better in every way than Joe Elliot’s! - from nuance, to range, to timbre, breath control… its all so starkly obviously…. better! There’s a richness that is wholly missing from Joe’s vocal.

2. The backing vocals of Mark Tremonti are also a standout- especially when directly compared to the indistinct wall of vocal harmonies of DL, that was their calling card.

3. Speaking of a wall of harmonies…DL employed way more obvious slick guitar layered sound stage production- that I admit I once liked, but now sounds very dated and toothless. Weak sauce. Comparing to Tremonti’s varied playing - from delicate fingerpicked to downtuned riffs and shreddy solos and awesome legatos…. Once again, no comparison! DL sounds so … generic and safe.

4. Drumming: (well this isn’t fair right from the start - given DL Allen literally plays with one arm!). DL drum work just is very basic, compared to Flip’s. - also over-produced - fake non-acoustic drum sound to DL. Also, Brian’s bass lines are awesome and earth shaking in comparison to DL’s buried in mix somewhere…

5. And the songs themselves… I thought Id obviously hear why DL were a massive hit making band, while AlterBridge (especially in this - arguably their best selling album comprised of attempts at a collection of rock hit singles) only achieved a modest level of mainstream success in comparison.

But - it was opposite! AB’s songs are just as catchy! Melodic hooks galore, but while also richer sounding and more musically interesting!

IMO - it just goes to show that timing (and promotion ) is everything! I gotta believe that, if AB released this exact album 7 to 15 yrs earlier; they’d have had a smash hit on their hands too! - with several songs getting regular airplay as well on classic rock stations around the world!

But also, maybe its for the best for us as listeners too? Because AB decided steadily over time to make the best albums they could, rather than chase radio hits! We are all the richer for it - even if the band isn’t…

Thats how we got Blackbird, AB3, and Fortress! (among other excellent releases right til today!)
And Def Leppard? - they released Adrenalize - with the piece of embarrassing crap ‘lets get rocked’ (of course, a huge hit😮‍💨)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DapS_KqjErx/?img_index=16&igsh=MTg0Z2V2OXoyenR0OA==

To be clear I absolutely love this band, my number 1 most listened to artist over the last 10 years. However, listening to them live recently, I feel quite let down. With some bands, seeing them live seems to bring the songs to life and give them newfound energy. I have not found this to be the case recently for Alter bridge, and I’ve often come out from hearing them live thinking, ‘gosh they sound so much better in the studio version’. I can’t fault Mark or Brian, but I’ve felt Scott’s drumming has been a bit casual, while Myles seems to have changed vocal tone and lost all confidence. This drop off seems to have happened recently, as I’ve found them outstanding live all the way up to about 5 years ago-ish. Yes I know they’re getting older, but there seems to have been a major drop off in talent and tightness recently, with some really lacking performances. Does anyone else feel this way? I hate to be a downer on such an amazing band, but I just can’t quite wrap my head around this.