Alter Bridge III

My advance copy of AB III arrived today and on the opening cut this band sounds like they want to take the crown from the current groove metal kings Shinedown. The album opens with a heavy stomper called "Slip Into The Void" that has a killer instrumental break that reminds me of Black Sabbath in its fierceness. That heavy grinding power metal feeling continues on the next song "Isolation" which sounds even better when you crank the volume dial to the right. The bands radio friendly side rears its head on "Ghosts Of Days Gone By" which should garner some attention at modern rock radio around the world for sure. The song is good but not great which should do them very well considering how crappy the masses taste in music is right now.

The bands Creed sound is ever present on "All Hope Is Gone" which is one of the missteps on this album. It just sounds like a typical CCM song and without Scott's deep vocal to make the song affecting it just falls flat from the first verse. A more punchy mid-paced follow-up returns the sound back to what we expect Alter Bridge to sound like. The band stays pretty much in the middle ground between radio friendly modern rock and power ballad territory for the rest of the songs with varying degrees of success. The trouble here is that with the sameness of their production and guitar tones and such the album kinda loses my attention and begins to all become one song.

So this album could be better listened to as individual songs rather than one complete listen. The albums closing number "Words Darker Than Their Wings" is a good song that is worth checking out but from track five to track fourteen I'd be hard pressed to point out a standout song. Good listen but will better heard in small doses over the course of a mixed playlist on the I-Pood or a CD you burnt for the car. As I mentioned in the opening sentence they sounded like they wanted that crown but they didn't come close to matching Shinedown at all.