Alter Bridge - The Last Hero
Following our review of "Blackbird", here comes another one from this wonderful band.
On October 7, 2016, the album "The Last Hero", "Alter Bridge" fifth album was released.
So let's start with a quote (we like to do this now and then) from Mark Tremonti about the album...
"It is similar to Fortress and Blackbird but with a darker sound"
After reading a bit about the previous two albums, here is some information about the aforementioned album:
1. This is the fourth consecutive album of the band in which the producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette participates, who has produced all the band's albums since "Blackbird" as well as all "Tremonti" albums.
2. The album was released by "Napalm Records" outside North America and by "Caroline" in the United States and Canada, through the band's own "Alter Bridge Recordings" imprint. It marked another stage in the band's changing record-label relationships.
3. In this album, the band uses 7-string guitars for the first time.
4. The album includes 13 songs, of which 4 singles were released in order: "Show Me a Leader", "My Champion", "Poison In Your Veins" and "Cradle to the Grave".
5. The album was written in 2015 when the two main writers Myles Kennedy and Tremonti were on tour with their projects. Myles with "Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators" as part of the promotion of the album "World On Fire" and Mark with "Tremonti" on a tour to promote his album "Cauterize".
6. The album addresses political and social issues, although Myles said they did not intend to upset anyone with direct statements. Its title reflects the idea of a social hero emerging from the people and offering an alternative to existing leadership.
7. Myles wrote most of the riffs for the theme song. This song, despite its complexity, was written in the studio during the recording process, as opposed to 90% of the album's material that was prepared in advance.
8. Myles wrote the lyrics of "Show Me a Leader" out of frustration with the state of the world and the lack of reliable, effective leadership. Myles brought the intro, Mark brought the chorus, and they built the rest of the song together. Mark developed the verse riff while they were working on the song.
9. The lyrics of the song "My Champion" were written by Myles about his childhood, and about the frustration of a small and underdeveloped boy who he claims had to try very hard to keep up with his friends. Tremonti played the riff to Myles for the first time on an acoustic guitar. Myles said the riff was so good that it didn't change the vibe of the song even though it was played acoustically.
10. The song "Poison In Your Veins" was written by Myles about the desire to break free and rise above the poisonous and paralyzing fear that stops many people from moving forward and achieving things in life. The song comes to encourage people to live courageously, take risks, and believe in themselves. The chorus to this song is one of Tremonti's favorites in terms of melody. Tremonti stated that he likes when the chorus blows up in your face, because a chorus should be something energetic that you always want to come back to, and the chorus in this song was exactly that in his opinion. But what made this song complete and loved by the other members of the band and the producer Baskette according to Tremonti, was the moment when he came up with the riff for the verse. According to him, everyone immediately fell in love with the combination of the riffs of the verses and the chorus.
11. The band's logo in this album changes to a cleaner and simpler look, without additional lines for the letters, especially when the first and last letter change their design without the addition of the circular lines.
12. This is the first album where Myles wrote and prepared his solos in advance, unlike the previous albums where he improvised while rehearsing and recording the album.
13. This is one of the band's heaviest albums that doesn't let the listener rest, not even for a single moment. As in war, the battle continues until the last hero. Some say the album is too long and even exhausting, but we like it that way.
14. There is no song in this album under 4 minutes when the entire album is 66 minutes long.
15. The album cover was designed by Mark's brother, Dan Tremonti, who is also the in-house designer for the band and the band "Tremonti". Dan Tremonti designed the album cover inspired by Marvel superheroes with a Sparta combination.
Listen to the album on: Spotify, Apple Music.
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