Label –Napalm Records
Release Date – 24/09/2021
Mark Tremonti, guitarist from Alter Bridge and Creed, is an extremely busy (and talented) guy. His everyman qualities make him very likeable for a bonefide rock superstar. His solo project Tremonti is a noticeably heavier incarnation of his day-job in those aforementioned giants of US rock. Previous albums All I Was, and especially Cauterize were excellent examples of present-day popular metallic hard rock, and perhaps went somewhat under the radar given the main ongoing concerns of Mark Tremonti.
His association with Creed may make metal gatekeepers sneer, but there is enough crunch on the guitars and muscle in the production to make these songs bite. There is no logical way to refute that that Mark Tremonti is one of the most consistent songwriters of the last 30 years, and the creative well seems far from dry. Whilst he doesn’t possess the pipes of Miles Kennedy, he has a very serviceable voice and works well within the heavier context of these songs; his vocals soar on the choruses of tracks such as A World Away, Now and Forever and the ballady Not Afraid to Lose. Clocking in at 58 minutes the album is slightly on the long side and Marching in Time (appropriately named perhaps) could have benefited from shaving 2 songs and 10 minutes off the album. The world would be a much better place if these songs were the stock and trade of mainstream rock radio, instead of the insipid drivel currently passed off as contemporary metal.
7/10
FFO – Alter Bridge, FFDF
Ven
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