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Alter Bridge – Walk the Sky

Peter Jones Leave a comment

I have always love Mark Tremonti’s guitar playing. Yes, always.

So, in essence, that means I just admitted to liking at least some aspect of Creed’s music. Ok, ok, I admit it. I really loved Creed when Torn dropped. At that time in my life, there was just something about it that resonated with me. Follow up, Human Clay kept me engaged, with it’s beefier production and heavier sound. There were some really great moments on that album. I mean, come on, the bridge in “What If” builds to a pummeling breakdown that still sounds awesome to this day.

But, by the time Weathered dropped, the cracks were really starting to show. Most of this centered around lead singer Scott Stapp’s over-the-top vocal delivery and what really started to look like a messiah complex.

But none of that takes away from the heavy, bombastic guitar work from Mark Tremonti. Musically, those Creed songs hold up just fine, thanks to Mark’s crunching and tasty riffs. So I was more than ready for Alter Bridge to drop their self-titled debut in 2004. We had the same musical backbone of Creed (literally, guitar, bass and drummer from Creed) with a much more accomplished, versatile, and able singer in Myles Kennedy.

I loved their debut, Blackbird was a moving follow up. AB III took a bit to grow on me, but subsequent albums Fortress and The Last Hero were on near constant rotation shortly after their releases. Likewise, I’ve definitely enjoyed and continued to listen to Tremonti’s solo work on 4 solid albums of guitar centered hard rock.

No one wants prime rib every day. Some days, you want a $1.00 McDouble. I mean, come on, you just do.

I’m not saying Alter Bridge is no better than a McDouble. But this is meet and potatoes hard rock. There isn’t much unexpected going on here. And that is just fine. Some days I just want solid, guitar heavy hard rock that you can sing along to. It fills a need and I’ve appreciated Alter Bridge more than capably filling that need for the past 15 years.

So, with their latest release Walk the Sky, I guess I have to say “Sorry, it’s not you, it’s me.”

I can’t get into it. I preordered it, as I am wont to do. It’s exciting, every week or two you’ll get a new track released to whet your appetite for the full album release. Except none of those singles drew me in. I couldn’t make myself even listen to one of them all the way through before the album dropped. And then the album dropped, mid October. Oddly enough, it isn’t even like it had real stiff competition. The latest from Insomnium had released 2 weeks before, but that hadn’t grabbed me the way their previous release had. Lacuna Coil had shocked me the week before with Black Anima which I continue to think is a really great album.

So it was all the more odd to me that Walk the Sky just couldn’t seem to grab me. But it didn’t, and it still hasn’t. Listening to it now, trying to write something about this album, and I find myself skipping songs like crazy. Not because they are bad. Alter Bridge is even stretching and doing some different things on this album. I appreciate that. And all the same keys are there. Myles has an awesome, powerful voice. Mark’s guitar is as good as ever. The man is one of the best rock guitarists out there.

But I just don’t want to listen for more than a few minutes. Like I said, sorry Alter Bridge, it’s not you, it’s me. So I guess it’s back to the cold embrace of Schammasch, Monolithe, and The Drowning for this middle aged metal head.

Tool – Fear Inoculum

Peter Jones Leave a comment

So far, all I’ve pretty much done is write about albums I like. And, well, that is fine to me. This isn’t a blog for reviews. I’ll leave that to others. Again, these are my reactions to music. And sometimes, that reaction is apathy.

So, with a heavy heart, I state that, in my opinion, Fear Inoculum by Tool is just fine.

And I’m neither surprised nor really disappointed. I mean, I thought that their previous album, released 13 FREAKING YEARS AGO, 10,000 Days was just fine as well. There were a few good tracks, and some filler crap, and a handful of songs that just bored me before they ever wrapped up.

Look, I won’t claim to be the most die-hard Tool fan ever. I like their previous music, and even would say that I think Lateralus is a brilliant album. But I don’t love it either. There are excellent tracks on it, but overall, it leaves me feeling a bit cold. Still, they are Tool, and I can’t deny the impact they have had on modern rock/metal.

Of course, that meant that their first album in over a decade was sure to create a bit of a stir.

Then the title track, “Fear Inoculum” dropped. I preordered the album, because this was Tool after all. And I listened to that song. Then I listened again. Then one more time. Then I decided to spend my time listening to songs that were actually interesting. But I was still open to giving the rest of the album a fair shot. And so it was released.

And, much to my surprise, what I found was an album where the proper songs (forget the stupid “interludes”) followed a formula. Yes, formulaic songs from Tool. Long songs (around 10 minutes), with a mellow, slow, quiet intro. This slowly builds, adding more instruments, eventually the song reaches some type of crescendo. Maybe it backs off and builds again, or maybe the crescendo comes at the very end. Either way, about halfway through the album and I was bored.

Yes, bored. Big time.

Here’s the thing. I dig progressive music, so nothing Tool is doing on the album wowed me in that regard. I have more than enough patience for long songs, if they do something interesting (Mirror Reaper anyone?), so it wasn’t that the songs were longer than your average tune. They just felt boring. Yes, we have crescendos and denouements, but I just kept waiting for the songs to reach a bit higher of a crescendo, so was left wanting more. And even formulaic music can be well appreciated. Take Cult of Luna. They have a certain formula, and it works. But they still mix it up enough that the songs feel different and fresh. Instead, the formula on Fear Inoculum makes each song sound almost generic.

They playing is fine. These guys are excellent musicians. But the album just never hits with the impact I was hoping for. It isn’t bad. None of the songs (again, ignoring the stupid interludes) are atrocious. They just all start to blend together as far as I am concerned, and nothing has made me want to come back to Fear Inoculum in the months since it has been released. They feel cold and clinical, surprising since older Tool had so damn much emotion, even if that emotion was often anger.

Others will disagree, and adamantly so. Tool has a somewhat rabid and, at times, myopic fan base who think that everything Tool does is the best and most original (despite the fact that many bands do and have done the same sort of thing and in many cases do it better). And that is fine. I won’t take issue with anyone who loves Fear Inoculum as, again, it isn’t a bad album by any stretch of the imagination.

It’s just sort of fine and a bit boring and forgettable. And if that isn’t damning with faint praise, I don’t know what is.