New Alter Bridge music is always a cause for celebration here at Rock Sins. Having supported the band throughout their time together, it’s always a highlight in the musical calendar to see another new album from Myles Kennedy, Mark Tremonti, Scott Phillips and Brian Marshall. Generally a new Alter Bridge album surfaces every three to four years, so this is right in keeping with that with previous album Pawns and Kings releasing towards the end of 2022.
Eight studio albums in, they’ve run out of album names and just named the new one Alter Bridge. That is said in jest, but self titled, is, at it’s heart, a traditional Alter Bridge album. The bands’ sound is incredibly well established at this point, and they aren’t likely to deviate too far from that. With that said, broadly within the confines of what you might expect one of their albums to sound like, there’s a good range of things going on here.
The singles released prior to Christmas – first single Silent Divide, What Lies Within and Playing Aces, do not offer a preview into the full picture of what this new album is capable of. They all sit within the mid point of the Alter Bridge range (think previous singles like Isolation or Wouldn’t You Rather and you’re not too far of). Perfectly enjoyable in their own right, but not the strongest tracks the band have ever put out.
As soon as you venture away from the singles, that’s where things crank up several levels. Rue The Day is wonderfully layered (with a main riff that almost sounds like Slipknot’s The Devil In I in places). Power Down suggests that Mark Tremonti’s been back in his 80’s thrash metal collection during the writing process of this album, as the riff work on this track comes out of the blocks at 100mph. It’s some of the finest guitar on the album, where the levels are consistently high throughout, but this is a particular highlight.
Moving through the album, Disregarded is darker lyrically, with a brooding bridge and extended Tremonti solo to match. It also finds Myles with some of his most soulful vocals on the album, making the track stand out nicely – it’s heavy in a different way (This reviewer was using “-‘s” years before AI was, and that’s not changing any time soon). As is now tradition, Mark Tremonti takes lead vocals for a song on the album. In contrast to Disregarded, Tested and Able is full of uplifting vibes. Upbeat throughout, everything about the song oozes positively and could easily become a live favourite.
Anyone with a passing knowledge of Alter Bridge knows just how good they are at the acoustic heavy heart tugging numbers. Watch Over You, Wonderful Life. You can now add Hang By A Thread to that list (and if there aren’t a couple of snippets of the main riff of Watch Over You in there being reworked, then it is very, very close to it). Another thing they are equally adept at is epic album closers. Fortress, Words Darker Than Their Wings and The End Is Here all being shining examples of this. Slave To Master, Self Titled’s closing track, is Alter Bridge’s most ambitious attempt at a song of this kind yet.
Clocking in at over nine minutes, this is a song that feels like it has chapters. The slow burning intro, the first full chapter lasting roughly three minutes, the haunting instrumental bridge leading into the second chapter. It briefly kicks back to full power before retreating to a more ambient approach and then doing a 180 once again to Myles full power vocals and a frankly ridiculous Tremonti solo. One can almost imagine him, stood in front of a desert sunset, solo’ing like his life depends on it. It conjures very powerful mental images. Despite the nine minute length, it absolutely does not outstay its welcome, and Slave To Master is a fitting conclusion to what overall is a highly enjoyable album.
Where does “Alter Bridge” sit in terms of the band’s storied catalogue of albums? To use a wrestling parlance (something the band will be quite familiar with, given their connections to that world), it sits in the upper mid card. It’s not quite the main eventers of Blackbird or Fortress, but it is very good, and it should please both longtime fans and brand new ones alike.
Alter Bridge’s self titled album is out on the 9th of January on Napalm Records. Catch the band on tour across Europe from Mid January 2026, including the UK leg in early March 2026. Full details of shows and ticket info is available on their website.
