Album review: Tremonti – The End Will Show Us How

Like most of us, Alter Bridge guitarist and songwriter Mark Tremonti probably did take a few days off at Christmas – but he was doubtless sneaking off to his bedroom with new song ideas every few hours. Mark is one of those guys who simply can’t stop the creative process, and what he can’t get out of his system in Alter Bridge he sure exorcises with style in his own, eponymous band.

This album is at its heaviest – and best – on tracks like One More Time, which opens in a machine gun ricochet of guitar before resolving into the typically emotive, dark-hooked trademarks Mark specialises in. These songs might have been considered too heavy for Alter Bridge, and they’re a ton stormier than anything you’d associate with Creed, the post-grunge stars with whom Mark first made his name.

Just Too Much is a coming together of everything good about Tremonti past and present. Riffs that are instinctively grunge based but have been polished into metal by musicians who know their art so well they can probably annotate Nirvana albums in their sleep. That said, The End Will Show Us How is at its most interesting when it challenges convention with more introspective tremors. The title-track and opener The Mother, The Earth And I are fine examples. While the lyrics remain hopeful, there’s a darkness, a kind of grim-faced determination to get through challenging times, that both underpin this music and give the attentive much to relate to.

This sixth studio album from Tremonti is as unrelentingly solid, as musically capable and lyrically meaningful as any of the others. It is, however, more of what has gone before. No bad thing for the legions that have enjoyed that, but with so much behind him already it would be interesting to hear this fine musician and writer extend himself into other areas. For January, though, this will do just fine.

Verdict: 3/5

For fans of: Disturbed, Metallica, Five Finger Death Punch

The End Will Show Us How is released on January 10 via Napalm

Read this: Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti: The 10 songs that changed my life