Review Summary: A stellar album bogged down by abysmal production and poor song writing.
AB III is Alter Bridges third album and often times it is placed as one of their worst. The reason for this has been said to be due to a lack of experimentation or the lack of a standout epic, like Blackbird or Cry of Achilles, but I generally point to a different reason: the production. The production on this album is good at best and abysmal at worst. The man behind the work, who goes by the nickname Elvis, clearly still had a lot to learn when he sat down and worked on this album. Whether it was pressure from the band or his own direction the unfortunate result is that this sounds terrible. At times the album screeches as if you are listening to it on a pair of tin cans. Myles voice dominates the tracks with Mark coming in a close second. Meanwhile the excellent drum and bass work are left to flounder due to the disgusting compression which overtakes and strangles most of the tracks here. Ghost of Days Gone By being a rare example where you can clearly hear a bass line. While most people point to Mark and Myles as the core of the group a lot is lost from the compression which muddles Flip and Marshall's performance. With them being just as core to this band it really hurts the album that the production squanders their talent.
Songwriting is also incredibly poor when you look at the actual talent behind the band. No doubt these are incredibly talented musicians but if you look at a track like Still Remains you can see it all squandered. Still Remains is often derided as a throw away track but it features a monster riff with an overall solid frame. That is all it is though, a frame for something that could have been so much better. A grainy picture of what could have been an incredible song. All the pieces existed but they were not put together in a way that challenged the listener properly.
I once read an interview where Mark Tremonti said he is very meticulous with his sound. He experiments to get the perfect tones using everything at his disposal. All this work that is put into this supposedly unique sound means nothing when you have such rubbish production and subpar song writing.
