Alter Bridge - Blackbird

Alter Bridge's Universal Republic debut is the follow up to their debut album, the Gold-certified album One Day Remains, which debuted at #5 on the Billboard Top 200 Albums Chart its week of release. The album featured three consecutive hits on rock radio: ("Open Your Eyes," "Find The Real," and "Broken Wings"). Comprised of Mark Tremonti, Scott Phillips, Brian Marshall and Myles Kennedy, three of the four members of Alter Bridge made up the 30+ million selling band Creed. Album Description

One Of The Best Rock Albums Ever!!!

If your a rock fan, you owe it to yourself to buy this album. No disrespect, but I was glad when they got rid of the lead singer from Creed, and this album fully shows why. The guitarist can finally play like he wants to, and this album benefits from it. The vocalist put the vocalist from Creed to shame. My favorite songs are Blackbird, Brand New Start, and Coming home. Please, buy this album. You won't regret it. November 8, 2008

A work of Art!

Alter Bridge's soph effort Blackbird, is an exceptional work of heavy metal art! I cheer the return of this excellent hard rock/heavy metal band. I did not think they could to better than their first work, which was great, but they exceeded my expectations. If I had to describe this album in one word: "AWESOME!" November 4, 2008

Great Album

Alter Bridge has noticeably grown as a band. If you liked their first album, you will enjoy this one much more. October 14, 2008

Good album, though surprisingly hard

The album is good. I liked half of the songs, and Amazon's MP3 option was nice to build my own album out of them.

The lead vocal's voice is incredibly strong. When they find the right song, it's magic. However, some of the songs don't sound very tight. They need just a little something to make the vocals and the rest of the band connect. The guitar work is simply amazing, and if you like guitar playing, look no further. They definitely went with more of a hard rock sound, and it's something that I kinda miss.

It sounds like they are trying to find themselves their own sound, and they'll be amazing once they do. October 12, 2008

Wow, this sure isn't Creed!

I was perfectly content to ignore Alter Bridge. I really disliked Creed, so I figured there was no reason to bother with a band that features a bunch of former Creed guys. Then I read that an Amazon Friend whose opinion I trust absolutely loved the album. I wasn't convinced by the samples I heard, but the seed was definitely planted in my head, so when I ran across a copy of Blackbird in the cutout bin at a local record show, I decided to part with a couple dollars and see what the fuss was all about.

Apparently my issues with Creed had a lot to do with their frontman, because Alter Bridge's sound grabbed right from the first song. It's melodic and radio-friendly, but there's definitely some muscle in these songs. In fact, songs like White Knuckles and Buried Alive are about as heavy as anything Black Stone Cherry (check them out, you'll thank me later) have to offer. By and large the songs on Blackbird are really tight, completely rocking, and have great hooks and melodies. The vocals are a lot more compelling than Creed's. I did hear that dreary, post-alternative, Creed sound on the slow song Watch Over You, but thankfully that proved to be the exception rather than the rule.

The bottom line is that Blackbird rocks. I still don't like Creed, but hearing this Alter Bridge album has made me reassess my belief that modern mainstream rock has nothing to offer.
October 4, 2008

More reviews at Amazon.com ...