Alter Bridge - Pawns & Kings

Alter Bridge are back with the brand-new album "Pawns & Kings," following "The Last Hero" and "Walk The Sky." I'm happy about this new album especially because I find them a big step forward compared to those two albums (especially "Walk the sky", for me the weakest link of their discography, by far) and even if it's not a masterpiece it's the Alter Bridge sound (well, also Mark Tremonti solo) that we used to love in the golden era of the band, rather than too modern or overproduced. Also, it's very nice to notice that after all these years the band have the same members from the start: Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips (former Creed members, for those who still don't know) with the addition of Myles Kennedy. Very rare, after almost 20 years.

The album features 10 songs for 54 minutes and we've already heard the singles "This is War" (the opener, very good), "Silver Tongue", "Sin After sin" and especially the title track "Pawns & Kings," to me one of the best songs of their catalogue and by far the best of this album, with a strong imprinting by Myles Kennedy (what a performance, click on the lyric video at the bottom of the page). A thing that I like of the album is the variety: the singles are quite heavy, but we have slightly "happy" songs like "Season of promise" or "Holiday", mid-tempos, featuring Mark Tremonti on vocals, "Stay" and the long "Fable Of The Silent Son". 

This time the band included only ten songs and I'm happy about it as I find their albums often too long and with too many tracks. A very good return, not at the same level as the first 4 albums, but immediately after those. A big step forward and a very good album and the usual great performance/production. Long live Alter bridge.

Rating 70/100

Top tracks: This Is War, Season Of Promise, Pawns & Kings.

Pawns & Kings tracklisting:
1) This Is War
2) Dead Among The Living
3) Silver Tongue
4) Sin After Sin
5) Stay
6) Holiday
7) Fable Of The Silent Son
8) Season Of Promise
9) Last Man Standing
10) Pawns & Kings