“Fortress” was the fourth, highly anticipated studio album released by Alter Bride. It was the product of 3 years of work while touring, the band’s hiatus while frontman Myles Kennedy toured with Slash and guitarist Mark Tremonti was writing his own album “All I Was”. Producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette coordinated the album and has worked with Alter Bridge on their previous albums Blackbird and AB III.
Prior to its release, “Addicted to Pain” was the lead single for the album and received a great reception which was the sign for what was ahead. “Fortress” in its first week sold 30,000 copies and opened at the top new album releases in the US, Canada and Sweden based on iTunes sales.
Fortress is a great example of Alter Bridge broadcasting their talents, both as a band and from each of the members. Each of them brought their own influence into the composition and you can tell these worked perfectly
“Cry of Achilles” – the album’s first track – brings an intricate, fair paced finger picking introduction similar to that of “Anastasia” from Slash’s record “Apocalyptic Love” (2012) that Myles Kennedy provided vocals for. This snippet of similarity opens doors for those listening to the album to get into Slash’s new material as well.
“Fortress” also featured the track “Water Rising” which has Mark Tremonti on lead vocals, a first for Alter Bridge on a recording stance. A move like this was beneficial for the band as they were then described as “experimental”. Tremonti’s album itself received great reception. Both “Fortress” and “All I was” complimented each other when it came to their separate releases.
Personal opinion on “Fortress”? I love it. The year they were in hiatus dragged by for me and although Tremonti and Kennedy were releasing material through different project is just wasn’t cutting it for me. When they pre-released the full album online I spent days listening to it and couldn’t wait for it to be available to purchase. The slower songs like “Lover” and “Calm the Fire” took a while to grow on me, but they perfectly showcase Myles Kennedy’s powerful voice and the unison of the band.
I would highly recommend “Fortress” without a second thought and I still listen to it just as much now as I did when it was first out.
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