Given how they juggle their time between playing in Creed, Slash’s band and various other projects including a Sinatra tribute, the two six-stringers in Alter Bridge are likely up there with the busiest musicians working in rock ’n’ roll today.

But despite the excess of musical activity, the band they play in together still remains top priority for singer/guitarist Myles Kennedy and lead guitarist Mark Tremonti – the songwriting force whose creative exploits turned the group into one of the most widely respected arena headliners of the modern age.

After making the decision to record their self-titled eighth record at Edward Van Halen’s 5150 Studio in Los Angeles, the music was born in an environment heavily steeped in guitar history.

This record seems to live on the heavier side of the Alter Bridge sound.

Myles Kennedy: Yeah, [the track] Tested and Able came out almost like a heavy metal Morse code riff. It’s super rhythmic and detuned. Maybe that was partly influenced by knowing we’d be at 5150, which is like hallowed ground for guitar riffs, right? Mark and I knew we had to show up with the biggest riffs possible, which helped dictate what this record was going to be.

I was playing baseball in the backyard with my brother in the summer of 1983 when I heard Eruption by Van Halen and their cover of You Really Got Me by The Kinks. That afternoon I decided what my life would be. Eddie’s genius guitar playing was that awesome. Eruption sounded like it was from outer space. It’s a piece of music that genuinely changed my life.

So it was a conscious decision to focus more on heavier riffs than ballads?

Mark Tremonti: I remember calling Myles, asking how he felt about not doing any ballads and it all being high energy. We sort of agreed. Then we got to the studio and it was all pretty heavy. The last song we recorded, Hang By a Thread, ended up being the ballad. It’s not necessarily a super-ballad, but it’s the most ballad-esque song on there.

What was it like for you both working in such a legendary studio?

Myles: It’s not a super-facility. It’s a very functional utilitarian setup for people who want to go in and work without distractions. That’s what I loved about it. Some studios are nice because you can play Xbox for a few hours. 5150 is more like, “Here’s a great-sounding room with some great gear. Go in and work”. It was a really important part of forming this album.

Any time we hit a wall creatively, wondering where to go next, we couldn’t help but feel some of the ghosts of the past in there helping inspire us. Maybe it was more of a psychological thing, but I could almost hear a voice saying, “Play the D chord!” It’s like the walls were telling us what to play next, and it was always the D chord [laughs]. That was pretty awesome.

Songs like Scales Are Falling feel experimental in places, showing how you are still finding ways to tread new musical ground.

Mark: “It ended up being one of my favourite guitar moments on the album. I remember my brother saying how much he loved Myles’ leads in the bridge and I had to tell him, ‘That’s my solo!’ He was surprised because my approach is usually more aggressive. But I love that kind of melodic playing over a clean section, I just don’t get the opportunity to do it much. Scales Are Falling is in open G minor, which gives it a lot of that character and personality.”

Myles: The solo I played in the outro was my tip of the hat to David Gilmour. I played a few solos on this record. Any time I do, I’m happy. Lead guitar is the best. And, yeah, it’s an unorthodox song. The phrasing is strange; it leaves the listener wondering where the ‘one’ is. It’s always important to keep expanding and trying new approaches. As a band, you need to keep testing the possibilities.

You’re both PRS signature artists. Is that what you stick with in the studio?

Myles: It was mainly my PRS signature, which was their first version of a T-style guitar. I was honoured to be part of that process because Paul and the team knew how much I love those kinds of guitars. So we got on the horn and they asked if I’d be interested in helping them step into that realm.

What I learned is that it’s difficult designing a guitar from the ground up. Even if you have a broad overall view of what you want it to be, every little detail matters. I have a newfound respect for R&D, that’s for sure.

Mark: I had about seven guitars with me, but there’s a black and grey one with a Van Halen sticker that I used a lot.

We do this thing where we get PRS to send us a bunch of guitars, then we’ll track an individual song with each of those guitars and our fans can buy the guitar that ended up on the record.

This one got sent to me a few albums ago. While I was playing it, I was like, ‘No, I’ve got to keep this.’ As close as they all are, each guitar has its own personality. This one just sang to me. I use it all the time.

Myles, you used Jeff Buckley’s 1983 Telecaster in Paris for a performance of Hallelujah back in 2019. That must have been quite an experience.

Myles: Grace is an album that gave me the same feeling as hearing Eruption, with my brain wondering, ‘Whoa, what’s happening here?!’ I also felt that way when I heard Julian Lage.

Playing Jeff’s guitar was amazing, though I truly didn’t feel worthy of it. I was a little uncomfortable, to be honest. I gradually convinced myself that it was okay. It’s just a guitar that’s part of this incredible history. All I had to do was not taint that history [laughs].

What do you think is so special about that instrument?

Myles: It’s just an early-to-mid ’80s Tele, but there’s something weird about how the pickup was wired. Apparently, there’s something technically wrong with it, at least from what [Matt’s Guitar Shop owner] Matt Lucas explained to me. That’s what gives it that beautiful shimmery sound. It’s all down to this imperfection, which makes it even cooler. When you plug it in, you think, “Oh yeah, there’s that sound!”

In Alter Bridge you and Mark have quite different preferences when it comes to guitar amp brands.

Myles: I usually stick with my Diezel VH4. But when we started at 5150, all my amps were in the warehouse, so they let me borrow one of the 5150s, which sounded great. In the end, we blended my VH4 with that. Now I’ll be using both amps live.

Mark: “I mainly used the clean and dirty channels on my PRS MT 100. On top of that, just like with my live rig, I used my Synergy amp. The modules I had were the SLO II preamp, to pair with the MT 100 dirty channel, and then the Fender[-style] TDLX preamp with the clean. That 5150 III in the studio sounded killer, so I blended all three. Like Myles, I’m going to incorporate it into my live rig.

I’m a big fan of multiple amps when it comes to tone. Each one has its own frequency range, together they fill a bigger space. That approach works for us as a band as well as within my own rig.

Were there any pedals involved or was it mainly direct?

Mark: The one I rely on most is my [signature] Morley wah. I love the attitude and scream of a wah. If I solo and it doesn’t have a wah on it, I almost think it doesn’t sound right. It’s been like that since I was a kid.

I love using my Electro-Harmonix Micro Synth to make single-string lines sound heavy. That thing is like our secret weapon. Our producer calls it ‘the Alter Bridge pedal’ because he never uses it with anyone else. What I love is that it’s not just one sound. It’s an actual living thing that sounds different every time. We might track that five times before we find the perfect sweep.

We also used the Kemper Profiler shimmer effect for the beginning of Scales Are Falling. It sounded perfect on the demo, so we kept it on the final recording. It’s funny, when the album came out, one of the first responses was, “Glad to see somebody is digging the Kemper shimmer,” which made me think, “Good ear!”

The name Julian Lage cropped up earlier. What do you think makes his playing so special?

Myles: He’s got the whole thing figured out harmonically. It’s so interesting because he’s moving it forward and it’s exciting to see for the rest of us. It’s rare to hear something like that done so well, where the guitarist isn’t just regurgitating the same thing over again.

He’s breaking new ground, which is something all of us strive for, while making it look effortless. I’ve seen some of his recordings with Dave King on drums, who is one of my favourite drummers. The interplay between Julian and him is special.

Mark: Julian is such an intelligent and sophisticated player, half of it probably goes over my head. If you’re not fully theoretically bulletproof, you might not even understand how or why he’s playing like that. It would take a lot of work over many years for me to play like that, but I still try to take in as much as I can.

• Altar Bridge is out now via Napalm.
• This article first appeared in Guitarist. Subscribe and save.

Two decades and eight albums into Alter Bridge’s lauded career, the hard rockers are pulling off a first in 2026 – they’re embracing the definitiveness of a self-titled album.

While you could argue 2010’s AB III almost did this – at least typographically – there’s a to-the-point toughness behind the band’s new, eponymous 12-song statement that fully fortifies what Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti have been working on together since 2004. And it all comes down to the sickness of the riff.

“The essence of the band has always been to build the song on a good, solid, heavy riff and then balance it with a certain melodic sense and a certain depth of the lyrics,” vocalist-guitarist Kennedy says of the Alter Bridge aesthetic. “But from record to record, we kind of lean one way or the other – like maybe we incorporate some Eighties synths as a texture.”

He reiterates of Alter Bridge, though: “You’re not going to have any keyboard extravaganzas on this. This is a straight-ahead hard-rock record. So it felt appropriate – as far as the self-titled approach goes.”

Sure enough, Alter Bridge deliver tunefully brawny anthems by the boatload. Close to four years on from their seventh album, Pawns & Kings – and following Tremonti’s recent arena-conquering Creed reunion tours, as well as albums from his eponymous metal outfit and Kennedy’s solo project – the band broke a long silence last summer with the release of their deep, D-chunking Silent Divide.

Beyond its infectiously swampy groove, the single features solo sections that contrast Kennedy’s kinetic vibrato skills with Tremonti’s famous fretboard dexterity.

Both players explain that they brought their A-game to L.A.’s iconic 5150 Studios, where they recorded the album at the behest of longtime friend, collaborator, and tourmate Wolfgang Van Halen. Kennedy and Tremonti were wowed by the magnitude of making music within the hallowed walls of Eddie Van Halen’s home studio.

Inspired by the room’s rich history – and with the help of one in-house EVH 5150 III head – Alter Bridge put their all into the album’s hard-swung screechers (What Lies Within) and gloom-crested arpeggio attacks (Scales Are Falling).

“It made us want to be better musicians and take advantage of the moment we had,” Tremonti says of the setting. “When you have your guitar in your hand and you're playing in that studio in the same spot those guys played in, there's no slop coming out. It's got to be on point. You’ve got to man up, you know? You’ve got to band up when you're in that situation.”

In Silent Divide, Myles, you’ve got these really decadent string slides coming out of the second chorus, right before Mark switches into that galloping bridge.

Myles Kennedy: That’s something that I got from – rest his soul – John Sykes. He was a big influence for me, and he was the master of the string slide.

When we’re recording, [producer] Elvis [Baskette] always says, “Do more of that string-sliding stuff,” and I don't really think anything of it. It's just been in my DNA for 30 years. But we leaned in for Silent Divide. Like, let’s be unapologetic about it!

There’s a lot of dynamism between your and Mark’s respective approaches to soloing; the two leads you bring to Silent Divide reflect this. How do you see your respective styles complementing the other’s?

Kennedy: I always try to sing the guitar solos. I’m generally singing along with them as I’m playing them. I don’t know if you’re familiar with Oscar Peterson, the piano player, but that was something I used to love on those old jazz records. You could hear Oscar singing every note. I like to incorporate certain techniques and punctuate things with a flurry of notes, but I really lean into the melodic thing.

Mark loves learning new tricks and runs. I think that’s the main difference, and that’s maybe why we complement each other; we have enough of a different approach where you can kind of tell who’s who.

Mark Tremonti: I think Myles has a very soothing way of playing. Some of my favorite vibrato I’ve ever heard is Myles on the guitar. I grew up more on the speed metal side of things. He listened to metal, but early on he dove deeper into jazz, which really helped his playing.

He’s very good at improvisation. He has a lot of moments where he writes beforehand, but he also has a lot of moments where he’s just improvising in the studio, whereas I like to come in fully prepared with a written solo.

How did you come to record this album at 5150?

Kennedy: Wolf was incredibly kind enough to bring that offer up with our manager. We were like, “Really?” We knew the history of all the incredible music that had been made there. Just the fact that he trusted us enough to come in and not totally ruin the legacy really meant a lot.

When we all showed up, we were very cognizant of that, and we wanted to honor the situation. If you know you're going into this sacred ground where all these incredible riffs have been constructed and recorded, the last thing you want to do is show up empty-handed. It was definitely fuel for the creative fire.

Did Wolf have any stipulations for you coming into 5150? Like, “You can come in here, so long as you punch a werewolf in the face in my music video,” as you did in Mammoth’s The End music video?

Kennedy: Right? [Laughs] “Yeah, you can record here, but you have to sit in a makeup chair for two hours and turn into a zombie.” Getting to do that was awesome. So much fun. But yeah, I think the only thing was “Please, don’t play Eruption.” He didn't say that, but I wasn't going to do that.

Was all the gear at 5150 at your disposal?

Kennedy: There were pieces of gear there they had set out, but nothing super iconic. We weren’t tracking with Frankenstein. Have I held Frankenstein? Yes. Was it a total, Excalibur-level experience? I don't even know how to articulate that, but I got emotional – that was a pretty special moment.

But as far as amps and whatnot, there was a 50-watt 5150 III that we used when we were doing pre-production, so I plugged into that. I had it set up because I couldn’t fly out my Diezels. I fell in love with that amp, and it became a big part of the sound. I ended up marrying it with the [Diezel] VH4 when I was actually tracking.

Tremonti: I thought [the 5150 III] sounded so good, especially mixed with what I was using, which was my signature PRS head. I loved it so much that I got one; they were nice enough to give me one, and I took it on the last tour we did. So now it’s a part of my sound. It’s given me a new appreciation for 50-watt heads.

As long as I’ve been playing guitar, and as long as I’ve collected amplifiers, I don’t think I’ve ever owned a 50-watt head – maybe a single 1x12 combo that was 50 watts. I never appreciated how aggressive a 50-watt head is. When you pair it with 100-watt heads, it’s got a certain character – a bite that cuts through the mix. But it’s not harsh.

Did any Van Halen vibes seep into these songs?

Kennedy: Without a doubt. The riff for Silent Divide has definitely got an Eighties vibe. Mark kept comparing it to an old Judas Priest riff, but with the way I keep coming back to that chugging on the low D, I think of a riff like Unchained. Those were such important riffs for me. Does it sound like Unchained? No, but there's definitely that element there.

Tremonti: I try to explain to people that 5150 Studios isn’t some sterile environment where they’re cleaning up for the next band to come in. It was pretty much left the way [Van Halen] used it last.

Wolfie has a great Neve console in there now, but it’s pretty much the same letters on the kitchen fridge; there’s the 5150 necklace hanging over the door – all the cool stuff that was there when those guys were there. We by no means sound like Van Halen in any way or form. But you can feel the spirit of the band and Eddie in that room.

One characteristic to your solos on this record, Mark – whether on Rue the Day, Silent Divide, or Power Down – is that heavy, wah-filtered tonality. When we spoke with you around your last Tremonti record, The End Will Show You How, you were prototyping your own line of pedals behind the scenes, including wah pedals. Are any of those on the record?

Tremonti: No, that’s the Morley wah. I’m still dabbling with trying to get some stuff together. It’s going to be called Tremonti Audio Company, but there’s such great stuff out there [already]. I’m a picky guy, so I gotta make sure it’s right before we do it.

Pardon the pun, but what else lies within this record, gear-wise?

Kennedy: Guitar-wise, I’m just using my signature models. On this record, there were probably two or three, depending on what the tuning was, that were just off the rack. No changes, just stock MK signatures from PRS, and they worked out great.

Tremonti: I just used my signature model. PRS always gives us a handful of guitars we can play in the studio, and then fans can buy the actual studio-recorded guitars. But there was one that they sent over that I really loved and I kept. There’s also a baritone we used on Rue the Day.

Getting back to the heavy riff, how did you come about the doom-waltzing feel of What Lies Within?

Tremonti: That’s in open D5, which is one of my favorite alternate tunings. I had that riff and chorus sitting around. I put the demo together with all those parts on there and left the melodies in the verses up to Myles’ interpretation.

Kennedy: I came up with a little alternate melody, a little octave part. The way we marry those two concepts has really become a thing since the record we put out about 10 years ago, [2016’s] The Last Hero, where he’ll have this kind of chugging, driving riff and then I’ll put on an octave thing in an eighth- or 16-note pattern, just to move it along.

You’re both prolific workers and writers. To paraphrase Myles’ lyrics on Power Down, you don't necessarily slow the overall pace, but you’re not always at it with Alter Bridge, specifically. What are the things you notice about each other once you get back together?

Tremonti: Just how much of a powerful singer Myles is. When we play in these multiple bands, it keeps it all fresh. I couldn’t imagine being in one band now. I think it would start getting stale, and you would kind of take it for granted.

So, when you come back to playing these songs you haven't done in three years, it’s like, “Oh yeah, I love playing this!” and you see the smiles on everybody's faces. I think that's why we’ve had a 20-year-plus career with the same members, because we’re all open-minded enough to go out and do other projects before coming back together.

Kennedy: It seems like the longer we do it, the more that dynamic is solidified – there’s this level of comfort. It’s the same way I look at why we continue to use Elvis as our producer, where you know how it’s going to play out and you trust everybody’s instincts.

With Mark and me, part of the reason it’s really worked since day one is because we realize we’re kindred spirits who are obsessed with writing music. You never feel like you’re having to pull someone along.

Are you ever able to fully power down?

Tremonti: I love to do this. When I want to power down, what’s better than sitting around and playing guitar? It’s not relaxing to practice sweep arpeggios or that kind of thing, but sitting down with a guitar and writing and improvising – that’s relaxing.

I don’t power down in the typical sense of, “I’m going to sit on the couch and watch TV.” I like going to bed at night thinking, ‘I did something today. I wrote this part or practiced this or that.’ That makes me feel good. If I go to bed going, “I just wasted a day,” it bugs me.

Kennedy: Power Down is written from the perspective of, “Take some time to stop and smell the roses.” Given what we’ve been talking about, that’s something I’ve really been working at the last few years. It got to a point where I was never home. I realized life was just passing me by.

Though the life I was living was all music and touring the world – and I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining – there are other responsibilities I have as a partner, family member, and dog owner. I wanted to be around more and take this all in, because this side of life is great.

Referring back to the chorus of Power Down, how would you describe the Alter Bridge experience these days?

Kennedy: It couldn’t be better. I’m at this stage in life where I feel like all the boxes have been checked. I’m very grateful for that. At this point, it really is just a matter of continuing to revel in what this has all turned into and just savor and enjoy it.

When I was younger, that wasn’t the mindset. I was hungry and sometimes frustrated and kind of lost in my own head and ego. I feel there’s been this shift, and it really is beautiful. I love it. I recommend it. Gratitude is the attitude.

Tremonti: I couldn't ask for anything else. First and foremost, I’ve got a family that is the best, and the most supportive circle of friends. I spent a lot of time in the beginning of my career worrying that I wouldn’t amount to anything. You’re just dying to be a musician, then once you become a professional, you’re worrying it’s going to end.

People are telling you you’re going to be a one-hit wonder, and then people are telling you you’re going to have a sophomore slump, or that tastes in the music scene are changing and you’re no longer relevant – you hear these things every day in the music business.

But halfway through the Alter Bridge records, I was finally at peace with my career. Like, as long as I keep on writing – not just phoning it in, but putting all my heart and soul into this – I can do this as long as I want. I get to do what I love!

• Alter Bridge is out now via Napalm
• This article first appeared in Guitar World. Subscribe and save.

Recording at Eddie Van Halen's legendary 5150 Studios is an experience most mere mortals can only dream of. Holding some of his gear, including the iconic Frankenstein, and examining it up close, is another beast altogether.

Alter Bridge's Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti got to do both – and it got their creative juices flowing.

The band was given the opportunity to record their self-titled eighth album at Van Halen’s studio with the blessing of longtime friend and former Tremonti bassist – and Eddie’s son – Wolfgang Van Halen.

“Wolf was incredibly kind enough to bring that offer up with our manager,” Myles Kennedy reveals in the latest issue of Guitar World when asked how this enviable opportunity came about.

“We were like, ‘Really?’ We knew the history of all the incredible music that had been made there. Just the fact that he trusted us enough to come in and not totally ruin the legacy really meant a lot.”

“It made us want to be better musicians and take advantage of the moment we had,” adds guitarist Mark Tremonti.

“When you have your guitar in your hand, and you're playing in that studio in the same spot those guys played in, there's no slop coming out. It's got to be on point. You’ve got to man up, you know?” Or, perhaps more aptly, “You’ve got to band up when you're in that situation.”

“If you know you're going into this sacred ground where all these incredible riffs have been constructed and recorded, the last thing you want to do is show up empty-handed,” continues Kennedy. “It was definitely fuel for the creative fire.”

As for whether the band encountered any of Van Halen's iconic gear during recording, Kennedy replies, “There were pieces of gear there they had set out, but nothing super iconic. We weren’t tracking with Frankenstein.

“Have I held Frankenstein? Yes,” he teases. “Was it a total, Excalibur-level experience? I don't even know how to articulate that, but I got emotional – that was a pretty special moment.”

And it seems like Eddie himself would have approved of the band recording at 5150, as the Van Halen legend once attended an Alter Bridge show when Wolfgang was filling in on drums.

For more from Alter Bridge’s Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy, plus exclusive interviews with Joe Perry and Danielle Haim, pick up issue 602 of Guitar World from Magazines Direct.

Mark Tremonti has reflected on the “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” of writing and recording Alter Bridge's new album at Eddie Van Halen's 5150 Studios, having been afforded the chance by the late electric guitar legend’s son.

For their eighth, self-titled album – and first since 2022’s Pawns & Kings – Mark Tremonti, Myles Kennedy, and co. said they wanted to “approach the process differently.” Their friendship with Mammoth mastermind Wolfgang Van Halen helped them achieve that, with the band moving into the studios built by Eddie Van Halen, where Van Halen recorded some of their most seminal albums.

In its hallowed spaces, the band and longtime producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette enjoyed writing sessions, pre-production, and drum recording during their month-long stay.

“It gives you the confidence like, ‘We must be doing something right if we’re allowed to be here on this hallowed ground of rock ‘n’ roll’,” says Tremonti via an Instagram post.

“After working for hours, you almost fall into a daydream and forget where you are. Every now and then, you’ll look at the wall, snap out of it, and think, ‘I can’t believe we’re here’. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and a dream come true.”

The 5150 sessions were a poignant moment for Tremonti, who had been taken under EVH’s wing during his Creed days.

“I remember Eddie going, ‘Hey, who’s the guitar player?’ and I raised my hand,” Tremonti told Classic Rock last year, looking back on Creed's two shows supporting Van Halen in 1998.

The late shredder was incredibly supportive of a young Tremonti and gifted him his “most prized possession” the next day, with Eddie muscling through a crowd of screaming fans to give it to him.

Over the years, their connection grew. Wolfgang has spent time in Tremonti's solo band and has also helped out in Alter Bridge, leading to a role reversal as Tremonti found himself playing to a crowd that included Eddie Van Halen.

He told Loudwire in January. “He [Eddie Van Halen] came to an Alter Bridge show in LA when Wolfgang was filling in on drums. You'll play a show and see him there, smiling, looking down. It was hard to shake the nerves, but it felt good him being there.

“We went to see them [Van Halen] practice at 5150 Studios, and they were playing the new album [2012's A Different Kind of Truth],” he continued. “They finished a song and I was like, ‘Wolfie, that was a killer song, I loved when you did all the chordy stuff,’ and Eddie was like, ‘Were...were my parts good?’ You're Eddie Van Halen, your parts are always good! But he was always pushing to be the best he could be.”

Tremonti has been road-testing his hotly anticipated pedal line, with one of his creations poised to be “going after the Klon.” These pedals likely feature on the new Alter Bridge album, alongside what he feels is the unbeatable combination of PRS guitars and Dumble amps.

The end is near, but time is on Mark Tremonti’s side. It’s got to be – he planned it this way.

When Guitar World reaches the legendary Floridian guitar force in late November 2024, he’s just stepped into a Toronto hotel room on a day off from Creed’s extremely successful and rapturously received reunion tour, which packed arenas throughout much of the year.

To say he’s caught during a moment of downtime, however, might be a stretch.

Once this interview wraps, he’ll be warming up his voice in preparation for another round of “Tremonti Sings Sinatra” shows, black-tie events where he smoothly croons Ol’ Blue Eyes’ standards.

He’s also touching up some songs he wrote for an upcoming album with Alter Bridge, his other long-running and beloved hard rock project. He may QC a pair of wah-styled prototypes for a long-promised pedal-making project. He and his family are going to sneak in some Christmas shopping while wandering through the Canadian metropolis, too.

Even after tackling all that, the guitarist will be sitting in the hotel relearning rhythmically crushing riffs from The End Will Show Us How, the latest album from his eponymous and more metallically tinged Tremonti project.

He’d made sure to finish that record at the top of 2024 to avoid conflicts with Creed’s weighty tour schedule, but the pendulum is swinging back toward the musical multi-tasker’s heaviest outfit for 2025.

“In my now very-layered career with all these bands, I’ve got to work about a year and a half ahead of schedule to make sure everything’s on time,” he says of an ever-morphing creative flow.

Throughout The End Will Show Us How, Tremonti and the rest of his group – co-guitarist Eric Friedman, bassist Tanner Keegan and drummer Ryan Bennett – are a wrecking ball of kineticism.

They’re smashing darkly anthemic choruses into ominously quarter-bent alt-rock gloom (The Mother, the Earth and I); they’re busting out bare-knuckled baritone riffage alongside pinch-and-burn soloing (One More Time, Nails).

But while generally several shades heavier than Creed or Alter Bridge, End also unveils tender rock balladry (It’s Not Over).

First single Just Too Much may be the record’s most unique surprise. Sporting an infectiously quirky verse groove built around alternating 8- and 9-bar phrases, the song passed Friedman and Tremonti’s smell test immediately.

Perhaps more irregular to the band leader was how his wife was an instant fan, too.

“That was one of the only songs I’ve ever worked on in my studio where my wife was like, ‘What was that thing you were playing last night? That was really cool!’ ” Tremonti says through a hearty laugh.

“She thought it was Audioslave-ish, which is one of her favorite bands. So I was like, ‘All right, we’re onto something!’ ”

You’ve called The Mother, the Earth and I one of your favorite songs you’ve ever done with this band. Pardon the pun, but what makes it so elementally “Tremonti”?

“I heard the initial demos back and it just hit a spot with me. And when it kicks into the chorus chord progression, that’s musically the most satisfying part to play. I like setting up an atmosphere and finding a lyric that fits the mood.

“When I was writing this song, I just spit out those lyrics. I thought it would be a fun thing to tackle, this love for the earth. Finding beauty and peace in nature while the world is in shambles, and everybody’s killing for religion and politics.

“It’s about sitting back in that tranquility of the earth itself… that’s something we all share, no matter what you believe.”

One More Time kicks off with a gnarly, gun-turreted rhythm riff that locks in with a monstrous double kick. It’s one of the heaviest grooves on the record.

“That’s signature Tremonti. Whenever I have a riff in a rhythm that needs to stay super-tight, and it has an almost speed metal-y approach to it, that’s definitely earmarked for Tremonti. If I brought that to [Creed/Alter Bridge bassist and drummer] Scott Phillips and Brian Marshall, they’d look at me funny.

“They like rock. They like progressive rock. But I don’t know if they like speed metal as much as I do. So I do as much of that as possible with Tremonti. That’s one of the main reasons I started this band – to be able to get that side of my songwriting out. They don’t have to be heavy, but that’s definitely a flavor of this band.”

There’s this bending lick you do in the bridge breakdown of One More Time that had one YouTube commenter asking, “Did I just get Weezer-ed?” because it shares a similar feel to the end of Rivers Cuomo’s solo on Buddy Holly. Had you come across that comparison yet?

“No… I’m not too familiar with Weezer. I’d have to go back and listen to it, but it’s definitely not a tribute to Weezer. [Laughs]”

Parallel thoughts, perhaps. A good lick is a good lick!

“It’s just rock ’n’ roll! There are 12 notes; it’s all been done. When that lick came together for One More Time, I thought it was great for the song. It wasn’t because I was listening to a Weezer record, I’ll tell you that much. [Laughs]”

In your last interview with GW, you talked up your love for the clean channel of your PRS MT 100 head. Did that end up being the primary clean tone on The End Will Show Us How?

“The MT 100 is the primary amp in general. Our producer Elvis [ed. Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette], absolutely loves that amp. That being said, I’ve always been a firm believer in having multiple amps doing any given job. It’s been a career-long quest for me, pairing amps to find these perfect marriages between tones.

“We had the MT 100, and I brought in a couple of new Dumbles that I love. I honestly think there’s no better tone in the world than a slightly overdriven Dumble. When you mix that with the MT 100, it’s just bliss to me. And then Elvis loves my Cornford RK100, so I brought that in for layering the high-gain rhythms and leads. I think we had it all covered between those three or four amps.”

A while back, you’d started teasing the idea of producing your own pedals. Where are you at with that project?

“Just yesterday I tried out two pedals, but I’m trying to be as picky as I can and not pull the trigger until I’m perfectly happy with it. I’m trying to come up with something cool that’s also very affordable and road-worthy. When you put your name on something, you’ve got to make sure it’s right. We’ve been at it for a few years… but we’ll get there.”

What were you testing out, specifically?

“They were two wah pedals, but we’ve worked on a tremolo, a Uni-Vibe-type of pedal, and a dual overdrive; I love the idea of a stackable overdrive. I also want to do an octave pedal at some point, but the parts are a little tougher to come by than you would think.

“So, it’s been [about] hunting some of that down. I want to come out with three pedals when it launches and then come out with a pedal a year after that.”

How much octave pedal work is on this record?

“Any time there’s a big, single-string heavy riff, there’s got to be some kind of layered octave on there. What we usually do in that case is we’ll put a layer of Micro Synth in there, too.

“Micro Synths have some of the nastiest fuzz tones. If you listen to All the Wicked Things, there’s a section in the bridge where it drops to a real heavy single-string riff. I’d be surprised if we didn’t layer some sort of octave on there.”

How excited are you to start promoting this record with Tremonti? That’s going to be a different vibe than these Creed arena shows…

“Oh, absolutely. All my bands feel so different. It’s crazy going from the Sinatra shows, where I’m wearing a tux and playing with all of these incredibly gifted performers, to going over to Europe and playing in clubs with my heaviest band. It’s definitely a different vibe.

“You’ve got to take a different approach. I can’t get on stage with Tremonti and be like, ‘Hey, you all look beautiful tonight, thank you for coming to the event,’ like I would with a Sinatra performance.”

Maybe you’re underselling the power of that. Everyone loves a compliment!

“I feel like when I do Tremonti, I become a different character. When it’s heavier music, I become a WWE wrestler: ‘Get up, everybody!’ Whatever the music pulls out of you, you know…”

On the idea of pulling out music through these different personas, is there any other music you’re working on at the moment? Whether with Alter Bridge, Creed or Tremonti?

“I’m going into the studio with Alter Bridge in March. I put together nine demos last month that I’ve shared with everybody. I’m always thinking about volume two of Tremonti Sings Sinatra.

“Every record that we put out [donates proceeds] to the National Down Syndrome Society, so I want to keep raising funds for that. And it’s also just a lot of fun to do. We’re still looking at what happens [in 2025] with the Tremonti tours, stateside. And then we’re looking at Creed as well. We’ll see how it all pans out!”

• The End Will Show Us How is out now via Napalm.

Tone freaks everywhere were intrigued by Mark Tremonti’s September 2023 announcement he was launching a pedal company. “I’m going after the Klon,” he declared, “and I don't want it to be $8,000 – I want it to be 200 bucks.”

Since then, things have been understandably quiet on that front as Tremonti busied himself with Creed’s arena-filling reunion tour. Tremonti recently updated Guitar World, though, and the pedals are happening.

“Just yesterday I tried out two pedals, but I’m trying to be as picky as I can and not pull the trigger until I’m perfectly happy with it,” Mark says. “They were two wah pedals.”

“I’m trying to come up with something cool that’s also very affordable and road-worthy,” he added. “When you put your name on something, you’ve got to make sure it’s right. We’ve been at it for a few years... but we’ll get there.”

When he announced the project, Mark had been testing a Uni-Vibe style model, which is still on the cards. His most recent prototypes, however, were two wah models. Additionally, Tremonti says, there’s a tremolo, the aforementioned Uni-Vibe, and a dual overdrive. “I love the idea of a stackable overdrive,” he adds.

Mark’s plan remains as it was when he first announced the line: “I want to come out with three pedals when it launches and then come out with a pedal a year after that.” He also has a fifth pedal idea in addition to those already mentioned:

“I want to do an octave pedal at some point, but the parts are a little tougher to come by than you would think,” he admits. “So, it’s been [about] hunting some of that down.”

When Tremonti announced the pedals, he had the Uni-Vibe prototype on his Alter Bridge board. Now the Creed tour is wrapped up, Mark is preparing to go out with his Tremonti band, so we can be confident the pedals will have had plenty of gig testing when they do emerge.

Tremonti has not commented on whether he will start his own company or, like Jack White’s Third Man Hardware, partner with existing manufacturers to release the pedals.

The past year has been good to Tremonti gear-wise, seeing him reunited with the Les Paul he used on Creed’s debut album and launching his MT100 signature amp.

The full interview with Tremonti is in the May 2025 issue of Guitar World, available from Magazines Direct.

“I’ve been so fortunate with my career,” Myles Kennedy says, and indeed, between fronting Slash featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators, and singing and playing guitar alongside Mark Tremonti in Alter Bridge, Kennedy is, to borrow a Conspirators album title, living the dream.

But even while having his hands full with two projects, he continues, “As a writer, I can never totally power down. I always have the antenna up in case something comes along.” He laughs. “It’s like being a doctor on call.”

If that’s the case, then Kennedy has been one busy MD. The Conspirators recently wrapped touring for their most recent album, 4, and before that, Kennedy was on the road with Alter Bridge in support of their seventh effort, Pawns & Kings. Somewhere in between, he managed to write and record a solo album, the just-released The Art of Letting Go.

The new effort is Kennedy’s third under his own name, following 2018’s Year of the Tiger and 2021’s The Ides of March, and in addition to showcasing the sort of anthemic, hooky and intensely melodic heavy modern rock that has become his calling card, The Art of Letting Go is also his most unabashedly hard-hitting effort to date.

“The intention this time out was definitely to make a riff-based rock record, and to not be afraid of doing that,” Kennedy says.

“Whereas I think with the first two records I shied away from it because I was coming from two different projects that were already steeped in that sound.” When it came to The Art of Letting Go, however, Kennedy asked himself, “‘Why can’t I do that? Why am I setting up these parameters?’ I’m known as a rock singer and guitar player, so why wouldn’t I do that?”

Kennedy does it to great effect throughout The Art of Letting Go, from the first crashing chords of the opening title track through the epic closer, How the Story Ends.

In between there’s plenty of raging hard rock (the hard-charging first single, Say What You Will, and the grungy and groovy Saving Face) and big-gesture anthems (the disarmingly major-key Mr. Downside, the soaring Miss You When You’re Gone), as well as mournful ballads (Eternal Lullaby) and multifaceted, almost proggy workouts (Behind the Veil).

And it’s all shot through with Kennedy’s instantly recognizable vocals and, perhaps surprising to some who see him solely as a frontman, incredibly fluid and accomplished lead guitar playing.

For Kennedy, however, the guitar component has always been central to his musical makeup.

“From the time I was young I just wanted to just play guitar – I never expected to be known as a singer,” he says.

“The only reason I became a singer was because I couldn’t find someone to sing the songs I was writing. I was like, ‘I think I’m gonna have to learn to do this myself.’ So what’s beautiful about having this project is that it helps fulfill my original plan: ‘OK, I’m writing songs. I’m singing. But I also get to play a lot of guitar.’”

He laughs. “Someone once said to me, ‘Why do you make solo records?’ And it’s like, ‘So I can play solos!’”

You’ve been busy these last few years with Slash and Alter Bridge. How did this record come together?

“It was one of those things where I knew I had a record coming up and I had a very finite window to write it in. So beginning in January of last year, I just started chipping away.

“I think I was out with Alter Bridge, so it was a lot of writing in hotel rooms and dressing rooms and trying to just get as much out as I could within about a six-month period of time, before we started rehearsals and pre-production and all that stuff. So the album was definitely a road-written endeavor this time around.”

Is there a balance you have to strike when you’re working in a creative realm, but also again a very strict deadline?

“It can be a challenge if you’re not careful. Because you can end up doing something just because you have to do it, and you have to finish it. Fortunately for me, I was always the kid who would procrastinate when I had, like, a term paper, right? [Laughs] It was the last week before it was due, but somehow I would land on my feet.

“So sometimes I work better under pressure. But it’s interesting – as I get older, I don’t enjoy the stress of that. So I think I’ve gotten better at structuring my time appropriately and knowing what’s coming up, and then still allowing myself to be open to the process.”

As you were putting these songs together, did any theme start to reveal itself to you?

“You know, subject-matter wise, this is the first one of my solo records that really doesn’t have a storyline. Year of the Tiger was written about things I’d experienced as a child and with my family, and then The Ides of March was very much influenced by everything that was going on in the world at that time. So there was an arc of a narrative. This time I really just wanted it to be a collection of songs. I didn’t want to do another concept record.”

On the music side there seems to have been at least one concept: to rock hard.

“Yes, and it was a little bit liberating in that respect. But what I also wanted to be very conscious of was that I wanted it to be riff-based and I wanted it to rock, but I also wanted to still have that bluesy element and not go into… almost where Alter Bridge can go, where there are those tinges of metal at times.

“So any time I had a riff that was getting a little ‘metallic,’ I’d say, 'Okay, we’re gonna save that for something else.' I wanted these songs to stay kind of slinky and bluesy, and have that as the basis.

“Another thing was, it was important to keep it so that we could play it as a three-piece [Kennedy’s band includes drummer Zia Uddin and bassist Tim Tournier]. What I learned touring on those first two records is that we’d end up having to rearrange everything from what was done in the studio because I was layering all these parts, playing lap steel and this, that and the other. This time, it was about making it so we could pull it off live the way it was recorded.”

To that point, on your previous record you used a wide variety of guitars and amps in the studio. What was your setup this time?

“Well, like I was saying, I tried to keep it really simple so that it was something that could be recreated live. So it’s the signature guitar [the PRS Myles Kennedy], strung with some D’Addario .10’s. And then a Diezel Paul amp that [Diezel co-founder] Peter Stapfer had given me a few years ago for the Year of the Tiger tour.

“It’s a 45-watt amp, and it’s not like the Herbert or the VH4. It’s a very different animal. There’s just something about that amp and that guitar together that I really love. And then I had the [J. Rockett] Chicken Soup pedal, which I’ve used now for a few years, and a pedal called the [Mythos] Argo, which is a great fuzz pedal. That’s what you hear at the beginning of Say What You Will.”

Guitar-wise, was your PRS signature guitar able to handle the variety of tones – clean, dirty, overdriven, lead – that you needed for the record?

“Yes. And you know, it was a lot of fun last time getting to make a record with all those wonderful vintage instruments. But for this record, I really wanted it to be streamlined and not spend a bunch of time getting tones.

“We knew what we wanted, and once we got the tone we didn’t need to constantly stop and start and move microphones, turn up the mids, turn down the bass… it was just there. Every day I’d plug into the same guitar and the same amp and we were off the races.”

One highlight is the title track, where you go for some unique phrasings and note choices.

“That turned out to be one of my favorites, because when it goes from the bridge into the solo section, it’s like the clouds kind of part. It’s a different vibe and it’s very… if I’m not mistaken, I think it’s pretty ‘Dorian,’ if I’m thinking like a music nerd. [Laughs] I love that sound.”

Another standout is Dead to Rights.

“That is definitely a tip of the hat to [Big Wreck singer and guitarist] Ian Thornley. I texted him while we were recording: ‘This is a tribute to you, brother.’ We became friends, geez, 25 years ago, and I just think the world of that guy.

“The riff, I would attribute that to playing with him a lot back in the day. And the solo as well. There’s certain licks in there where I’m like, ‘I definitely got that one from Ian…’”

Who would be another big guitar inspiration for you?

“I love guys like Warren Haynes. A lot of the way I think as a guitarist comes from that school of playing. I don’t normally go into a solo going, ‘I want to play like this.’ I just do what I do. But when I think of the language that I speak a lot of times, and who taught me that language, it would be players like Warren.

“And the thing I like about Warren is that the way he plays guitar is kind of like how he sings. That’s what I’ve always tried to do. Someone actually once said to me, ‘When you play guitar it reminds me of how you sing.’ And I was like, ‘Wow, thank you!’ Because that’s what I’m trying to do – vocalize through the instrument.”

Given that, at this point in your career would you say you identify more as a singer or a guitarist? For instance, bilingual people often talk about dreaming only in their native language. Which is it for you?

“It’s always been about the guitar. I had a tech who, at the bottom of his emails, it said, ‘The power of the riff compels me.’ I always thought that was so great. Because that’s how I feel; it all starts with the riff. That’s the foundation. And then the chord progression and the melody and the vocal come after.

“With this record especially, which is more of a riff-based thing, the riffs needed to be strong enough to build the foundation on. Because that’s where it all starts. So, yeah, I guess when I dream, I dream as a guitar player. [Laughs]”

• The Art of Letting Go is out now via Napalm.

Around autumn last year Myles Kennedy took time out from his regular gig as lead vocalist and guitarist with stadium rockers Alter Bridge. However, this was no holiday, neither was it to revisit his side project with Slash.

His aim was to record his third solo album – and this time he set his sights on recording a riff-heavy, no-holds-barred rocker.

So, when we had the chance to settle down with the man himself and ask a few pointed questions, we leapt at the chance…

What was your goal for this album?

“Well, I knew I didn’t want to make another acoustic record, which was great six years ago and it fulfilled a long-standing urge. But with this one I wanted to get back to making something that was informed by the power of the riff, you know?

“But using blues scales, pentatonic scales and what-not as a vocabulary so that I didn’t go too far into metal territory, which is something that Alter Bridge tends to lean on more. I wanted to make a rock ’n’ roll record – a lot of loud guitars – and just do what I guess I’m known for. And it was good to get back and start swimming in that stream again.”

The album has the force and precision of contemporary rock but still the gutsy, instinctive feel of classic rock. How have you blended those elements so seamlessly?

“It’s a delicate dance. I was raised on classic rock, so that’s always going to be in my DNA. But at the same time I still want to be contemporary. I don’t want to just regurgitate something that’s already been done better than I’m ever going to be able to do it. I want to try to take it and kind of put my own spin on it and bring it into this era.

“And there are a number of ways to do that, but one of the big components is the sound and that’s where I feel like ‘Elvis’, [aka] Michael Baskette, the producer, is very helpful. He understands; he has that same goal. He loves all the classic stuff and he loves those sonic hallmarks, but he also wants to bring it into the present.”

In what way does your solo work stand apart from your work with Alter Bridge?

“I mean, especially that this is more of a hard rock record, the lines were blurred a little more. With the ballad Eternal Lullaby… I actually brought that to Alter Bridge a few years ago. And what happened is we just had so many ballads. There’s only a finite amount of spots for ballads in that context, so we didn’t use it. I wanted to make sure it saw the light of day, so I felt like it was appropriate on this record.

“But that’s a great question, because it’s like when you’re using a similar formula, then where does it go? And a lot of it, for me, boils down to knowing the language I’m speaking, musically.

“Alter Bridge is more detuned, heavy chugging and the rhythms are different, the rhythms are straighter. Some of this stuff swings. I think that’s another big part of it; it’s got a pocket and a groove that we just don’t explore with Alter Bridge.”

There’s an amazing solo on the track Say What You Will. How did you record that?

“What I want to do most of the time on records [is] improvise, but I hurt my hand. I always forget what it’s called, it involves my ulnar nerve. It’s a long story. So I wanted to make sure when I went in to record these solos, I kind of had a roadmap. I would improvise a few days before and then just piece together the parts I liked.

“No different from what I would do in the studio, but I basically have a rough sketch of what I’m going to do, so I don’t have to wear my hand down as much. And, if I remember correctly, we just knocked it out, just did a few takes and put it together, and we were off to the races.”

There’s also an interesting octave fuzz pedal on the intro. What effect were you using there?

“Yeah, that’s the secret sauce, right there. But I’m going to tell you the secret sauce because everyone should have one of these pedals. It’s called [a Mythos] Argo and I found it at Chicago Music Exchange.

“I went in there and I was like, ‘I need a really good fuzz…’ And so they had this pedal there, the Argo pedal. I’ve been asked that question by other guitar players, it’s such a great pedal. Get the Argo pedal, kids!”

What were your go-to electric guitars and amps for this record?

“My go-to were my signature [PRS] guitars, fresh out of the box. I had a few in boxes and I took them out, strung them up and that was it. Most of the record was done on this one black signature guitar, and it didn’t have a scratch on it when we took it out of the box, but by the time we finished the record, [it had] plenty of dings.

“I [also] had a green one that was kind of a prototype, which I used on some of the altered tunings. But other than that it’s that black signature guitar, straight into my Diezel Paul amp.

“On the second solo record I had all this vintage gear: my ’58 Fender Deluxe and my ’58 335, and the wonderful thing that you get from vintage gear is that mojo. But with this, I just kept it simple and used basically what I’m going to use live.”

So you’re quite a physical player, if the guitar ended up with loads of dings?

“I don’t like brand-new guitars. I don’t like it when they’re all shiny. I’ll see a new guitar and I’m like, ‘That’s gonna look good after I drag it across the driveway.’”

You spoke earlier about using drop tunings. How low did you go?

“I think the lowest I allowed myself to go was C on two tracks. I used it on a song called Miss You When You’re Gone. It was CGCGC and then the top string was a D.

“There’s a song called Dead To Rights and that’s basically open G tuning, but you tune the thickest string down to C, which is kind of interesting. So when you have that open G tuning, you think that that string should be a D, but when you tune it to a C it creates a whole different set of inspiration.”

Are you a prolific, rapid writer or do you tend to take a long time to write songs?

“It really depends on the track. Sometimes the universe will just drop something into your lap. I’m pretty prolific at starting things. Like, if you said, ‘I want you to sit down this afternoon and I want you to put together three songs,’ I’d probably be able to do that.

“But the problem is, I have an editing system that I like to use in terms of distance. So if I come up with something, I like to get away from it. I don’t want to finish it on the spot because I want to make sure that all the parts are up to par with the other parts.

“So it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s a great verse.’ And then you get to the chorus, and it’s like, ‘You can do better. You should search for a different chorus.’ So that’s where the time comes in. I need to step away.”

You’re going to take this album on tour shortly. What will your live rig look like?

“The same as what was in the studio. It will be the Argo pedal and I have a [J. Rockett] Chicken Soup [overdrive] pedal and a handful other little accoutrements. But that Diezel Paul amp into the Diezel 2x12 cabinet with the [Celestion] Creambacks, my PRS signature guitars and that’s it. Pretty simple.”

Are you looking forward to touring the new album?

“I count the days, yeah. I mean, once this press run is over, I’m going to be at home, just woodshedding and every day running the songs over and over. Because we’re going out as a three-piece, that’s a lot of pressure, in a good way. And I like that. I like the challenge. But it means I’m gonna have to get all these songs to where they’re just second nature. I’m just gonna rehearse and rehearse and rehearse.”

You’re singing as well, so there’s nowhere to hide…

“No, there’s nowhere to hide! And I’m cursing myself with some of the songs because I wrote the riffs a certain way, thinking, ‘Oh, it’s just going to be a guitar riff here.’

“But then we got in the studio and I listened back to the playback and I was like, ‘That needs a vocal part right here.’ And then you’re like, ‘I’ll figure it out…’ Now I’m cursing myself: ‘Why didn’t you just sing the guitar riff or something? But no, you had to do something different. Damn you, Kennedy!’”

• The Art of Letting Go is out now via Napalm.

Launched by PRS in 2018, the MT 15 would go on to become a hit with players needing something versatile that could take them from bedrooms to smaller stages. Six years later, after a whole lot of tweaking, Mark Tremonti is unveiling his second signature amp, the MT 100 – a 100-watt behemoth capable of conquering venues of any size.

“I wanted three channels this time, so I could replicate my favorite amps at home,” he says. “The Fender Twin-like clean is one of the things I’m most proud of, because with high-gain amps, that channel is often there as a side note. A lot of metal players won’t care; they just want to play metal. But cleans are important to me.”

The middle channel also required some extra attention to detail; Tremonti says he didn’t just want it to work as a “gained-down version of channel three.” It had to stand on its own two feet and inspire the player to do different things. Having owned six Dumble amps over the years, Tremonti knew exactly how he wanted to dial that second channel in.

“There’s a certain something that happens when you play a Dumble,” he says. “When the pick hits the string, you hear this certain quality that I tried to replicate with this amp. You can turn the gain down, sit on a note and it will bloom – which is a beautiful thing if you’re playing something slow and sweet. It won’t if you’re burning like Malmsteen!”

The latest signature amp is also notable for its old-school sensibilities. You get three independent channels, but don’t expect any USB connectivity, power attenuation or cab sims. Things like that, Tremonti says, can often get in the way.

“When I was growing up, we didn’t need all those functions,” he says. “I’ve seen comments where people were wishing it had a bunch of bells and whistles, but that’s not what this amp is. This is not a Kemper or something you program 10,000 presets into. This is a tube amp. I didn’t want too much because when things go wrong, you don’t know what the hell’s happening. I also wanted to keep the price down.

“I told Paul Reed Smith to keep it around $1,800 because that’s the breaking point between affordable and expensive. You still get three excellent channels that are individually voiced and completely isolated, sharing nothing but the effects loop.”

So what can we expect next from the longstanding PRS devotee?

“I think it would be good to do another line of baritones,” he says. “When we did that in the past, they sold out quickly and people missed out.

“I’m spitballing here, but we’ve also talked about doing a limited run of MT 100s with hand-painted Joe Fenton art. A 50-watt combo could be good. We’ve also talked about doing replicas of my Charcoal Burst with the Dimebag sticker – beaten up so they look like mine. We’re always discussing things.”

Mark Tremonti has become the latest high-profile player to experience a heart-warming guitar reunion, having recently been reunited with his childhood guitar nearly 26 years after it was stolen.  

The 1986 Gibson Les Paul was returned to Tremonti on his 50th birthday. It features a unique Kahler bridge, and helped launch Creed’s career, playing a huge role in the writing and recording of their debut album, My Own Prison. 

The guitarist's manager, Tim Tournier, shared the story of the guitar's return on Instagram, saying: “Sometimes life gives you opportunities to right some wrongs. In this case, that opportunity presented itself via a Reddit DM about 18 months ago. 

“A deal was made, hands got shook and I was able to get my buddy his 1986 Gibson with a stock Kahler [bridge] back for his big 50th.”

The guitar was stolen in 1997, shortly after the release of My Own Prison – a record that would hugely raise the band’s stock. 

As vocalist Scott Stapp revealed in a 2019 interview, Tremonti's LP wasn't the only piece of equipment that was stolen from the band: an entire trailer full of gear was taken when their tour hit Boston. 

“We didn’t have a bus,” he explained. “We were just getting started. We parked right in front of the hotel and the following morning, our van is on blocks. The wheels are gone, the trailer has been taken, the chains connecting it cut, and the trailer gone! And so all our gear for the show that night was stolen.”

The trailer was ultimately found – empty - several miles away, with what Stapp calls Tremonti’s “prized possession” seemingly gone forever. The show went on, with tour partner Fuel lending Creed their gear, but the sentimentality of the stolen gear wasn’t lost on the singer. 

“Not only are you upset, but there was an emotional attachment to some of those instruments,” he continued. “We weren’t at a place yet where we had endorsements and tons of guitars. For years, we have been trying to find it.” 

It’s a sentiment shared by Tournier, who has put himself in line for ‘Manager of the Year’ with his find. 

“The contents of the trailer were the instruments of their childhood,” he details, “the gear they mowed lawns for – or – in the case of Tremonti, worked at a car wash for.”

It's the latest example of a guitar being reunited with its rightful owner years after it had been stolen. Already this year, Paul McCartney’s long-lost Hofner bass, described as “the most important bass guitar in history”, was found in a London attic. 

In another story with eerie parallels Tremonti's tale that also concerned a Les Paul, an avid guitarist was reunited with his beloved Gibson – also on his 50th birthday, oddly enough. 

Then there was Jerry Cantrell’s odd-but-amusing ‘I’ve lost my 'Blue Dress' G&L”… ”Oh no, I haven’t” episode. But there’s no disputing that Tremonti’s LP had been tragically missing throughout a career it helped create.

Mark Tremonti is one of PRS’s most prolific and dedicated artists; his boundless talents are more than one or even two bands can satisfy. Having found global fame with Creed, Tremonti went on to form Alter Bridge in 2004 with Myles Kennedy, followed by a solo album project in 2010 that turned into the band Tremonti. 

All three projects are still on the active list, with Creed set to reform again for a tour in 2024. The guitarist is just as busy on the gear front, with Core and SE PRS electric guitar models alongside the well-received MT 15 head – which is now joined by a new addition, a guitar amp that Mark has been deeply involved with through the design and test phases and is now using in live shows, the signature MT 100 head.

The first thing that’s apparent on unboxing the MT 100 is its size and weight. At a time when there’s been an increasing trend toward more compact and portable products, the MT 100 is unapologetically large and heavy thanks to outsize transformers and a tough steel chassis.

The mains transformer is possibly the biggest we’ve ever seen on an amp of this type. At the time of writing, we don’t yet know if a matching 4x12 will be available, but visually a serious rock amp such as this needs a 4x12 or an oversized 2x12 to sit on. 

Inside the chassis, most of the electronics live on one large main PCB, including the front-panel controls, preamp tube bases and a bank of nine relays. A smaller PCB strip handles the rear-panel bias connections.

The sockets for the quartet of TAD Redbase 6L6s are chassis mounted and hand wired, keeping the main heat source away from the PCB and making a positive contribution to the amp’s longterm reliability.

Where most tube amps have separate mains and standby switches, the MT 100 has a three-way toggle for off, standby and play.

Around the back, the rear panel offers three speaker outlets, a pair of send and return jacks for the tube-buffered series effects loop, and a set of bias test points with an external adjustment screw. While the bias can be checked individually for each tube, the bias setting is a global one. The only other feature on the rear panel is a seven-pin DIN socket for the MT 100’s three-button footswitch.

The MT 100 is a proper three-channel head, with independent preamp channels accessed by small push-button switches on the front panel or via the remote footswitch. Matching coloured LED indicators tell you which channel is active. 

Overall, the MT 100’s ‘none more black’ steel grille, control panel and vinyl sleeve make a clear statement that this is a serious rock machine, albeit one with minimal features. However, as Tremonti himself says in his personal introductory demo video, “It’s got everything you would need and nothing you don’t need.”

Sounds

The MT 100’s three channels are optimised for an ideal starting point with all the tone and gain controls set roughly at 12 o’clock, giving the widest range of adjustment. 

The Clean channel has huge headroom if needed, with a punchy Fender-influenced clarity. Turning this channel’s Volume (gain) control past the halfway mark adds a subtle chime effect, becoming a sweetened crunch with the volume all the way up.

The Overdrive channel takes over at this point, with a mild crunch that gets progressively wilder, transforming into a thick, harmonic-laden distortion that many amps would be proud to call a lead channel. 

The MT 100 still has another gear to shift up into, though, with a Lead channel that packs so much distortion it can feed back at will on practically any note. Thankfully, it’s easily tamed by backing off the Gain control.

With our Les Paul, we tended to run all three gains at more or less the halfway mark, and used like this the MT 100 easily covers any base, producing the definitive high-gain overdrive tones Tremonti is known for. Swapping to single coil pickups was equally impressive, although the higher gain settings of the Clean and Overdrive channels made us reach for a noise gate.

It goes without saying that the MT 100 is loud enough for any eventuality, although unlike many high-powered designs it also sounds quite decent at bedroom levels. But let’s be clear: this is not a bedroom amp. It’s designed to fill huge halls and stadiums with ferocious rock riffage, delivered with clarity and authority. 

For maximum impact, it needs to be partnered with a good 4x12 and turned up, at which point the dynamic range, articulation and bass response all come into focus in a very satisfying way.

Our favourite channel was the medium-gain Overdrive, which has enough gain and tonal range to go from jazz and blues to high-gain powerchords. Just by varying the guitar’s volume control there’s plenty of colour and subtlety, which is artistically rewarding to play with while being almost at odds with the MT 100’s image as an all-out weapon of rock.

Verdict

While the MT 100 isn’t the most compact or portable of amplification solutions, it sounds great – and sat atop a suitably big speaker cabinet it looks the part, too. Carrying around a half or full stack demands a certain commitment (or a happy road crew), and while an amp like this may not be practical for the smaller venues most of us perform in, there’s no denying its stellar range of tones will bring out the best in anybody who plugs into one.

Aimed at pro, semi-pro and dedicated amateur users – and, of course, the hordes of Creed, Alter Bridge and Tremonti fans out there – the MT 100’s price is another temptation, coming in at $1,849/£1,599 thanks to offshore manufacturing. 

Specs

• PRICE: $1,849 / £1,599
• ORIGIN: Indonesia
• TYPE: All tube pre and power amp
• TUBES: 8x 12AX7 preamp, 4x 6L6
• OUTPUT: 100W RMS
• DIMENSIONS: 660 (w) x 275 (d) x 280mm (h) 
• WEIGHT (kg/lb): 19.5/43
• CABINET: Plywood
• CHANNELS: 3
• CONTROLS: Clean channel: Presence, Master Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, Volume. Lead & Overdrive channels: Presence, Master Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, Gain
• FOOTSWITCH: 3-button footswitch selects channels
• ADDITIONAL FEATURES: Tube‑buffered series effects loop. Individual tube bias test points and overall bias adjustment on rear panel
• CONTACT: PRS Guitars

Mark Tremonti has had a hugely successful career as the guitarist in Alter Bridge and the recently reunited Creed. But as he admits: “Honestly, I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for Metallica and Master Of Puppets!”

In this exclusive interview, he explains how his life was changed after hearing that classic album, and why down-picking has become one of his greatest strengths.

What do you remember about your first time hearing Metallica?

“One of the most important Metallica tracks for me is Welcome Home (Sanitarium). When I heard my older brother playing that in the bedroom above me, I just couldn’t fall asleep.

“So I went up there asking, ‘What’s this song about a sanitarium?!’ He gave me Master of Puppets and I did not sleep that night. I was just blown away by what I was hearing. Before that, I was listening to the Beastie Boys, Agent Orange... nothing metal. Hearing that album made me go out and carry on searching for the heaviest music I could find. 

“What I loved most was the dynamics. That’s something I really credit Metallica for. A lot of heavy bands from that period didn’t use dynamics like they did. Metallica would write these beautiful intros on songs like Battery, Damage, Inc. and The Call Of Ktulu, the latter being the song with which I developed my own fingerstyle technique. Then there was all that beautiful stuff in To Live Is To Die. 

“My favourite song of all time could very well be Orion. That variation is a really big thing for me, going from cleaner verses to those kick-you-in-the-nuts choruses, which is what you hear on Welcome Home. Funnily enough, there’s a video online of me covering that song on a Hello Kitty guitar!”

It’s no secret that a big part of that sound comes from James Hetfield’s down-picking...

“James Hetfield’s right hand shaped me as a guitar player. All of us have our strengths and weaknesses, right? It usually comes down to what you grew up playing and practising. With me, I know one of my biggest strengths is all that right hand downpicking rhythm stuff that sounds like ‘Jud jud jud’ because it just keeps going like an engine. That’s where I feel comfortable. 

“I don’t need to warm up for that stuff, I can go straight into it because that’s my background. I learned it from bands like Metallica, Slayer, Forbidden and Testament... but Metallica were always the main one. Guitar-wise, Metallica were always more influential on me.”

It’s interesting how a lot of those riffs don’t sound quite right using alternate picking.

“As much as you might not realise it, upstrokes and downstrokes sound a bit different probably because of the angle of the pick. Picking downwards has a bit more of a slice to it, while coming up is usually a bit rounder. That’s why there’s something special about that downward motion – there’s a consistency. I know this might sound weird to beginners, but sitting there for an hour just picking downwards is an artform in itself.

“We tend to dig in and play harder when using just downstrokes. With alternate picking, a lot of us lighten up. I remember Paul Reed Smith picked up one of my guitars once and said, ‘I’ve never seen frets this worn down!’ I just can’t help playing hard and it’s because James plays hard. 

“Another difference between him and Kirk is which hand leads and how they hold the pick. Kirk uses more of his left hand virtuosity and holds the pick like most players. James is more right hand-led and holds the pick with his thumb, first and middle fingers. I hold my pick that way, too! I don’t know why, but two fingers and a thumb helps me dig in harder and heavier, plus it feels like there’s more control. Now I have to play like that. I didn’t realise it wasn’t the normal way of holding a plectrum!”

There are similarities but Kirk also draws from his own pool of strengths.

“They’re two very different players, but you have to remember Kirk has to keep up with James when they play those fast riffs live! Kirk is a great alternate picker. He’s also a big reason why I love wah pedals so much, he often does those big one-string wah runs that I love. 

“Metallica have two very different guitarists and I think that’s how every band should be. Me and Myles [Kennedy, Alter Bridge guitarist/vocalist] are different – he’s more jazzy and bluesy, and I’m more of a metal guy. We complement each other’s sounds, using different amps to fill different frequency ranges to build a bigger picture. That’s something Metallica have always done.”

What are your favourite Metallica solos, then?

“There’s millions of great Kirk solos. A lot of the ones I’ve mentioned like Sanitarium, Orion and To Live Is To Die have my favourite leads, and One has a beautiful solo. I remember learning that when I was in high school and having so much fun picking it apart. I spent so much time learning all these riffs and solos over the years. 

“Metallica are such a big part of my DNA as a player. Both James and Kirk are great blues players – what James does on Nothing Else Matters is all straight pentatonic stuff. That’s what I tend to enjoy the most these days. Maybe when you’re younger you prefer all the flashy stuff, but as you get older you appreciate the bluesy stuff on a deeper level. 

“You can’t get away from the pentatonic scale. That’s what speaks to your heart. When you hear rock ’n’ roll vocal melodies, they often come from the pentatonic scale because those are the most emotive notes.”

You’ve used Mesa/Boogie amps a lot over the years. Would it be fair to say that’s partly down to Metallica?

“Yes! I remember getting the Mesa/Boogie 2C+ and they’re probably the most sought-after Mesa amps. They go for a lot of money on Reverb because they’re incredible. I also think the Dual Rectifier Rev F is one of the best amps ever made. 

“They’re very different, though. The Rectifier is like the big schoolyard bully that pushes everybody else out, it sounds so big. The 2C+ is more focused and has this great scooped sound that makes you want to play more and more. The Rectifier eats it up by taking more sonic space. And it goes beyond amps. I actually have one of James’s guitars! 

“Years ago, one of our security guys was working for them and I mentioned I’d love one of his used instruments. And James was totally cool with it as long as I replaced the one I took with a new one. So he signed this LTD Explorer for me – which was awesome!”

Have you interacted with them much over the years?

“When I first met them, I was really intimidated because they were my heroes. I’ve met them many times now and they’re all very nice. The last show we did together was Download Festival and Lars came into our dressing room to chat for half an hour. 

“Later that night, I was watching from the Snakepit. Kirk came along during Fade To Black with his serious face on. Then he spotted me and smiled, saying, ‘Hey Mark!’ It was funny because I was smiling like a schoolkid waving at him and saying, ‘He knows me!’ I’ve probably hung out with Kirk most. Something similar happened a few years ago. 

“We were on stage watching them when Fade to Black was starting. The intro was on and Kirk came over, took off his in-ears and said, ‘Hey man, how’s it going?’ I asked what amps he was using and he told me he was running a Kemper plus this and that. Then I said, ‘Dude, your solo is coming up in four seconds!’ and he laughed, saying ‘Oh shit!’ while running off with his in-ears back in!”

• Mark Tremonti’s festive album Christmas Classics New & Old is out now.

Mark Tremonti formed Creed in 1994 and released four albums with the band, as well as winning a Grammy for the single With Arms Wide Open. In 2004, Tremonti put together his new band, Alter Bridge, who have to date released seven studio albums. 

The group’s music contains lots of melodic guitar playing, chord progressions, heavy riffs and soloing, and has gained Tremonti respect from fans and peers alike. As well as Alter Bridge, Mark has released five albums under his solo project, Tremonti, which has an even harder metallic edge. 

Mark describes himself as a songwriter first and foremost, which is reflected in his frequent output over the past decades. But that said, his guitar playing is as inventive as it is technical. In this lesson we will look at some of the trademark shred techniques that Tremonti uses.

Our first example is a lick that could be used in a modern blues, rock or metal context and is based in the Minor pentatonic scale. There is a mixture of traditional two-notes-per-string pentatonic shapes as well as three-notes-per-string shapes, which allows for various legato techniques to be applied to wider intervals.

Example 2 is an arpeggio-based part using a combination of picking and fretting-hand tapping. Fretting-hand tapping is a combination of legato and string muting. 

When hammering on to a new string, use your fretting finger to land cleanly and squarely on the string near to the fret-wire. As well as this, lightly touch the unused strings with your first finger and any other spare fingers in order to mute them. If done correctly, it should be possible to play these notes without using the picking hand.

Our third example is a long legato line using some odd groupings within 16th-notes. Tremonti likes to play legato phrases using either five-note or seven-note groupings that can be connected together to smoothly navigate through positions of the scale, while at the same time not sounding repetitive or predictable.

Lick number four is a single-string idea using pull-offs and selective picking. The combination of repeating open-string pedal notes, picking, and pull-offs is tied together by keeping the picking hand moving down and up continuously – even though the pick is not always in contact with the strings. Maintaining constant momentum is the best way to stay in time and ‘in the pocket’, while synchronizing your two hands.

Our fifth and final example uses a combination of sweep picking and alternate picking using triad shapes from the key of E Minor, and scale notes in-between, which connect them together.

Learn each example slowly and accurately at first, and only when you can sense that muscle memory is attained, gradually speed up in small metronome increments. 

Get the tone

Amp Settings: Gain 7, Bass 4, Middle 5, Treble 6, Reverb 1

If you have one, go for a guitar with humbucker pickups and use the bridge pickup for a tight, clear, articulated tone. Tremonti favors 6L6-voiced tones, such as Mesa Boogie, or his signature PRS amps, so a more ‘American’ gain would be most appropriate. Use the gain control sparingly and aim for a balance between an organic rock guitar tone and sustaining shred-style lead.

Example 1. Descending pull-off lick

Start with your fourth finger and pull off from the 17th to 12th frets, then use your third finger to pull off from the 15th fret. Use this three-notes-per-string approach to descend through E Minor pentatonic (E-G-A-B-D). In bar 2, switch to palm-muted alternate picking to complete the scale.

Example 2. Ascending fretting-hand tap triad phrase

Pick the notes along the fourth string with downstrokes and fret with your first finger, using your remaining fingers to fretting-hand tap the notes on the fifth and sixth strings. Ascend the neck through these Minor and Major triad arpeggio shapes and finish with an E Natural Minor (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D) legato line.

Example 3. Five and seven-note fragment lick

This legato lick is based in E Natural Minor (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D) and uses fretting-hand taps and slides to change strings and shift positions. The lick is comprised of five and seven-note fragments, but is played with a straight 16th-note feel.

Example 4. B minor pedal-tone lick

Use the open second string as a pedal note for this B Natural Minor lick (B-C#-D-E-F#-G-A) and use pull-offs to play the notes of the scale. Keep your guitar pick moving in an alternate picking fashion throughout, in order to synchronize the hands.

Example 5. Linking triads and scale lines

This lick combines sweep picking and alternate picking and uses an E Minor triad and a C Major triad, which are connected with E Natural Minor Scale positions on the first string. Focus on synchronizing the pick and fingers when transitioning from 16th notes to 16th-note triplets.

Myles Kennedy's impressive vocal heroics are only matched by his far-ranging guitar licks.

Kennedy's six-string exploits with Alter Bridge, Slash's solo band – The Conspirators – and in his own solo work are deeply rooted in rock. But there's more than meets the ear. 

Kennedy's solo work, and his output with Alter Bridge, show his nuanced ability to mix hard-rock arrangements with off-the-beaten-path tunings. If you dial into his work with Slash, meanwhile, a love for the blues is readily apparent.

Kennedy is also a dab hand at fusion-infused leads and one of the most reliable rhythm guitar players out there today. You could say that Kennedy is one of the more multi-faceted and versatile guitarists in the game today. But where did it all begin?

“What made me fall in love with the guitar was hearing Eddie Van Halen's Eruption on a boombox while playing wiffleball with my friends as a kid, I'd never heard anything like that in my life before. It was so out there that I couldn't even fathom what the hell it was. It was one of those moments where time stood still. I was frozen in place listening to whatever Eddie was doing.”

“I was completely enamored to the point that I immediately ran to my mother and begged for her an advance on my allowance to go buy the cassette,” Kennedy continues. 

“Thankfully, she gave me the money, and a few hours later, I had my Van Halen cassette. But beyond Eddie, not too long after I heard Eruption, I heard Whole Lotta Love by Led Zeppelin, which further changed everything. It's those two songs that nudged me to want to pursue guitar.”

During a break from promoting Alter Bridge's latest release, Pawns & Kings (and his brand-new PRS signature guitar) Myles Kennedy dialed in with Guitar World to run through the 10 guitarists who shaped his sound.

1. Jimmy Page

“As a composer, guitar player and producer, Jimmy Page is very unique. He has a truly special approach, and what's crazy is that we saw that right out of the gate, but he managed to keep it up throughout his career. But I think what I loved about Jimmy and still love about him is that he has this reckless abandon. 

“He's an incredible composer and arranger, and he's great in the studio, but when he executes his leads, I don't know… there's something very dangerous about the way he plays. It's not perfect, and there's a bit of that reckless abandon, which I love. It's almost punk rock in its ethos, but really, it's fearlessness. I've always loved that about Jimmy's playing.”

2. Eddie Van Halen

“With Eddie, obviously, his sound was all his own. And when you put that into the context of when the first album [Van Halen] came out, it's just crazy. Back then, nobody had that sound. And nobody played that way, either. Eddie's 'brown sound' was revolutionary – [it inspired] an entire generation of guitar players in the '80s. And people can say what they want, but ultimately, people back then were chasing that sound. But it was a special time, and we have Eddie to thank for that. 

“His two-handed technique was a game-changer that inspired a whole bunch of shredders back then, and it still does to this day. We owe a lot to Eddie for what he brought to the party.”

3. David Gilmour

“I remember being at summer camp as a kid, and while I was there, someone was playing The Wall in its entirety, and it blew my mind. I have no idea why the album was being played in that setting, but when I heard the solo for Comfortably Numb as a 14-year-old kid, man, it brought tears to my eyes. It was just so beautiful and free, and it had this deep soul while still being extremely melodic.

“I love David's playing – during that solo, he hit all the right notes. So, for me, as a guitar player, that solo was a crucial point. 

“That's when I realized that even though I listened to a lot of Eddie Van Halen and Yngwie Malmsteen, I knew that technique wasn't everything. It was about evoking emotions via the notes and being lyrical. David is so vocal in his approach to the guitar. He speaks to people. I love that about his playing.“

4. John Sykes

“I know John played with Thin Lizzy for a while, but I discovered him through his Whitesnake stuff. That '87 record [Whitesnake] was huge, and a lot of it was due to John's sound. It was so heavy, but he had this blues element mixed with raw aggression. 

“I remember being taken by how powerful it was, and I loved his albums with Blue Murder after he left Whitesnake, too. But I think his sound, in conjunction with his vibrato, significantly influenced me. I spent a lot of time trying to emulate that big, wide vibrato because of how soulful it was.”

5. Ian Thornley

“People don't talk about Ian enough, but he's a friend of mine, and he's amazing. He's in a Canadian band called Big Wreck, and I've known him since my Mayfield Four [Kennedy's pre-Alter Bridge band] days. We toured together back then – we were both these young bucks just coming up in the ranks.

“I remember being blown away after I'd heard a song called The Oaf on the radio because of how killer Ian was on it. And then, about three weeks later, I was in a music store in New York, and when I walked in, I heard this guy shredding like a mother in the corner. It turned out to be Ian, and we got to talking. We've been close friends ever since, and I think he's one of the best-kept secrets in guitar.”

6. Warren Haynes

“Warren is another one of those guys who doesn't play a lot of notes, but he plays the right notes. Beyond that, I love his tone. Warren's got a sound that just grips you. And I've had a few incredible experiences where I got to perform and jam with him over the years, all of which were absolute highlights. Out of all the cool moments I've had in my career, if someone asked me to name the best moments, being onstage with Warren is up there. 

“Watching him do these long, extended solo sections while I was standing there, man, for a second, I forgot what my name was. He will always be one of my favorites, not only because of how great he is, but because he's like a Jedi Master. He's so calm and full of wisdom that you can't help but feed from him.”

7. Pat Metheny

“A lot of people think of me as only a hard rock guy, but I'm influenced by jazz players, too, and Pat Metheny is at the top of that list. 

“I remember hearing him back as a teenager when his Still Life (Talking) album came out. And there's a song on that album called Third Wind that has this break where Pat attacks the guitar in a way I'd never heard before. To me, it was super-transcendent. You might not think it, but Pat is highly influential on me in a lot of ways.“

8. Chris Whitley

“Here's a guy who people don't know about, which is sad. But Chris was an important artist back in the '90s for those who did hear him. I've talked with Joe Bonamassa about him, and I think John Mayer is also into Chris. But, man, Chris was just a monstrous talent.

“He was this guy who was busking on the streets of New York City, and Daniel Lanois, who produced a lot of big records back in the day, came upon him. He heard Chris, took him under his wing, and Chris ended up doing a bunch of records for Columbia. Losing Chris was such a blow – he was so talented. He was definitely a big influence, not only as a guitar player, but his vocals were amazing, too.“

9. Danny Gatton

“Danny was a genius. I've never seen anyone so terrifying with a Telecaster in their hands. I remember the first time I saw him; it was on the cover of a guitar magazine where they said he was one of the greatest unknown talents, and they were right. But back then, I was like, 'I've heard this before; let's see.' So, I went and got his record, 88 Elmira St., and I was utterly blown away. 

“His raw ability to jump around and pull from all these different influences created something entirely his own. But that's what great artists do, right? They pool all the things that interest them, put their stamp on them, and create something compelling. 

“But what I loved most was the physicality of Danny's playing. Because while those old Teles are not easy to play, Danny would just manhandle them. You could hear how much power he had in his hands, and it was scary. That and his creative concepts made Danny Gatton an exceptional player.”

10. Jeff Buckley

“Other than Eddie Van Halen and Jimmy Page, in many ways, Jeff Buckley was one of the big reasons that I needed to chase down being a guitar player. He was one of the individuals that motivated me along the way after I heard his Grace album back in '94. At that time, grunge was all the rage. And while I appreciate grunge, and I love it, Jeff Buckley provided something very different from that stuff. 

“His music was so ethereal and special, but you could also hear him pulling from Jimmy Page, Robert Plant, world music, and all these unique things. And then, about five months after I bought Grace, I was lucky enough to see Jeff perform in Seattle at a little theater that held maybe 500 people. That's when the full gravity of his vocal and guitar-playing abilities hit me. 

“To this day, his guitar playing is very underrated. Jeff used a lot of weird tunings that made sense with his voice. He was such a crazy talent and so unique. What he did back then profoundly affected me and still does today.”

After doing a stunning job of duping the entire guitar world into believing it wouldn’t happen, PRS has surprise-introduced Myles Kennedy’s new T-type signature guitar.

Not only that, it’s been released alongside the NF 53 – a standard-run version of Kennedy’s name model that PRS says will appease those who have been asking the company for “a guitar of this style and tone” for “years”.

Just as John Mayer's Silver Sky was PRS’s take on the Fender Stratocaster, these two are the Maryland brand’s reimagining of the classic Telecaster template, introducing a distinctly different take on the vibe that PRS has so far explored with its existing single-cut models.

Here, vintage, old-school style meets PRS’s penchant for surgical precision and craftsmanship in pretty spectacular fashion.

The guitar itself isn’t anything we haven’t seen before – Kennedy himself has been quite open about it in the past, and he’s played it live numerous times – but it was never something guitar fans thought would become a reality.

Kennedy has played down its production multiple times, for instance, playing it particularly coy during an interview with Total Guitar by teasing, “We’ll just have to see how it plays out,” when asked about a rollout.

Well, it turns out we were all wrong, and as Kennedy revealed in the upcoming issue of Guitarist – whose early hands-on demo with both models can be seen above – we’ve been wrong for quite some time.

“We actually started talking about doing a signature model some years ago, I’d say about 2014,” he recalled. “But at that time I just wasn’t really sure what that would be. After some years, I remember PRS called and said, ‘We think it’s time, let’s do this.’ 

“They presented the idea: what if we took a more T-style approach? Let’s put our heads together and see what we can come up with. I would say that was about two years ago.”

The Kennedy signature variant features a solid swamp ash body and maple neck, the latter of which features 22 frets, a 10”-radius maple ‘board and Bird inlays. Elsewhere, there’s a pair of Narrowfield MK pickups – one angled, one straight – which are controlled by a volume pot, a push/pull tone parameter and a five-way pickup switch that serves as a tone roll-off to bring down higher frequencies.

As for hardware, the 25.5”-scale model employs a PRS Plate Style bridge with two three-a-piece saddles, vintage-style locking tuners and a truss rod cover embossed with Kennedy’s logo.

It’s a fairly similar story for the standard NF 53, which features a few key departures from Kennedy’s own personalized spec sheet. The pickups, for example, are Narrowfield DDs, and are arranged parallel to each other, while it’s only a three-switch with standard master volume and tone knobs in the control department.

Notably, those Narrowfields are updated, boasting a mixed magnet/steel pole piece design utilized for “twangy, musical highs without losing too much bass”.

Aside from that, though, it’s business as usual. A solid swamp ash body partners a maple neck and fretboard – 10” radius and bird inlays included – and a two-saddle Plate Style bridge and locking tuners head up the hardware.

Each model also brings distinct aesthetic options to the table. Kennedy’s is available in the solid Antique White, Black and Hunters Green, as well as the grain-flashing Tri-Color Sunburst and Vintage Natural.

For the NF 53, it’s all about the swamp ash's natural grain, which is embellished with either Black Doghair, Blue Matteo, McCarty Tobacco Sunburst or White Doghair.

The release of the MK and NF 53 caps off “decades” of talks within PRS to produce a Tele-a-like, with Paul Reed Smith himself initially being put off by the hum that such single-coil equipped models produced.

And so – as was the case with the Silver Sky – he sought to refine the design with the Narrowfield’s help.

“If you pick up a ’56 or ’66 Telecaster it’s got an unbearable amount of high-end, the high E’s not very loud: they have problems,” he told Guitarist. “The NF 53 is thicker, fuller but has that sound at the same time.”

Both of the new models will retail for $2,899. For more information on the new models, visit PRS. 

The latest issue of Guitarist, which features the full interview with Myles Kennedy and Paul Reed Smith, will be available from Magazines Direct on Friday (June 23).

Guitar builder extraordinaire Paul Reed Smith joined hard-rock titans Alter Bridge onstage at a recent performance to lend his licks to PRS artists Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy.

At the February 4 show in Silver Spring, Maryland – just under an hour’s drive from PRS HQ in Stevensville – Smith was introduced by Kennedy, who proclaimed, “I just want y’all to understand the gravity of the situation: in my opinion, this guy is a legend. I mean, he is one of the great guitar gurus of all time.”

Fan footage shows what happened next, as the band launch into anthemic show closer Rise Today, taken from 2007 opus Blackbird. Armed with a Paul’s Guitar model, Smith wastes no time in embellishing the track’s intro with a handful of bluesy bends that really sing – so much so that Kennedy is compelled to dash over to the mic and comment, “Listen to that sustain!”

The superstar luthier continues to add some sweetly phrased call-and-response solos in an exchange with Kennedy’s vocals, but really lets those power chords fly in the chorus.

The ante is upped in the middle eight, which finds Smith and Kennedy trading licks over a pounding bass drum before Smith takes a final solo over the track’s closing chorus. In fact, the leads are flying so thick and fast that Tremonti doesn’t manage to muscle his way in until the finale, which finds him opening up a can of blistering legato to send the set home.

PRS has been the Alter Bridge guitarists’ builder of choice since Tremonti’s early years in post-grunge juggernauts Creed, and his single-cut signature guitar remains a staple of the company’s affordable SE line.

In the years since, the virtuoso has worked on an Explorer-style model with the firm – which, sadly, sounds like it won’t see the light of day – while Kennedy has been leaning on a Tele-style model that provided the bulk of the tones on the band’s latest record, Pawns & Kings.

This isn’t the first time Paul Reed Smith has made a guest appearance at a PRS artist’s show – last year, he hopped onstage with DragonForce to solo with Herman Li and co.

As 2023 starts to pick up speed, the age of digital guitar gear continues to mature at a rapid pace – and with it, the influence of amp modelers, digital cabinet emulations and virtual effects continues to expand into new corners of the guitar world.

It’s proven to be one of the most contentious sticking points between traditionalists and modernists over the past few years: as amp modeling technology becomes better and better, are traditional tube amps becoming redundant?

Naturally, tube amps will always have a place in guitar music – there’s no denying that – but in recent years we’ve seen more and more guitar stars switching to the ranks of the digital realm for amp and effects sounds to record and perform live with.

Names include John Mayer, who used a Fractal amp modeler on his recent album, and Mark Knopfler, who switched to the ranks of Kemper for his live performances in 2019.

Mark Tremonti, however, is one guitar titan who has remained loyal to the leagues of tube amps in the face of digital expansion. That’s not to say he hasn’t dabbled with the other side, though.

In fact, the Alter Bridge guitarist said he conducted half a tour using a Kemper Profiler, but had to switch back to his usual PRS MT 100 signature amp midway through proceedings as he couldn’t seem to get over some “digital weirdness”.

“I did half of a tour with a Kemper at one point, just to try it out,” Tremonti told Premier Guitar. “I never found the right lead setting that made me comfortable. I always felt some digital weirdness in there. 

“When I switched to my MT 100, I wouldn’t go back. So, on the road, it’s just the one MT 100 now.”

Tremonti’s Alter Bridge bandmate Myles Kennedy is also strongly on the side of tube amp supremacy, and conceded in the same interview that although Kempers represent an efficient logistical upgrade from large, heavy touring rigs, it’s one he can’t get behind.

Kennedy, who favors Diezel Herberts and VH4s, said, “Mark and I still want those tubes to be working. We’re kind of old-school in that sense. 

“Our manager, I’m sure, would love us to switch to Kempers to save a ton of money,” he continued. “But we’re kind of bullheaded. We’ll keep flying the flag, man.”

Though the debate between the two will no doubt rage on, it's hard to argue against the fact that Kempers are becoming pretty adept at creating authentic-sounding tube amp tones.

Case in point, JHS Pedals' Josh Scott recently revealed the tones he's used in his videos since September 2021 come from a Kemper Profiler, and not the tube amp shown onscreen.

The debate surrounding 5-string bass guitars has changed radically over the years. With increasing competition for low frequency real estate, bassists have often been forced to expand into the lower registers just to be heard. “When I had to emulate hip hop that was done with a keyboard or drum machine, the fifth string allowed me to hit those low tones," said Grammy-winning MD and bassist Adam Blackstone. "It really took over as a part of my overall sound.” 

"I’ve never even played a 4-string," says Korn bassist Fieldy. "I’ve always played a 5-string. I just like that low, thick string."

Still, the majority of bass greats have all used a 4-string for their entire career without ever touching a 5-string. "I always feel slightly sorry for 5-string players," says Joel Graham, bassist with English thrash metal band, Evile. "I've noticed them onstage seeming a little unsure what to do with themselves. Four strings were always more than enough for my bass-playing heroes.”

So what does the world of bass actually think? We asked some of the biggest names in bass…

Duff McKagan – Guns N’ Roses

“Y’know, I see those 5-string basses around, and I feel sorry for the company who makes them, because they don’t know they messed up – you’re only supposed to put four strings on them! They should have counted more carefully – they’ve got some guy working down there who f****d up! I guess there’s a place for five strings, but not in what I do. There are guys who make you think, ‘It’s amazing that you can play that, it’s killer…’ and there are people who are a lot more talented than I am – four strings is gonna keep me busy for the rest of my life, you know?”

David Pastorius – Local 518 

“I used to play five, but I like the tone of a four and I like what I do better out of a four. I’m not opposed to playing a five or a six; if anything, the extra strings make it easier. I was forced to learn the neck better when I went back to a four. I could stay in one spot all night with a five!"

Glenn Hughes – The Dead Daisies

“I’ve had all the 5-string, 6-string and 8-string basses; I’ve been the active bass thing – I’ve done all that. Now I’ve gone back to the passive 4-strings."

Daniel Pugsley – Skindred

"I always used 4-strings with Skindred, but recently I have been playing a lot more 5-string. It’s actually the first time I’ve owned one, and I’m really getting into it. I think because all my favourite players were always predominantly 4-string guys I naturally leaned towards that.”

Jimmy Haslip – Yellowjackets (1977 - 2011)

“I played 4-string for a long time, then in the early 80s I got hip to the 5-string through Jimmy Johnson. I went to a show he was playing with Clare Fischer up in the Hollywood Hills, and after noticing he was playing a 5-string I went up and introduced myself and asked him questions about it.

"At the time I had an endorsement with Yamaha, so I approached them about building a 5-string, which they were somewhat opposed to. I kind of forced the issue, though, so they built me a 5-string out of a BB3000, which was a 4-string bass, so it had kind of a thin neck, but at least I had that low B string.

"So I got into that and toured with the Jackets with that bass, and before long Yamaha were getting tons of inquiries from people wanting to buy the new Yamaha 5-string bass! It forced them into manufacturing the BB5000, which was their first 5-stringer. Eventually I was looking for something to push the envelope and started noticing people playing 6-string, which I thought was kind of interesting. Being in the Yellowjackets with no guitar player opened the door for me to give it a shot."

Andy Sprakes – Failsafe

“I’ve tried 5-string basses before, and it didn’t feel right so I stuck with the 4-string. There’s nothing wrong with 5- or 6-string basses, but I think people who use them to their full potential are few and far between, so I wouldn’t recommend buying one just because it has more strings. So depending what you do with it, sometimes less is more!”

Cass Lewis – Skunk Anansie

“I used to use a 5-string for songs like ‘Charlie Big Potato’, but I prefer playing 4-string basses. I’ve always had that mindset. I got introduced to a company called Lakland that make 5-string basses and eventually I said, 'OK, OK, I will try one,' and it was the first time I had played a 5-string that was just as comfortable as playing a 4-string. It’s to do with the scale length of the B string; they just worked it out differently, but a good 5-string is a rare commodity."

Brian Marshall – Alter Bridge

“For recording, I only use a StingRay 5-string. It’s been a trial-and-error issue, but every record I’ve been on since [Creed’s 1999 album] Human Clay I’ve used that same bass.”

Andrew Levy – The Brand New Heavies 

“I was put under a lot of pressure in the late 90s to get into playing a 5-string, because when you make an album the record company likes to remix certain tracks so that DJs can play the songs in clubs, and sometimes those remixes become the songs that everyone recognises so, live, you have to replicate that particular mix. If the bass went lower than that low E I had to pick up a 5-string. Recently I’ve been relearning a lot of the songs without using the low B string, but there are certain songs that I have to use it on, like You Are The Universe, because I wrote that on a 5-string, and Sometimes as well.”

Colin Edwin – Porcupine Tree

“I’ve never really felt the need for a 5-string, but I sometimes need to go down lower than E, so I’ve been detuning to drop D with a Hipshot for a long time. I really like the idea of having the bottom four strings of a 5-string on a 4-string bass, so I had one of my Spectors set up for that. I was really happy with it. I have a 5-string that I mess about with at home, but it doesn’t really fit with what we need.”

Adam Blackstone – Justin Timberlake, Nicki Minaj

“It’s the rumble of the low B that does it for me. Having that option gives me a different sense of how I play the bass. I’m definitely a guy who holds the low end down. When I had to emulate hip hop that was done with a keyboard or drum machine, the fifth string allowed me to hit those low tones, and it really took over as a part of my overall sound.”

Yves Carbone

"If you play 4-string bass, you’re categorised as a 4-string player – and if you play an extended-range bass, people look at you as if you’re an alien. When the first 5-string bass was introduced, I don’t think it was possible to hear the notes on the low-B string – but today everybody is used to hearing them, and so it’s not a problem.”

Rhys Lewis: The Blackout

“Why don’t I have a 5-string bass in my collection?’ So I went online to order one and then thought, ‘I can do better than five – I’ll get a 6-string bass!’ I don’t gig with it, I just practise, although I do love playing it. When you go from a bass neck the size of an anaconda’s throat you can fly around a 4-string jazz bass easily.”

Oteil Burbridge – Dead & Company

“I remember when Anthony Jackson was the only cat who had a 6-string bass. I didn’t even think it would be possible that I’d ever get one. When they did start making them I couldn’t afford. I would tune a guitar in 4ths to try and get the shapes. When I finally got a 6-string it all came together.”

Patrick Dahlheimer – The Gracious Few

"I don’t play 5- and 6-string bass, because I told myself that I wouldn’t move onto five or six strings until I’ve mastered four, and let’s say that I still have a long way to go. I play around with a few 5-strings at home but the family dogs usually start barking."

Thundercat

"Sometimes I play a 4-string bass just to make people feel comfortable. When they see me with a 6-string, I can tell they’d rather see me play a 4-string, because they think all bass players should play a 4-string! Every now and again I’ll play a 4-string, but for the most part the 6-string bass is where it’s at.”

Alain Caron – UZEB

“I first started working with a luthier in Montreal and we started making basses with longer necks, so I had a fingerboard that continued almost all the way up to the pickups. And then George Furlanetto called me and said, ‘I see that you are working on a new instrument. I may have something for you.’ And then he told me that with the type of neck I had I needed a 5-string. So he built me a 5-string with a high C, and I loved it. But I had been listening to Gino Vannelli playing synthesizer bass, and I wanted to have that low D, E and C# and low B, so I asked George to build me a 5-string with a low B too, so then I had both, but what I really needed was a 6-string, so he built me a prototype in 1983 or ’84 and I’ve been playing 6-string for over 20 years now.”

Gaz Spencer – The Ghost Of A Thousand

“I stick to a 4-string bass; if I need to go lower I downtune, which I think sounds heavier than the B string on 5- or 6-string basses. I reckon unless you’re Les Claypool, more than four is unnecessary!”

If you are thinking about getting yourself a 4-string or a 5-string bass guitar, check out our buyer’s guide.

What can the greatest guitar solos of the year tell us about the business of playing the guitar? Well, in one sense, this annual democratic endeavor reveals a lot about where lead guitar is going technically. 

Once upon a time, some people were saying the guitar solo is dead, and yet here we are in 2022, in an era when individual virtuosity has never been more spectacular – and not just on social media, which has been an accelerant for neo-shred styles. Players are doing what they have always done, standing upon the shoulders of giants, in search of new techniques, new sounds, but also, more to the point, in search of themselves.

After all, that’s all technique is: a means to an end, a mode of expression. Once we look past the technique, we’ll find that the solos here all serve different purposes. They’re all telling different stories. That is what Chris Buck is doing with Cardinal Black’s Warm Love – we describe it as a journey, and it is, but it’s a narrative. It’s the same for Erja Lyytinen, whose meticulous intonation evokes the blues-rock greats, and for Slash, whose lyrical style is evergreen.

Take Eddie, from Red Hot Chili Peppers’ returning guitarist John Frusciante, a player of great gifts, not least his discipline, knowing when to temper his brilliance and when not to. Eddie, written in tribute to Eddie Van Halen, somehow does both, allowing him a bona-fide guitar hero moment that nonetheless has the good grace to not pull focus away from what Flea is doing on bass – a bassline like he is talking to Frusciante as he scales a rock face, telling him where to place his feet.

Others are the story, like how Steve Vai and Ibanez teamed up for one of electric guitar’s most bonkers, most intriguing creations, and the sound that he could get out of it. Or like when Steve Vai answered an email from two guys from Austin, TX.

And others act as all lead playing does – whether it’s clarinet, oboe, violin or a Les Paul – it acts as a power-up, changing the energy of the song, using all of the above, the sense of narrative, an exploration of technique and what’s possible, for a musical set piece that gets people out of their seats. And that’s why people play guitar.

• The 10 best guitar riffs of 2022

10. Erja Lyytinen – Bad Seed

The first single taken from the Finnish blues-rock phenomenon’s latest studio album, Waiting For The Daylight, features a solo that will stop you in your tracks should you be laboring under the impression that Lyytinen’s style is all about the slide, and strictly blues as manifested by all those 5s, 7s, and 8s on the tablature notation. 

This is the aggressive expansion of blues-rock’s melodic perimeter fence, as though Lyytinen is following in Gary Moore’s footsteps, chasing down big moonlit minor key melodies with her lead playing, digging into her two years getting musically booksmart at the conservatory, intonation on point, for a solo that effectively tells the story of the song without words.

9. Red Hot Chili Peppers – Eddie

RHCP’s big, massive and prolific 2022 was lit up with guitar highlights from returning guitarist John Frusciante. It wasn’t so much 365 days spent orbiting the sun as an outpouring – two albums, stadium tours, and a track that saluted the late Eddie Van Halen.

Taken from the Los Angeles superstars' second album of the year, Return of the Dream Canteen (where is this canteen, does it take reservations?), Eddie is not the sound of Frusciante with a modded Strat, a Marshall stack and a Variac in search of Eruption II, but in a sense it is the sound of Frusciante placing himself in that zone.

It opens with him at his most yowling, quasi-Hendrix fuzz, with the solo all the more impactful for sharing the mix with Flea’s peripatetic and propulsive eighth-note bassline. But as Eddie works towards a conclusion you ask yourself, ‘Is he going to go full-shred? He’s not.’ He did, kind of.

8. Slash – Fill My World (feat. Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators)

There is a case to be made that says 4 is the most Guns N’ Roses album Slash and Myles Kennedy have recorded together with their band of Conspirators. It has a sleazy grit to it, like an oyster recovered from the gutter on Sunset, a sense of animalism that is hard to put into a rock ’n’ roll record in the 21st century because contemporary audiences have long been deflowered; they’re inured to this kind of thing.

That the band were allowed to track it live – a long-held aspiration of Slash’s – was critical. There’s even something a little Sweet Child O’ Mine about the Fill My World, right there in that opening riff. But then Slash’s phrasing is always going to betray his latent appetite for destruction, right there in the controlled chaos, in the trebly clang of his Les Paul into Marshall head. Here, as ever, he proves that there’s no-one better at balancing noble melodic intent with rock’s devil-may-care fatalism.

7. Ghost – Griftwood

Sadly not a bold theater-metal cover of Scottish indie wets Travis’s Driftwood, this is kind of something else, subversive with its bash-the-bishop anti-religious pomp, and it plays out a little like Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love as reimagined for the Eurovision market.

It’s like they’ve turned black metal marshmallow pink. From the gussied up production to its redoubtable structure and pop dynamics, Griftwood is really is a masterclass in formal discipline, and of course a composition like this demands a big solo and a 2,000-watt spotlight to shine on it.

The anonymity of the Nameless Ghouls must make for an HR nightmare and streaming platforms must spend much of your subscription fees on designing the algorithm to administer royalties (no laughing at the back) to these cats, but it also makes adjudicating this style all that more difficult. Could it be Phil Collen in black robes and face mask? Is Vitto Bratta leading a double life? We’ll never know, but the solo rips all the same. La Suède, Douze points!

6. Nita Strauss – The Wolf You Feed (feat. Alissa White-Gluz)

Oh, so this is why they call her Hurricane Nita… Wowzers. With Nita Strauss’s 2022 was dominated by the headlines surrounding her departure from Alice Cooper’s touring band and joining up with pop superstar Demi Lovato, there was a risk her profile as a solo artist would fly under the radar.

But then Strauss had the good sense to hedge against this, drafting Alissa White-Gluz from Arch Enemy for some serious vocals – a collaboration she had been wanting to do forever – and firing out a work of anthemic up-tempo metal that could not be complete until she’d turned the strings on her Ibanez JIVAX2 signature guitar molten.

The Wolf You Feed was the second of two singles that will feature on her upcoming solo album, with the followup to 2018’s Controlled Chaos expected some time in early 2023. It is sure to be one of the guitar spectaculars of the year.

5. Alter Bridge – Pawns & Kings

Having ran away with the Palme d’Or for best riff of 2022, with Silver Tongue winning by a landscape, Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti return to chart highly once more for his unique abilities to gently melt the face. There’s something about the way those players just tease the notes off the fingerboard, with Pawns & Kings sounding like the divination of some sacred metal they have discovered while backpacking across the Sinai Peninsula.

The solo here is anticipated by an off-kilter legato shred-a-doodle that is more hyper-rhythm than lead, but when it arrives – complete with that high-end electric guitar tone courtesy of Paul Reed Smith’s R&D department – it is a stop-and-rewind moment.

It's also an invitation for all the young Tremontis to get their game faces on, retreat to the practice space, to try all the guitar picks at their disposal – maybe even all at once – and work on phrasing and those super-fluid transitions that Tremonti and Kennedy so insouciantly perform like a master maître d’ preparing his 10,000th Crêpes Suzette. Indeed, this is what 10,000 hours sounds like.

4. Cardinal Black – Warm Love

Chris Buck revs up his Goldtop Revstar to give Warm Love the warmth and the love that a soulful blues-rock track a decade in the making deserves. And it requires a fingerstyle approach to tease out all the dynamics. We’re assuming, or rather calling the live session version as definitive, because that’s where Buck really stretches out and perches his guitar where Tom Hollister’s vocals were just a minute before.

Using a wah pedal as an occasional filter, no doubt with some space added from a Dawner Prince Boonar, and then just seizing the improvisational initiative to take the solo from Point A through the scenic route to arrive at Point B in one piece. 

Though with a solo such as this, you don’t want the tension of thinking it’s all going to come crashing down; the tension here is how high he might take it. Well, 2022 was quite the year for Cardinal Black: Buck took this all the way to the Royal Albert Hall.

3. Steve Vai – Teeth of the Hydra

Steve Vai’s playing has outgrown the guitar. We have long suspected it. The clues were there: the accumulation of the double-necked electrics, the playing one-handed while recovering from surgery, all to keep things interesting and find new avenues for musical exploration. And now this: the best, the Ibanez Hydra, the triple-necked steam-punk custom build that inspired this ripping, not-of-this-Earth instrumental.

Anyone who has put in the hours working on their Travis picking will particularly appreciate Vai’s separation of various parts of his brain, as though head, shoulders, knees and toes can all act independently of each other, answering to their own metronome.

That Teeth of the Hydra is technically audacious goes without saying – it is a man playing a guitar with three necks – but it somehow encapsulates what an instrument like this should sound like, an instrument so cumbersome it needs to be on a stand, one that has its own theme song. We look forward to hearing a sequel.

2. Sophie Lloyd – Do or Die

Sophie Lloyd made her name by adapting tracks from across the length and breadth of the pop-culture firmament for shred guitar, and it turns out this gambit endows her with all the chops necessary to, y’know, just go out and tear it up as Machine Gun Kelly’s stunt guitarist, or to take on the big projects such as corralling her favorite singers into the studio – a power move inspired by Slash, who did something similar with his solo work – for an all-star album. 

Do Or Die is taken from her forthcoming solo album, Imposter Syndrome, which will be released in 2023, and features Nathan James on vocals. James, frontman of Inglorious, will thank you for not fast-forwarding the YouTube video to watch Lloyd set her Kiesel ablaze, but understands if you did.

1. Polyphia – Ego Death (feat. Steve Vai)

It had to be Ego Death. Just doing the arithmetic on the personnel involved would have led most to the conclusion that no other solo could compete. Here we have Steve Vai lighting up his Ibanez PIA with Scott LePage and Tim Henson holding down the rhythm.

With 8.8 million views on the Polyphia YouTube page, a second Top 10 finish for Steve Vai, and one of the most audacious moments on an album that in years to come might well become a byword for audacity, Ego Death is an early contender for the ne plus ultra of 21st-century guitar instrumentals. 

It is the sound of the master who never let himself lose his sense of radicalism stretching out to offer Tim Henson and Scott LePage a solo that is quintessentially Vai: virtuosic but playful, tricksy but melodic, and a perfect fit for the Polyphia aesthetic of pristine genius.

As Vai explained when he sat down with Henson, LePage and Guitar World, his playing on Ego Death was his gift for Polyphia to do with what they say fit. That meant cutting it up, as they often do, splicing instrumentation together, and taking a non-linear approach to writing and composition much in the way a hip-hop producer might.

“I wanted them to do it. It didn’t really matter – it’s not sacred,” Vai said. “It was chopped in a way that met their creativity demands, and I wouldn’t want them to do anything else. When I first heard it, though, it was so different. I thought, ‘Maybe they didn’t like what I did!’”

Oh, they did. Just listen to it. It’s perfect.

When Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti teamed up to release Alter Bridge’s most recent album, Pawns & Kings, earlier this year, it brought with it an array of characteristically infectious electric guitar riffs – the heaviest of which, it was recently revealed, were actually written by Kennedy.

One of the standout riffs for which Kennedy was responsible can be heard on Fable of the Silent Son – which, at eight minutes 22 seconds, is officially the band’s longest song, and was inspired by a baritone guitar once owned by a late jazz rock legend.

Speaking to Guitarist, Kennedy revealed Fable of the Silent Son was influenced by one of Walter Becker’s old Alembic Orion guitars, with the Alter Bridge maestro explaining he purchased the late Steely Dan member’s guitar at auction three years ago.

“True story: I’m a massive Steely Dan fan, and when Walter Becker passed away I bought one of his Alembic [Orion] baritone guitars at an auction [in 2019],” he revealed. “That was what inspired that sludgy riff in the first half of that song when I was demoing it.”

However, Kennedy went on to admit the Alembic Orion in question can’t actually be heard on the record – as it turns out, Kennedy was far too precious about it, and didn’t want to take it out of his own studio to fly with it.

The auction that hosted the Alembic Orion took place on October 18 and 19, 2019, and held by Julien’s Auctions. The two-day event saw the sale of over 600 guitars and 400 amps, and fetched a total sum of $3.3 million.

As such, it’s likely the baritone Kennedy bought was the 1995 Alembic Orion guitar that was eventually snapped up for $3,200 after a relatively tame bidding war on October 18, 2019. The guitar itself, which had an estimated price of $2,000, features a walnut, bubinga, maple and ebony construction, and sports two Alembic HG pickups.

Fable of the Silent Son also featured Tremonti’s own guitar, which was tuned “way down in A or A#”, with the Creed guitarist labeling the track as having “one of the lowest tunings we’ve ever done”.

“It was by far the hardest song, at least for me, to put together,” Kennedy concurred. “There’s at least, jeez, three time-changes in there – it always keeps you guessing.”

According to Kennedy, Becker’s Alembic Orion baritone wasn’t the only influential guitar to inspire the proceedings of Pawns & Kings – he also used his unique Telecaster-shaped PRS model, which was first spotted live in June this year.

Speaking to Total Guitar last month, Kennedy explained he used the PRS Tele-a-like for all of his guitar solos and most of the rhythm work on Pawns & Kings.

And, in his most recent conversation with Guitarist, Kennedy expanded on his fondness for the design: “I love guitars with a story. I also really love Blackguards, Broadcasters, Nocasters and the first two or three years of those Telecasters were amazing.

“So I somehow convinced [PRS] to build this creature for me and I love it. It sounds great. It’s all over this record: 80 percent of the rhythms are that guitar, and all of the solos. It has a single-coil tonality, but, to me, it’s almost like a really aggressive P-90. It complements Mark’s humbuckers really well.”

To read the full interview with Alter Bridge, and to explore the best guitar gear of 2022, head over to Magazines Direct to pick up the latest issue of Guitarist.

Mark Tremonti has shared footage of one of his “happiest moments on stage”, in which he gives his guitar to a young disabled fan who was watching the show from the front row. 

The heart-warming moment occurred at the band's Milan date at the Mediolanum Forum di Assago in Italy on November 25. The footage shows the guitarist point out the fan and hand his electric guitar to the crew to pass on to her. 

Fortunately, they are able to go one further and soon manage to lift her over the barrier, so she can receive the instrument to widespread applause. The band's security then lift the delighted young fan on to the stage, where she gets a hug from Tremonti and an onstage view of the audience, including her family below.

Posting on Instagram, the guitarist wrote: “I just have to share one of my happiest moments on stage. I hope she loves the guitar as much as we loved giving it to her. Thanks for such an awesome night Milan!!”

Members of the fan’s family, who say she is called Eleonora, have since commented on Tremonti’s post, thanking the guitarist for his generosity.

Tremonti’s family welcomed a daughter, Stella, with additional needs in 2021. Then in May 2022, the songwriter released an album of Frank Sinatra covers in aid of the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS). 

“I decided to do this record to raise funds for families and individuals with Down syndrome,” said Tremonti at the time. “This project is the start of a new purpose that I will have for the rest of my life.”

Watch the full video footage of Tremonti’s onstage gesture above.

Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy have been honing their guitar double act in Alter Bridge for the best part of two decades. As they sit together in the bar of London’s Royal Garden Hotel, they laugh when Myles says, “We’ve been playing together for so long, we’ve now morphed into one being!”

Tremonti has long been celebrated as one of the finest and most articulate guitarists of his generation, and while Kennedy is most famous for his four-octave vocal range – displayed both in Alter Bridge and in Slash’s solo band – he’s also a skilful guitarist in his own right. 

Their guitars are front and centre on the new Alter Bridge album Pawns & Kings. Produced once again by the band’s longtime collaborator Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette, the album is focused on what Myles calls “meat and potatoes” guitar riffs, with a bare minimum of extraneous textures and instrumentation. 

As Mark explains: “A lot of times in the past, we used to have a string or a keyboard underneath to boost the music up, but on this record, we got rid of all that stuff. It sounds like the guitars are breathing. They’re open and they have all this space to live.” 

For this reason, he adds, “People keep saying that this is our heaviest record yet.” But beyond the abundance of abrasive, interlocking dual-guitar riffage, there is much more to Pawns & Kings. 

“I think this is maybe our most involved record,” Mark says. “Out of all of the records, if somebody listened to it cold, it’d be the hardest to grasp right out of the gate because there are so many twists and turns. As an artist, you’re trying to not let the listener go: ‘This is Alter Bridge. It’s going to do this, and then it’s going to do that.’ We want to keep people guessing.”

And what also resonates powerfully in this new album is the shared conviction between Tremonti and Kennedy for conveying meaning in their songs. 

On Pawns & Kings they deftly balance a hard-hitting instrumental attack against deep lyricism, anthemic choruses against introspective verses, and moments of self-restraint against explosive displays of fretboard fireworks. “One of the hardest dances to do is to make something heavy and technical and still emotional at the same time,” Mark says. “But unless the song means something to you, there’s no point.”

One of the more surprising elements of the new Alter Bridge album is how Tremonti and Kennedy have shaken up their ‘traditional’ roles. While it might once have been safe to assume that lead guitar duties would fall naturally to Tremonti, the precise call-and-response soloing on the album’s title track and the eight and a half minute epic Fable Of The Silent Sun makes it hard to decipher exactly who’s playing what. 

And although Myles describes himself, with tongue in cheek, as “the sensitive ponytail guy” of the band, he is the author of many of this record’s heaviest riffs – including the moshpit-starting groove of Silver Tongue and the foreboding clangour of album opener This Is War.

Myles acknowledges that it’s Mark’s exemplary right hand chops that truly animate these riffs. “It’s kind of like James Hetfield,” he explains. “Some guys have it. It’s an aggression. When I’d go in to track my part it was like, ‘I can’t wait to hear Mark play over the top and add his attack because it’ll help bring it to life.’” 

Myles also reveals that when the pair descend into drop tunings, he opts for thick strings so that the “intonation is tighter,” while Mark is more likely to use a lighter gauge and allow the strings to “flop around” – thus differentiating their tones. Reaching for a colourful analogy, he explains: “It’s like when you get hit in the gut. If you’re a bigger person, it bounces around. That’s part of what makes that sound.”

For tone and technique, Mark asserts that it’s well worth reassessing the itty bitty pieces of triangular plastic that guitarists often take for granted. Picks, he says, are “the thing that you’re interacting most with on your guitar. It’s how you touch the guitar so it’s important.”

Having recently embarked on a quest to “try every pick ever made” and see if a change could help him play better and dig in more, he found new favourites in Dunlop’s 1mm and 1.35mm Flow guitar picks. “It made a huge difference,” he enthuses. “Now I can’t look back.”

For all his dedication to his craft, his precise and methodical approach to the guitar, Mark doesn’t feel the need to flaunt his status as a guitar hero. The album’s introspective ballad Stay – on which he sings lead – is one of a handful of tracks that doesn’t contain a solo. 

“After being known as a guitar player for so many years, I always feel pressure, like I have to live up to something,” he explains. “Being a writer excites me way more than being a lead guitar player.” He has come a long way as an artist since his formative years as a speed metal buff. “If I just spent my time sitting down, 100 per cent trying to be an excellent guitar player, you might hear a very different, more technically proficient guitar player, but I’d much rather create songs.”

Conversely, Myles has keenly embraced the opportunity to shred more on Pawns & Kings, and even got himself a bespoke new tool for the job. During his solo summer tour, he was spotted rocking a sleek black PRS-built take on a Fender classic, and while an initial probe for details elicits a tongue-in-cheek, “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” he gleefully divulges that this is indeed a new prototype made to his exacting specifications.

The semi-secret project came about after the 2021 release of his second solo record, The Ides Of March, which he cut using a selection of vintage Telecasters. Not wanting to subject the valuable instruments to touring, and as a longtime player of PRS guitars, he called upon “Paul and the gang” to help him develop an alternative. 

“We riffed for a long time and they found this sound that was in my head,” he says. “I have a real fondness for those early Telecasters, so you always wonder if there’s a way you can combine elements with a more contemporary approach in something that would be very versatile. It’s like a P-90 meets an old Blackguard-era Telecaster sound.” 

Myles used the guitar for all of his solos and the majority of his rhythm tracks on the record. “It cuts – it’s all there,” he enthuses. “It’s got its own place, especially with Mark who’s using humbuckers. It helped distinguish the sound.” 

Myles stops short of calling it a signature model, and in regards to a consumer roll-out he teases: “We’ll just have to see how it plays out.” But things feel positive, with his bandmate already staking out a spot at the front of the queue: “It’s not just for him,” Mark laughs. “I’m getting one given to me!” 

Of course, the star of Mark’s collection is his own PRS Tremonti signature model. In fact, the only time you’ll hear him without one is if a particular riff calls for a baritone chug. With its high output humbuckers and single cut body shape, we’re best off, he suggests, thinking of it as “a modernised version of a Les Paul.” 

He adds: “I hate to say it’s more refined because there are so many great Les Pauls. But a perfect analogy for it is if you took an old hot rod from back in the ’60s and put a brand new drivetrain inside it.” 

When it comes to guitar amps, Mark is a genuine aficionado, so there was no chance of travelling light when it came time to hit the studio for Pawns & Kings. “I got my car and put ten amps in there – all my favourites,” he explains. “That’s always one of the most fun days; we do an amp shoot-out and check them all out.”

Those that came out on top this time included his all-new 100-watt signature PRS MT100 (which, he says, will “probably” be released for public consumption in 2023) as well as its baby brother, the nifty PRS MT15 lunchbox valve amp.

A Cornford RK100 also made the cut, alongside a Granophyre from modern metal specialists, Omega Ampworks. Last but by no means least, Mark brought two Dumbles to the high-class amp party, and Myles took a particular shine to one and used it for his solos.

“It’s crazy,” Myles says. “I used an amp that was probably more expensive than my first house.” Indeed, because of their hefty price tags (often fetching upwards of $75,000), these rare and revered creations tend to dwell far out of reach of most players, so we asked the amp expert in chief to distil their magic. 

After a considered pause, Mark says: “There’s something that happens when your pick hits the string. It’s this weird sensation that doesn’t happen on other amps for me. It just has this thing. A lot of Dumble clones don’t have it. There are also Dumbles that don’t have it. There’s bad sounding Dumbles and I’ve owned one, but when it’s right, it is the best amp in the world.” 

For his rhythm parts, Myles used a Diezel Herbert and a VH4 – a tried and tested combination. Initially, however, it took years of searching for him to find amps that would sit comfortably among the expansive frequencies already occupied by Mark’s well-established sound.

“He uses a lot of real estate sonically and that’s one of the things I loved about his tone when I first heard it,” Myles explains. “The real challenge was finding where I fit in, and it was tough. We didn’t figure it out until we were doing the Blackbird record [in 2007]. We were trying everything. I brought my JCM800s – we had tons – but we kept shooting out. It wasn’t sitting in the right spot or it sounded too similar to what Mark was doing.” 

After almost running out of options, Myles recalls how the lightbulb moment came when he stumbled across a Diezel Herbert stashed away in a closet: “We gave it a try, plugged it in and fired up channel two and there it was – all the frequencies that complemented what Mark was doing. I haven’t looked back since.” 

Similarly, Myles has also been getting maximum mileage out of a favourite stomp box – a “big blue” Line 6 MM4 Modulation Modeller, used for many of the cleaner, more ambient textures on the new record. He laughs, “I don’t even know if they still make them, but there’s this one sound I programmed back around 2000, and I’ve done my best to make sure I don’t ever lose it.” 

Armed with their respective weapons of choice, Alter Bridge will be touring arenas this winter – a thought that was never far from mind when Pawns... was being written. “When we write a record, we know we’re going to play it live,” Mark says. “We like the ballads but we also like to rock. Heavy equals energy – and energy equals a great show!”

• Pawns & Kings is out now via Napalm Records.

Chunky, weighty and extraordinarily articulate, Mark Tremonti’s electric guitar tone on the new Alter Bridge album, Pawns & Kings, is nothing short of sublime.

His tone can be largely attributed to his high-output humbucker-loaded PRS Tremonti signature guitar, and an accompanying array of guitar amps, including his signature PRS MT100, its baby brother, the MT 15, a Cornford RK100, an Omega Ampworks Granophyre and two high-class Dumbles.

But as he explains in an interview with Total Guitar, one of the most significant components of his sound came from a far cheaper part of his rig: his choice of guitar pick.

In fact, Tremonti reveals that he embarked on a quest to “try every pick ever made” – though we’re not sure if such a feat is even possible – in order to see if a change could help improve his tone and playing.

“[The pick is] the thing that you’re interacting most with on your guitar,” he muses, justifying his ambitious experiment. “It’s how you touch the guitar, so it’s important.”

Though he doesn’t dive into much detail on how many different guitar picks he went through in search of the perfect one, he reveals he has new favorites in Dunlop’s 1mm and 1.35mm Flow picks, which reside on the heavier side of the spectrum and feature beveled edges to minimize drag, along with a pointed tip for extra attack.

“It made a huge difference,” Tremonti says. “Now I can’t look back.”

Tremonti is widely touted as one of the finest guitarists of his generation, but as he explains, he placed more emphasis on being a songwriter than a lead guitar player during the making of Pawns & Kings. 

“After being known as a guitar player for so many years, I always feel pressure, like I have to live up to something,” he explains. “Being a writer excites me way more than being a lead guitar player.”

He continues: “If I just spent my time sitting down, one hundred percent trying to be an excellent guitar player, you might hear a very different, more technically proficient guitar player, but I’d much rather create songs.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Tremonti’s Alter Bridge co-guitarist and frontman Myles Kennedy reveals how he used his PRS Tele-style model – custom-built for him by “Paul and the Gang” at PRS to harness the sound of a selection of vintage Telecasters he played during the sessions for his latest solo album, The Ides of March – for nearly all of his playing on Pawns & Kings.

“I have a real fondness for those early Telecasters, so you always wonder if there’s a way you can combine elements with a more contemporary approach in something that would be very versatile,” Kennedy says. “It’s like a P-90 meets an old Blackguard-era Telecaster sound.”

On why he opted to use the guitar for the majority of his guitar parts on the album, Kennedy adds: “It cuts – it’s all there. It’s got its own place, especially with Mark who’s using humbuckers. It helped distinguish the sound.”

No strangers to scorching solos, industrious riffs and thematic intensity, Alter Bridge are back with their seventh album, Pawns & Kings. Across ten songs, the band welcome fans new and old alike to join them on the next chapter in their journey – which at this point, has spanned nearly two decades. Heralded by the singles ‘Silver Tongue’, ‘Sin After Sin’ and its title track, Pawns & Kings veers away from the themes of its two (largely politically driven) predecessors, The Last Hero (2016) and Walk The Sky (2019). 

For album number seven, Alter Bridge have instead opted for a message a little more resolute. This resigned standpoint is delivered with a combination of techniques and gear that uphold the signature Alter Bridge character, while introducing new elements that demonstrate the band’s continued evolution in songwriting and performance. 

From their respective homes, guitarists Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti (who also just released a covers album, Mark Tremonti Sings Frank Sinatra, to raise funds for Down Syndrome charities) talk to Australian Guitar about the themes, gear and more that drive the hard rock heroes’ latest offering. 

ON THE MESSAGE BEHIND PAWNS & KINGS…

With The Last Hero released around the time Donald Trump was elected as the 45th US President, it was difficult for Kennedy to say how (if at all) the unfolding of a new political landscape would shape the future of Alter Bridge. Though on the surface, Pawns & Kings may show the band in the same ballpark of disdain and incredulity they were on The Last Hero, there’s more throwing of arms to the air with a sense of “whatever”. 

Ever a pensive man, Kennedy broaches the band’s thematic evolution: “These are very tumultuous, strange times, and they’re very polarised. And for me, I think what I’ve learned is that you’re not going to change anybody’s minds. Some bands are really good at that; they find their spot and preach their worries and that’s great for them. For me, I don’t feel comfortable in that realm, I like to keep the lyrics timeless.”

Kennedy takes album cut ‘Silver Tongue’ as an example, noting how people have tried to attach “something” to it. He, however, observes it to be a “timeless tale” – one that’s “been going on as long as there have been human beings”. He says: “You have people that seduce, people that are good at manipulating other people, and it doesn’t always lead to good things. That’s a song that is relevant now and will probably be relevant a hundred years from now because that’s just the way we’re hardwired, unfortunately. 

“Then you have a song like ‘Pawns & Kings’, which I feel is an empowering song. It’s like the battle cry for the underdog. Though you may look at a circumstance and think it seems impossible to overcome it, that song is that ray of hope – at least, that’s what I extract from it. After years and years of writing songs, I’ve learnt that if you can keep it ambiguous enough, it’ll apply in different arenas. I feel like it ages better – the shelf life doesn’t run out as quickly.”

Alter Bridge have indeed written songs that fit that mould in the past, such as ‘Wayward One’ from 2007’s Blackbird. It’s far from a conscious reasoning, though, that Alter Bridge have no notions of being the best band in the world for pushing political opinion. Kennedy says humbly: “Speaking for myself, I think if there’s any agenda, [it’s to] remember to be good to one another. Humanity is very important to me. And that song, ‘Wayward One’, is definitely a song about empathy. It’s supercharged with empathy. 

“[Nowadays] there’s so much divisiveness, so much tribalism and so much embolism, I don’t want to add to the noise there.” Kennedy pauses, drawing a weighted breath. “I don’t know what’s going on – as a human being, I just want there to be more bridges – no pun intended! I want there to be more conversation – everybody just needs to chill out and talk to one another and remember that we’re all in this together. At the end of the day, we’re all stardust, man. We all have the same blood.”

To speak to Kennedy, perched on top of a stool, relaxed in an environment he controls, he comes across as being the kind of man who prefers being in his own head rather than having everyone else’s conversations melting in there. “I like to learn things,” he says reasonably. “I’m always up for learning from somebody and I do like stimulating conversations, it keeps you sharp. And I need all the help I can get there, trust me. Especially the older I get and the more I realise how important it is to try and silence all the noise. 

“It’s no secret at this point, especially after Walk The Sky. Walk The Sky was essentially, in a lot of ways, me really being open to talking about how into meditation I am and being present I am, and I feel like that has been such a saving grace in my life. Not to preach the gospel of meditation; I don’t want to be that guy, but at the same time, I feel like it’s helped me be a better artist, because by learning how to turn down the noise in my brain, I can centre in on the music.”

ON ALTERING THEIR SONGWRITING PROCESS…

Centre in on the music, Kennedy and Tremonti surely did. Though the pair have a certain aptitude in how they’ve demoed songs over the last 25 years or so, pandemic-driven lockdowns and not being able to be physically present with one another forced Kennedy, at least, to refine his song writing craft even more. “All I had to do was sit in my studio and work,” he says. “I feel like I became, not a better songwriter, but better at documenting ideas and concepts. Just quicker. For me, that helped a lot with the process.

“[Album opener] ‘This Is War’, that came to me in kind of a dream state. And as I was waking up, I’d spent enough time after the pandemic in my studio getting pretty proficient with my stuff where it didn’t take long to take what I was hearing in my head and track it.

“Program the drums quickly, play all the parts, and then move on without it being this laboured, ‘Oh I’ve gotta get this right and this right and fine tune this,’ so it’s just very streamlined – in a lot of ways, that helped the creation of this record tremendously.”

Kennedy’s statement isn’t to say that his approach to his contribution to Pawns & Kings was entirely different to Alter Bridge’s prior six albums, rather, he sees it as more of a carry-over methodology that began with Walk The Sky. “The demos were more realised than they had been in the past,” Kennedy recalls. “A lot of times Mark and I would kind of get in the same room and go ‘Hey, do you have a part that goes with this part?’ 

“It’s funny because people will go, ‘Oh, go back to the old way you used to do it,’ and well, it’s really no different. We’re refining the ideas a little bit more before we present them to our partner. So, if I hand over a track, I’m still leaving him a space there to put his stamp on it, it’s the same concept.”

Tremonti offers his take on working out balance between himself and Kennedy when lockdowns prevented them from working simultaneously. “I would break out my cell phone, get on Zoom with him,” Tremonti says of a process that became the standard for so many other musicians. “I would turn in a few songs, he [Kennedy] would listen to them and give his input. I remember the first song he turned in was ‘Silver Tongue’ - he turned in two parts that went back and forth [between us].

“We like to keep our demo phase loose. We don’t want to say, ‘Here’s this completely completed song,’ because then it turns into somebody’s solo project. So, when we can get together as a band, we can always have that alternate sound.

“When Scott and Brian [bassist Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips] come to the mix, it gives it that backbone, that rhythm section that is so recognisable to us. When it’s just me and Myles doing our demos, it sounds a little bit like me, it sounds a little bit like Myles. But when you get us all playing on it, it gets that AB characteristic.”

ON GUITARS, PEDALS AND MORE…

Kennedy is positively swimming in equipment in what he calls his “office studio environment”. He sits with his arms folded looking from an angle at a monitor, the camera capturing his profile. None of the gear here, however, made it onto the new album. “I had grand delusions of trying to do a YouTube channel like when the pandemic hit,” he explains with a bashful smile. “I bought all the stuff, and had it set up and I was like, ‘Well I’ve gotta come up with content for that. I can set the camera, but I think I’d be a huge bore,’ so I scrapped the plans!” 

Thanks to a good hunk of other gear though, the sonic stamp in Pawns & Kings is distinctly Alter Bridge, with many of its riffs’ nuances and the execution of solos echoing the band’s earlier work nearly some 20 years ago. Album cut ‘This Is War’, for example, boasts a menacingly effervescent opening riff with a very distinct attack that continues into the chorus. Such a sound was established throughout the album by a relative newcomer to Kennedy’s arsenal, the PRS McCarty Electric Guitar. “It has elements of a single coil sound that uses Narrowfield pickups,” the frontman says of the instrument’s make up. “It gets that top end that I really like with that character without all of the hum, and especially when using high gain like we’re using, the last thing you want to do is plug a single coil into some of these amps, it’s going to buzz like crazy. 

“This guitar worked really well for that. It just has a certain cut – I used that guitar on about 80 per cent of the record. Then there’s my tried and true [PRS SC] 245 that I’ve used since the Blackbird days [2007], I used that on the other tracks. I’ve used it forever, it’s kind of been a signature guitar for a long time until this black [McCarty] one came along, it’s like I love this guitar! It just has such a character to it.”

At times, some of the album’s guitar rhythms and melodies boast a wonderful push and pull, which are then interjected by wailing, desperate solos. This marriage of sound and technique is sometimes broken down in songs like ‘Stay’ (which sees Tremonti take on lead vocals) or can establish a particular swagger as in ‘Holiday’, before bringing back the aggressive drives as heard in ‘Fable Of The Silent Son’. Because this audio landscape is so in keeping with the noise of Alter Bridge releases of yore, you may think the band have utilised many of the same pedals – not so. 

Where FullTone was the preferred pedal for the effects on renowned Alter Bridge hits like ‘Before Tomorrow Comes’ and the solo on ‘Blackbird’, Kennedy has “started veering away” from the brand, his eye caught by something a little sexier – the J. Rockett Chicken Soup Overdrive. 

“They’re amazing,” Kennedy gushes. “I’m afraid to say this because people are going to snag them up! They have a notch at the mid-range frequency that works perfectly for us. It’s like corduroy, that’s the sound I’m shooting for; it’s not too saturated, it’s still got this space, and that’s what I like about using [these] pedals, you know. I’m not using Metal Zones, let’s just put it that way!”

Choosing the right instrument is (as Kennedy attests, appreciative of the intentional pun) instrumental in establishing one’s signature sound. 

“I think that’s part of the journey,” he says. “I kind of look at it like my voice – it took me years and years to find this sound and it’s the same thing, stylistically, the inflections: it’s me. When I sing, you’re gonna know ‘That’s that guy’. It’s the same thing with guitar, and that’s why I’m so grateful that PRS did this for me, it’s like I was hearing this thing that didn’t exist and I was like ‘Wow how can we get this character?’ 

“Mark has utilised these guitars now for nearly two decades, probably over two decades, and you know it’s part of his musical DNA – so you combine that sound with his touch and there’s Mark. I think that’s why I embarked on this as well.”

ON AMPS AND THAT ELUSIVE MT100… 

Tremonti looks as if he’s nested in a small warehouse, but really, it’s his home studio, “the best room in the house”, according to the Riff Lord. It’s really no secret but Tremonti is, by all accounts, an amp-over-guitar man. “I have a signature guitar and I don’t need to upgrade, you know, because I love my guitar,” he says. “I’ve got the MT 15 right here,” he points over his shoulder. He flips around his phone camera to proudly show off his collection of amps, moving away from his desk and taking the camera into what can only be described as a walk-in wardrobe for amplifiers. “There’s the RK100,” he says, pointing to a monster at the bottom of a shelf housing various heads. “Here are the best ones though,” he adds, gesturing towards a Dumble and a Trainwreck. “Those are the best other than, of course, the MT 15. Yeah, that’s my obsession: all these amps.”

Rumours about and images of the MT100 have graced online forums and interviews with Tremonti for around four years now. Amp aficionados and/or followers of Tremonti’s dedication to the box beasts will already know, with the PRS Mark Tremonti Signature MT 15 being the colossus that it is, that the MT100 should knock down walls – and Tremonti has one right behind him.

It’s a wooden prototype and not the actual thing; Tremonti’s not permitted to share photos of it yet. Nevertheless, the MT 100 was the main focus on Pawns & Kings. “I’ve got two prototypes here,” Tremonti says. “The first prototype was a two channel but now it’s a three channel. That was one of the first versions of the three channel,” he finishes, indicating the wooden box again. “I just sent the newest prototype back to the factory two days ago, and I should get it back tomorrow. And fingers crossed, after almost four years, I’ll be able to greenlight the head. 

“I’ve also been opening up all my cabinets at home and mix matching speakers and trying to come up with the best [configuration]. ‘What are we using? What speakers are we using? What dimensions are we using? What grill are we using?’ I finally came up with a pattern of speakers in the cabinet that sounds perfect for the head, and to me it’s going to be the greatest, greatest tone I’ve ever had.”

In collaboration with PRS’ Rich Hannon and Doug Sewell, Tremonti was instrumental in developing his new obsession. “Round and round and round just to get it right,” he says of the meticulous process in the amp’s creation. “Because, you know, once you think you’re at a finish line with something, all of a sudden, a war breaks out, and you can’t get the tubes. So, we had to change tubes. And we had to make that work. We had to, like I said, go from a two channel to a three channel and they had to find a whole new chassis.

“It’s made us come through a lot of changes, but it’s going to end up being, for me, the perfect amplifier. And I’m glad, I don’t ever want to just put something out because it’s easy. You know, I want to put it out because it’s absolutely right, and it’s taken a lot of years to get it that way.”

ON RECREATING THEIR IN-HOUSE SOUND ON THE LIVE STAGE…

Alter Bridge hit the road once more earlier in November when they commenced a tour through Europe and North America that will take them well into 2023. No matter where you’re positioned in any kind of venue – front back, stalls, balcony etc. – the high-end quality of sound with which Alter Bridge perform never wavers. That being said, there’s much to account for when trying to balance the distinct preferences and styles of both guitarists’ gear and technique. 

“There has to be a good balance between me and Myles, our amps have to fill different frequency ranges,” Tremonti begins. “When I was younger, I used to like that scooped kind of low end and high-end heavy metal kind of sound, but that stuff doesn’t cut through a mix well. So, I added way more mid-range to my tone. So, it really punches through the mix, and it doesn’t really live with the bass guitar when it comes to the frequencies, [so it] can get muddied up there.

“Our sound engineer is brilliant at taking everything we do and putting it in its own space, you know, so nobody shares the same frequencies. Myles is here, and I’m there, and it all works.”

Kennedy’s preference for amps still lies with his trusted Diezel VH4 100w Guitar Amp Head and his Herbert 180W Tube Guitar Head. “They fit really well in this context,” he says of using them for Pawns & Kings. Were he and Tremonti both to utilise Diezels on the live stage, they’d end up filling the same frequencies, as Tremonti explains. 

“I used to be a huge believer in having two amps at the same time for your tone,” he says, “because those two amps are going to do two different things and fill that bigger space. But I’m finally down to one amp live and it’s just going to be the MT 100. That’s  because I have a three-channel amp. It’s such a versatile amp, I don’t need anything else.

“It’s got the best clean channel I’ve ever heard on a 100 watt head,” he continues, “and it’s got a great overdrive channel that serves a good gap between your dead clean and your heavy lead sound. That amp will go from as clean as you can get to a really sweet overdrive, like a Dumble kind of boutique sound, to a heavy metal sound, you know? So, it’s got everything, everything that you could ever, I could ever need live.”

“It’s a noise machine up there!” Kennedy cries. “120 decibels of pure sonic fury up there!” A stark contrast to the in-studio setting, then.

ON HOW TO PLAY SONGS FROM PAWNS & KINGS…

When you give it a listen, it may seem that there’s a certain complexity of character to Pawns & Kings. Tremonti, however, says there are both technically demanding aspects to playing some of the new material, and some relatively simple areas, too. On the album’s title track, Tremonti elaborates, “There’s not a lot of effects on there. I leave my gain at about noon and just kind of use a lot of palm muting for some of the heavier, faster riffs.

“Like, if I was to learn that song from scratch, I would probably start with the hardest part and go straight to the bridge and learn the bridge breakdown riff, the heavy riffs, because that’s the toughest part to learn.” Tremonti’s advice? “Go backwards from there.”

Tremonti got tripped up in the early stages of putting down the track, though. “Scott and Myles were playing the intro with this weird feel,” he recalls. “Me and Elvis [producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette] are like, ‘What are you doing? This is so weird’, like, it’s this weird time thing. And me and Elvis were like, ‘I don’t get it’, but Scott and Myles are like, ‘No, this is great, we’re gonna do this.’ So, the beginning of that song, I would leave that for last and then learn the rest of it.

“Learn the bridge first,” Tremonti’s lesson continues. “You know, the chorus is very simple and straightforward.” Tremonti moves onto unpacking the more technically challenging and “weird” ideas of ‘Pawns & Kings’, revealing they can trip up even a well-seasoned musician like Tremonti. “I would compartmentalise every bit of that song,” he advises, “because I remember how difficult it was for me to memorise the song as a whole in one day and be able to... because when we do pre-production, you could spend a month on a song but then you put it away for three months, so you have to relearn it and play it in one day.

“And that song was a challenge. For your brain to have to take that information in so quickly and be able to play it from start to finish in one day, it was tough. There’s a lot going on there.”

As for other cuts of the album suitable for some stellar Alter Bridge imitation action, Tremonti recommends single ‘Silver Tongue’. “I think the driving force of it is the main opening riff that, um,” Tremonti vocalises a few chugga-chugga-chuggas, “That’s how that song was born.

“When you write a song, there’s usually that key part where you’re like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna build a whole song around this part,’ because that was the special part that I think built that song.”

HOW THE ALBUM STANDS UP IN THE ALTER BRIDGE DISCOGRAPHY…

“I’m such a funny bird there because I don’t truly know until about a decade later,” Kennedy says of how he thinks Pawns & Kings will stand up in the band’s twenty years of music-making history. “You’re talking to the one guy who very rarely listens to a record once he’s [been] a part of making it. I’m always just kind of moving onto the next thing.

“Part of the problem also is I’m hypercritical; I’ll pick things apart and get lost in my head, and that’s something I’m trying to work on so maybe I’ll be more comfortable listening to records as I continue to evolve as a human being and become more conscious. I think for whatever reason, it’s a real challenge. 

“But with all of that nonsense aside, I will say that we’ve achieved what we set out to do when we made this record, which was have it be a little bit more refined, not as dense from a sonic standpoint, not as many layers, though there’s still layering here and there – on ‘Fable Son’ there’s some sonic landscaping – but overall, we tried to keep this more focused, and Elvis was on board with this as well, but Mark and I, we were like: this is what we want to shoot for here.

Kennedy ponders, “People keep comparing it to Fortress, which is interesting for me because I don’t know if that’s going to be a shared assessment. Who knows.” It’s an assessment Kennedy admits he would be more than happy with. “From what I remember [of it], that probably would be on top of my list as one of my favourite AB records,” he says, “especially its title track; it shapes the whole thing and pulls it altogether.” 

That old delivery choice, you might argue, should have been considered for the title track on Pawns & Kings, which serves as the album’s closing track. “Part of the reason we did that is because we thought, “Well if it’s gonna be the closing track, because we called the record Pawns & Kings, we figured it might be a nice way to punctuate the record, and there’s something about the way that song ends where it’s very final.” 

You might say it’s the checkmate. Realising he’s set himself up for one final yet appropriate pun, Kennedy smiles, “Yes! There you have it.”

Alter Bridge have announced they will be hitting the road with Mammoth WVH next year for an extensive tour of North America.

The Wolfgang Van Halen-led outfit will join up with Myles Kennedy, Mark Tremonti and co for a hefty 30-date stint around the country, which kicks off on January 25 at the Seminole Hard Rock in Tampa, Florida.

Divided into two legs, the first part of the tour will see the electric guitar heroes visit Nashville, New York, Michigan, Massachusetts and more, before concluding proceedings at Chicago’s The Riviera Theatre on February 18.

The second leg will pick up on March 10 at the Quapaw Downstream Casino Resort in Oklahoma, with the tour wrapping up at California’s Highland Yaamava' Theater at Yaamava' Casino Resort on April 1.

During the two legs, Mammoth WVH will serve as direct support to Alter Bridge, who have also recruited secondary support acts Red and Pistols at Dawn for the first and second legs, respectively.

“Looking forward to these tours guys,” Van Halen said. “Thank you so much for having us!”

It will be the second time in as many years Alter Bridge and Mammoth WVH have shared a tour bill, after the pair teamed up with Halestorm to announce a comprehensive set of European tour dates to promote Alter Bridge’s upcoming album, Pawns & Kings.

Scheduled to kick off in November in Germany, the trio will visit Denmark, Sweden, Norway, France, Spain, England and more, before concluding on December 12 in London.

Alter Bridge’s new album will arrive October 14, and has already been previewed by the hard-hitting title track and scorching second single, Silver Tongue. 

The album will reportedly see Kennedy and Tremonti swap their usual roles more regularly, with Tremonti also teasing that it was Kennedy who penned Pawns & Kings’ heaviest riffs.

For more information about upcoming tour dates, head over to Alter Bridge’s website.

A full list of the 2023 dates can be found below.

• Jan 25: Tampa Seminole Hard Rock, FL
• Jan 27: Orlando Hard Rock Live, FL
• Jan 28: Atlanta Coca Cola Roxy, GA
• Jan 30: Nashville Ryman Auditorium, TN
• Feb 01: Montclair The Wellmont Theater, NJ
• Feb 02: Huntington The Paramount, NY
• Feb 04: Silver Spring The Fillmore Silver Spring, MD
• Feb 05: Philadelphia Franklin Music Hall, PA
• Feb 07: Wallingford The Dome At Toyota Oakdale Theatre, CT
• Feb 08: Boston Roadrunner, MA
• Feb 10: Waterloo Del Lago Casino Resort, NY
• Feb 11: Toronto History, ON
• Feb 14: Detroit The Fillmore, MI
• Feb 15: Indianapolis Murat Theatre At Old National Centre, IN
• Feb 17: Prior Lake Mystic Lake Casino Showroom, MI
• Feb 18: Chicago The Riviera Theatre, IL
• Mar 10: Quapaw Downstream Casino Resort, OK
• Mar 11: Kansas City Arvest Bank Theatre At The Midland, MO
• Mar 14: Chesterfield The Factory, MO
• Mar 15: Oklahoma City The Criterion, OK
• Mar 17: Houston 713 Music Hall, TX
• Mar 18: Dallas South Side Ballroom, TX
• Mar 20: Denver Mission Ballroom, CO
• Mar 21: Salt Lake City Union Event Center, UT
• Mar 23: Seattle The Paramount Theatre, WA
• Mar 25: Airway Heights Northern Quest Resort & Casino, WA
• Mar 28: Anaheim House Of Blues, CA
• Mar 29: Tempe Marquee Theatre, AZ
• Mar 31: Reno Silver Legacy’s Grande Expo Hall, NV
• Apr 01: Highland Yaamava Theater At Yaamava Casino Resort, CA

Welcome to Guitar World’s weekly roundup of the musical highlights from the, erm, world of guitar. Every seven days (or thereabouts), we endeavor to bring you a selection of songs from across the guitar universe, all with one thing in common: our favorite instrument plays a starring role.

Tommy Emmanuel and Mike Dawes – Fields of Gold 

What is it? A cover of Sting’s 1993 track Fields of Gold, and the second single from Accomplice Series Vol. 3 – the latest collaborative effort from acoustic virtuosos Tommy Emmanuel and Mike Dawes. The lead single, a thrilling rendition of Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit, gave us a taste of what's to come from the album, and Fields of Gold once again proves the pair’s exceptional musical partnership is a genuine force to be reckoned with. The tones are immaculate, the technique is exquisite and the final result is one of the duo’s best efforts yet.

Standout guitar moment: The emotive grand finale, which is the culmination of almost three minutes of intense acoustic strumming courtesy of Dawes and a fretboard-spanning solo via Emmanuel.

For fans of: Marcin Patrzalek, Sting

– Matt Owen

Alter Bridge – Silver Tongue

What is it? The second single from Alter Bridge’s forthcoming seventh album Pawns & Kings. Following the record’s title track, Silver Tongue is a masterclass in impactful riffwork, with both Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy forgoing any leads to double up on the track’s sizzling drop-tuned low-string antics.

Standout guitar moment: It’s gotta be that absolutely chonky intro riff, hasn’t it? It shows that power is in simplicity, and is likely to be one of the standout riffs on the band’s forthcoming album.

For fans of: Shinedown, Black Stone Cherry

– Sam Roche

Chat Pile – Pamela

What is it? In the week since its release, God's Country – the first full-length from Oklahoma City noise-rockers Chat Pile – has built up quite a bit of buzz. Filled as it is with visceral, lurching and explosive tracks like Pamela, it’s easy to see what the hype is all about.

Standout guitar moment: Brutality might be the name of the game for this band, but Pamela has a strong melodic core, best expressed in the eerie, single-note-based riff that sets the tone for the song early on.

For fans of: Joy Division, Big Black, Molchat Doma

– Jackson Maxwell

The 1975 – Happiness 

What is it? Indie rock stalwarts The 1975 raised quite a few eyebrows when they ditched chorus-drenched guitar leads and electro-pop vocals in favor of an orchestral instrumentation for Part of the Band, the first single from their upcoming album, Being Funny In a Foreign Language. Second single Happiness, though, rekindles the group’s relationship with the above, bringing snappy six-string motifs, dancing basslines and ‘80s-esque keyboard progressions to the table. The songwriting chops are cut above, too, with frontman Matty Healy seemingly on top form heading into the new LP.

Standout guitar moment: At the 2:36 mark, Healy rests his vocals and gives the floor to the guitar, which delivers a classically 1975-style, lick-laden interlude via a subtle acoustic guitar. We imagine this section, which is soon joined by the sax, will be significantly cranked up for the live versions, though.

For fans of: Beabadoobee, Dayglow, The Night Cafe

– Matt Owen

Lorna Shore – Cursed to Die

What is it? The third single from the New Jersey deathcore stalwarts forthcoming album, Pain Remains. Like the previously released Sun//Eater and Into the Earth, Cursed to Die is both brutal and expansive, painting a sprawling sonic soundscape with a series of melodic and gut-punching drop-tuned electric guitar riffs.

Standout guitar moment: Adam De Micco’s solo from the 3:29 mark brings a healthy dose of melodic respite after the three minutes of pure chaos that precedes it.

For fans of: Fit For an Autopsy, Make Them Suffer, Slaughter to Prevail

– Sam Roche

Boris – My Name Is Blank

What is it? Fuzzed-up eighth-note hardcore punk from the protean Japanese noise-rock stalwarts, and it’s relentless – a sugar rush that won’t quit, not that you’d want it to. Indeed, it’s a song for the weekend. Guitarist Wata is already drinking wine in the video while Takeshi works an insistent melody on his custom First Act double-neck electric-and-bass guitar.

Standout guitar moment: There’s a guitar solo that’s pretty cool. The melody is pretty cool. But if you sum all of this together it’s the sound, the energy, the vibe, and most of all the guitar tones that will get you. 

Boris are nothing if not epicurean when it comes to the sound of the electric guitar, and the little rituals from which we draw such great satisfaction. Like at the start of the video, when Wata switches on her OR-120 head and there’s the satisfying pop of a powerful tube amp coming to life. That stuff sustains us; it nourishes the soul.

For fans of: Melvins, Sunn O))), Jesu

Bullet For My Valentine – No More Tears to Cry

What is it? A new single from Bridgend, Wales metal mainstays, Bullet For My Valentine, and one which finds them harking back to the riff-driven, emotive sound of their 2005 debut, The Poison. Showcasing their long-honed songwriting prowess, No More Tears to Cry finds Matt Tuck and co bouncing effortlessly between massive electric guitar riffs and softer acoustic-driven bars, with some singalong-worthy vocal hooks thrown in for good measure.

Standout guitar moment: That recurring guitar riff that is introduced at the 0:15 reminds us of early Hand of Blood-era Bullet, and activates our nostalgia like nothing else in the song.

For fans of: Atreyu, As I Lay Dying, Trivium

– Sam Roche

Winter – atonement (ft. Hatchie)

What is it? The new single from What Kind Of Blue Are You?, the forthcoming album from LA-based singer/songwriter Samira Winter. Featuring Harriette Pilbeam (who performs under the name Hatchie) and Joe Agius, atonement is a shoegazey gem, built upon a glitched-out beat, bubbly synths and an infectious bubblegum-pop chorus.

Standout guitar moment: That woozy whammy bar work. You can hear it from the very first bar, and – aside from adding a layer of dreaminess to the proceedings – it pulls the eager synths and beat back a little bit. A perfect balance.

For fans of: My Bloody Valentine, Alvvays, Cocteau Twins

– Jackson Maxwell

City of Caterpillar – Decider

What is it? Decider is a new track shared ahead of the release of the recently reunited Richmond, VA post-hardcore group’s forthcoming album, Mystic Sisters. Said album is the band’s first in 20 years, and if this is anything to go by then it is going to be an angry, skronky difficult noise record that pokes and prods the inner ear in search of your pressure points.

Standout guitar moment: It’s probably when the squall of noise abates into an ethereal middle eight, an arpeggiated dreamscape and moment of relief – but more than that, an opportunity for City of Caterpillar to expand the dynamics, to take us from frenzy to rest and back again, to show their adventurism. Brandon Evans and Jeff Kane’s guitar tones are perfectly voiced for this material.

For fans of: pg. 99, System 2600, Majority Rule, Mogwai, Godspeed! You Black Emperor

– Jonathan Horsley

Cecil Alexander – Shrug 

What is it? Berklee College of Music is no stranger to having an ace guitar player associated with it: John Mayer and Tomo Fujita, of course, immediately spring to mind. However, we need to add Cecil Alexander to that list, too. The college’s assistant professor’s new single, Shrug, showcases the virtuoso's mind-melting jazz skills, which followers of his will no doubt be aware of. Simply put, it's perhaps one of the best displays of bebop prowess and sophistication we’ve heard thus far in 2022.

Standout guitar moment: It’s hard to pick, but the extended solo effort that follows the 0:54 mark probably takes it. Throughout its almost two-minute runtime, Alexander delivers Houdini-like turnarounds, surgically precise scale navigation and a sizzling run at the 2:22 point.

For fans of: Julian Lage, Wes Montgomery, Joe Pass

– Matt Owen

Black Anvil – Castrum Doloris

What is it? The long-awaited return of the NYC black metal band whose personnel otherwise have occupied themselves in a projects that would be more traditionally associated with the Big Apple, namely hardcore. In some respects, black metal from the largest city on the eastern seaboard makes perfect sense. 

There are no fjords, but the vertiginous skyline, the isolation that can come from life in the metropolis, that has a certain Nordic aspect to it. Sonically, this is second wave black metal, an uptempo scream into the abyss.

Standout guitar moment: The melody that insinuates itself at the end underneath some clean and faintly ecclesiastical vocals. The song needed that. 

For fans of: Goatwhore, Absu, Watain 

– Jonathan Horsley

Suede – 15 Again

What is it? The second tune we’ve heard thus far from the British glam-rock institution’s upcoming album, Autofiction. Frontman Brett Anderson puts on a hell of a performance, imbuing the nostalgic song with all the drama and yearning one feels when they’re that formative age.

Standout guitar moment: That rather Billy Duffy-esque opening riff is certainly a contender, but those squeals of feedback guitarist Richard Oakes gets before the third line in both verses? Now that’s just plain cool.

For fans of: The Cult, Johnny Marr, The Stone Roses

– Jackson Maxwell

Last month, Alter Bridge announced Pawns & Kings – the band’s seventh full-length studio record, due this October, which was previewed with the effort’s hard-hitting title track.

Now, the acclaimed rock outfit, which is spearheaded by electric guitar heavyweights Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy, have dropped the album’s second single, Silver Tongue.

The third song on the Pawns & Kings tracklist, Silver Tongue follows its predecessor's penchant for explosive guitar action, underpinned by scorching lower-fret action, sizzling six-string jabs and oversized, drop-tuned tones.

It’s been teased as one of Alter Bridge’s “heftier songs” of recent times, and it's an observation that rings true: there are no flashy solos here, just four minutes of bruising, destructive dual-guitar riff action.

Accompanying the track is the Silver Tongue music video, an animated film directed by Ollie Jones that “follows two characters who fall under the spell of a painting that comes to life”. Supposedly, this painting forces our protagonists into a “dark world” where a classic battle of good versus evils rages on.

Silver Tongue is yet more evidence that Pawns & Kings will make good on Tremonti’s promise that the album will feature some particularly “heavy riffs” – a tease Tremonti issued to My Planet Rocks prior to the album’s announcement.

Tremonti also hinted that Pawns & Kings will see him and Kennedy swap their usual roles more regularly: Kennedy took on more lead action, while Tremonti handled more vocal work.

“At this point, Myles loves playing guitar solos, and I love singing,” Tremonti said. “So we like to do each other's roles, because I think he doesn't feel the pressure as a guitar player because he's known as a singer; I don't feel the pressure as a singer because I'm known as a guitar player. So we liked filling the other person's role. It's fun.”

Pawns & Kings will arrive October 14 via Napalm Records, and will be promoted via an extensive headline tour. So far, the band have announced dates for a European tour, which starts on November 1 in Germany and concludes December 12 in the UK.

For the European tour, Alter Bridge will receive support from Halestorm and Mammoth WVH.

To find out more, and to preorder Pawns & Kings, head over to Alter Bridge. 

Myles Kennedy and Mark Tremonti have kept plenty busy over the last year or so.

Kennedy released his stellar second solo album, The Ides of March, in 2021, and unleashed his latest LP with Slash and the Conspirators, 4, earlier this year. Tremonti, meanwhile, released Marching in Time – the fifth full-length he's made with his solo band, Tremonti – in late 2021, and followed it up earlier this year with a Frank Sinatra covers album in support of the National Down Syndrome Society.

Now though, Kennedy and Tremonti – plus bass guitar player Brian Marshall and drummer Scott Phillips – have teamed back up for a new Alter Bridge album called Pawns & Kings. The band's seventh album, Pawns & Kings was helmed by longtime collaborator/producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette, and is set for an October 14 release via Napalm Records.

You can check out the lyric video for its lead single and title track below.

In an interview with My Planet Rocks earlier this month, Tremonti said that the then-unannounced new Alter Bridge album would feature some rather "heavy riffs," and the record's title track certainly delivers on that promise.

Clocking in at over six minutes, Pawns & Kings shows the band's mastery of dynamics, rising from a subdued intro to galloping verses, while touching on thrash in its middle. Best of all, it's highlighted with some truly epic call-and-response solos.

We'd usually credit those to Tremonti by default, but in that same My Planet Rocks interview, the guitarist also said that he and Kennedy swapped their usual roles more regularly while recording Pawns & Kings, with the former handling more vocals, and the latter taking on more lead electric guitar work. 

Indeed, the album is set to feature a tune called Stay, a ballad that features Tremonti on vocals.

You can examine the cover art and track list of Pawns & Kings below. To preorder the album, visit Alter Bridge's website.

Alter Bridge – Pawns & Kings:

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

Earlier this may, Mark Tremonti dropped the news that Alter Bridge’s upcoming album will be titled Pawns & Kings, and that it is scheduled to arrive on October 14 via Napalm.

While we’ve yet to hear anything from the album, at the time Tremonti did say the record will be promoted with an extensive tour soon after its release, starting November 1 and concluding December 12.

Now that the release date is creeping ever closer, Tremonti has started stoking the proverbial fire of the hype train, teasing an upcoming album full of, in true Alter Bridge fashion, some seriously heavy riffs.

What’s more, the electric guitar titan revealed that this time out it was his bandmate and fellow six-string hero Myles Kennedy who brought the heaviest riffs of the lot to the writing table.

Speaking to My Planet Rocks, Tremonti confirmed the mastering process had recently been completed and teased, “I think if you're a fan of Alter Bridge, you'll dig this record.”

“There are some heavy riffs on there,” he said. “And you know, some of the heaviest riffs on the record, Myles brought to the table. It's funny that even my producers can't tell who's bringing what to the table anymore. 

“Because back when the band started, [I was] the heavy guy, Myles was the moody guy,” he added. “And now you never know.”

Tremonti elaborated by saying he and Kennedy swapped roles more regularly while recording Pawns & Kings, with Kennedy taking on more solo action and Tremonti handling more vocals.

“At this point, Myles loves playing guitar solos, and I love singing,” he continued. “So we like to do each other's roles, because I think he doesn't feel the pressure as a guitar player because he's known as a singer; I don't feel the pressure as a singer because I'm known as a guitar player. So we liked filling the other person's role. It's fun.”

The Creed guitarist went on to pile the praise on his bandmate, and recalled being suitably impressed by Kennedy’s playing prowess when Alter Bridge were in their formative years.

“He's an amazing guitar player,” he observed. “I remember when he was at my house, when we were putting together the first or second [Alter Bridge] record, I heard some jazz going on in my spare bedroom. 

“And I walked by, knocked on the door, opened it up, and I thought, 'Who are you playing on the radio?' And it was him. 'I had no idea you could play guitar like this, you've got to play on the next record!'

“To me, he's got one of the best vibratos of any guitar player I've ever heard. So he's definitely a very studied guitar player.”

Pawns & Kings will arrive later this year. For updates, head over to Alter Bridge.

Mark Tremonti is a busy man. The longtime PRS Guitars endorsee and signature artist has only just finished wrapping up the fifth Tremonti record, Marching in Time, and he’s already in the process of switching gears for early work on the next Alter Bridge album. 

“It’s almost like the sessions never stop!,” he says, speaking to Guitar World from his home studio, where stacks and stacks of pedals are neatly lined out on the many shelves behind him.

The newest effort from the Tremonti band, in which he sings while sharing guitar duties with Eric Friedman, packs in plenty of the metallic crunch out of which he’s built a magnificent career. And though his recorded output in this group has almost caught up with his main band – at least in terms of albums released – he admits there has been a small amount of cheating involved. 

“I think we barely skipped a beat between [second album] Cauterize and [third album] Dust,” he says. “I kinda think of those two as one record, because it was really just one long recording session. So this feels more like our fourth album, at least in terms of the workload.”

Talk us through the writing process for the record. When did you start building this new body of work? 

“Pretty much immediately after [2019’s] Walk the Sky with Alter Bridge, I kinda hit the ground running. I was probably a year and a half into the writing before I got together with [co-guitarist] Eric Friedman. He’s the guy I count on for demos and bouncing ideas with. He’ll just come stay at the house and I’ll break out my laptop and play him a few hundred ideas. 

“Those are some of my most fun moments as a songwriter. Sitting there, we’ll break out some beers and go on until four in the morning going through all this material. I like to get that first reaction. Eric’s always been great to bounce ideas with. You need to have a comfort spot with your bandmates. 

“The same goes with Myles [Kennedy, Alter Bridge]; both of us are very open with one another on our creativity. You have to let your walls down. It’s the same with Eric. I know what I like, so once I’ve bounced all these hundreds of ideas, it’s good to hear another review of what I’ve done. Once I get the second opinion, I haul ass with arranging the ideas that seem like they’re at the forefront.”  

How exactly do you choose which songs end up in Alter Bridge and which ones are for Tremonti? 

“The most obvious way of knowing is if there’s any kind of speed metal influence in the song. I’ll tend to keep that for Tremonti. Whenever I bring speed metal to Alter Bridge, Scott [Phillips, drums] and Brian [Marshall, bass] kinda look at me like I’m crazy. [Laughs] 

“I think that’s one of the main reasons I started this band. I got tired of coming up with riffs that I loved playing and those guys would be like, ‘Aaah!’ I probably reminded them of the days when we started the band – I’d bring out my Metal Master distortion pedal and do horse gallops. They thought I was nuts. I get to live those moments through this band. So it’s mostly the metal stuff. 

“As far as what works for Alter Bridge, I find it’s usually the more drawn-out, atmospheric stuff. It probably fits that band more, though I love doing songs like that with Tremonti. One of the longest songs we’ve done is the title track on this new record, and that definitely crosses into that grey area of what could work in either band. 

“The subject matter of that song I needed to sing; it’s a song from a father to a child, and my perspective singing it to my daughter. Having your wife being pregnant through 2020 was sketchy, so it was the sentiment a father would have speaking to his child.”  

The opening track kicks off with some of the heaviest sounds you’ve ever dialed in, though you still somehow find the right melodies to follow through. 

“I think the balance I’m always searching for is finding things that are fun and exciting to play, but carry emotive melodies that mean something. That’s the most important part of any song, the vocal melody. You can strum campfire chords and sing great melodies, but that’s not fun night after night. I want it to be musically challenging and fun to play. Sometimes the heaviest and most brutal riffs are the hardest things to write a great vocal melody over!”  

Your solo in The Last One of Us has a wide interval arpeggio that gets played twice and really catches the listener’s ear. 

“It’s that old trick of playing something and then repeating it to make it a theme. That arpeggio that starts it off is the theme, but the second half is actually my favorite part of the solo. There’s a lot of space to phrase; you can do a lick and stop before doing the next one. The heavier stuff is more intense and flashy, but I like the dramatic stuff a bit more.”  

And in other parts of the solo, it sounds like you’re playing pentatonic runs in five. 

“Yeah, that’s one where I’m using fives. I fell in love with fives a while ago. I’d listen to other players and whenever someone would use those patterns, it would turn my head and I’d say, ‘That’s badass!’ I love that sound, especially when Eric Gales, Eric Johnson or Joe Bonamassa pull it off. I’d always think, ‘I’ve gotta learn that thing!’ And I tried for years to do it like Eric Johnson does it. 

“I watched a million videos and can do it when I’m sitting at home with nobody watching me. As soon as I get any adrenaline flowing, I just can’t! That little sweep between the two strings every time you reset that phrase of five is tough. I play hard, so I’m not good at it when I’m amped up. But I finally found a pattern of five where I could pick every note and I’m abusing it on this record… I love it maybe a bit too much. [Laughs] It’s my new go-to picking pattern.” 

Perhaps the hardest thing about those Eric Johnson runs is keeping time when switching from alternate picking to economy for that one note.  

“Yeah! It’s a strange new reflex to learn as a guitar player. It’s not only hard to keep in time but it’s also hard to keep the same velocity to the picked stroke when striking through. You don’t want it too soft or hard, or slipping through too quickly. 

“I think Eric Johnson has such a soft touch and so much control when he does it. Like I said, I’ve spent hundreds of hours playing that stuff, putting on the metronomes and learning all the licks he’s known for. I watched Troy Grady’s stuff, the guy who mastered picking, who teaches incredibly well. You can trust what he’s showing you.  

“When I was growing up, a lot of the teachers would teach you things wrong or the tabs weren’t right, so it’s good to find people like that. You can trust what he’s teaching you is correct because he’s done his homework and shows you the original video and then him playing it with close-ups of the picking. I went through all of that and there were moments where I felt I had it and then I’d pick up a guitar somewhere to show someone and I’d screw it up every time. 

“I got it when I sat there for 45 minutes playing the same thing over and over again, but never to the point where it could be part of my live arsenal. I kinda gave up on it! And you should never be a quitter as a guitar player, but I’d spent too much time on it, so I found my own secret trap-door to doing it picked, but without that sweep.”

Now and Forever features some serious modulation on some of the guitars. What are we hearing? 

“The one I used at the end of the song is wicked. It’s called The Carrier by Hexe Guitar Electronics, and it has this really cool, trippy sound. You have it either rise or decline in tone and it ramps up or down with this kickass swell. And then when it hits the top or bottom, it goes blub blub blub, almost like a muscle-car engine. 

“When it comes to recording sessions, I’m usually the meat-and-potatoes chunky rhythm guy. Myles and Eric are pedal nerds; they’ll sift through boxes until four in the morning with [producer] Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette. 

“There’s one pedal I loved using for these sessions, and that’s the EarthQuaker Devices Transmisser. It’s really cool and vibey, so I used it for this trancey atmosphere here and there. There was a hand-wired Tube Screamer for overdrive, my Morley wah, a Phase 90 and a Guitar Systems Vibe Tool.”

What guitar amps did you end up using? 

“I wanted to focus mainly on the PRS MT 100. We’ve gone through a lot of different versions of it now. The one I used on the record was a two-channel version and it’s very close to what the final product will be. We’ve actually dialed back the gain because it had so much.

“I noticed I never went past two o’ clock on the amp; I never needed to. I wanted this to sound quiet at bedroom levels if needed. The clean channel had a push/pull, now we have a little bit of gain boost – you can dial that back, but it’s probably my favorite clean from a non-combo amp. 

“My favorite of all time is a Fender ’65 Twin. This, for a 100-watt head, is the best clean I’ve heard. So that’s the main tone. For cleans, I always brought in a Victory V40, which always makes me bring in my Cornford RK100. I think I got a special one. Back when they were still making me amps, they offered to send me one while they were making mine. I liked that one but when they sent the new one, it was a whole other animal. Everyone I know who has tried it absolutely loves it. You can dial the knobs any way you want, it will still sound great.” 

It’s interesting how composed some of these leads feel, like If Not for You, which has very distinct jumps around the neck. 

“I come up with my solos by improvising and then stumbling upon something that I dig. But by no means do I ever worry about making mistakes. If I’m improvising in front of people, sure, I might be more pentatonic and stay safe. But when writing solos, I’ll try to go for sour notes, open strings, overbends, things that might not make any theoretical sense whatsoever.  

“And that’s how I stumble upon the things I dig. About 90 percent of it goes away and 10 percent turns into the solo. On this one, I also got to use an Yngwie lick I learned when I was a kid; it’s the first fast run in that solo. I also got to use one of my favorite descending legato things, but I’d say my favorite thing about this solo is the use of open strings. 

“I do it twice, just like in The Last One of Us, where you have that repeating theme. In this one I do the lower octave for the first half and then a higher one for the second, but it’s the same notes played the same way. The rest is just experimentation and finding which notes speak to me more. 

“A lot of times the hardest thing with writing a solo is coming up with the first four notes. Once I’ve done that, it kinda floats. My weakness, probably, is the blues jam stuff. I feel a bit like when I play the blues it’s pretty typical stuff and not very inventive. That’s kinda why I get out of the box and do stuff that hopefully you haven’t heard a million times.”

We’ve spoken a lot about the solos, but some of the riffs on tracks like In One Piece are tricky in places too. 

“I’m using a combination of open strings and fretted, on the 12th fret. I was doing my best to make it not a simple riff, with something extra weaved in there. When you’re a young guitar player and the first things you learn become your home base for the rest of your life. For me, that’s metal rhythm playing – palm-muting and galloping rhythms. That’s my comfort zone. 

“The lead stuff is harder for me. I practiced a lot of the fast Paul Gilbert patterns when I was younger, but when it came to stuff like Stevie Ray Vaughan, I was terrible at it. My bending and vibrato was nowhere good enough. I attacked the guitar so hard with that rhythm stuff, it didn’t translate well to picking higher strings and bending during solos.” 

What kind of exercises helped you most with your down-picking and triplets? 

“When I was in school, I would challenge people to draw the letter N continually on a piece of paper. I would bet them a dollar I could do twice as many in a minute. I’d practice that all day in school! [Laughs] 

“The best way to get the right hand ready is to set a metronome for 104 or 105 bpm and see how long you can survive doing just downstrokes. Try to get that going for a minute. If you can last three minutes, you’re a champ. Downstrokes are the core of metal rhythm guitar. 

“Once you’ve gotten that down, do the exact same thing with gallops. Those things are workouts. It’s not something you can just instantly get; you have to build up that muscle and make it part of your technique. 

“Growing up listening to Metallica, Testament, Slayer and Exodus, I couldn’t care less about most of the leads. There was no way in the world I was going to learn a Slayer solo. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anybody play a Slayer solo note for note. It’s funny – I went to see them live and saw Kerry King playing a solo from one of their records. I thought he would wing it but no, he played it exactly as it was recorded.”  

You recently shared a cover of Another Day, Another Idea by Brazilian guitarist Mateus Asato, which uses some really colorful ways to link through chords. 

“I found this guy called Darryl Syms online who taught that song. It would take me weeks to sit and learn it by ear, watching videos of Mateus. There was a guy who had done the work for me! It took a few days to get under my fingers and a few more to get closer. It’s those things that might not sound difficult but are difficult, little slides and switches here and there, that I like. 

“The reason I learned that song is because he uses his thumb like Hendrix and does some fingerstyle stuff in the second half. I wanted to incorporate some of that and find new ways of using fingerstyle in my clean playing. I’m always going through YouTube looking for new ideas to pick up, at least one thing a day. 

“It’s funny… my in-laws are staying here right now and my mother-in-law came in asking me the name of that beautiful thing I’d been playing all day. And it is a beautiful piece. I think Mateus is an incredible guitar player, one of the best on earth. There’s so much feel because of that rhythmic side, the way he slaps the guitar as he’s going along. He always finds nice, big-sounding chords and knows how to intertwine them.”  

You had Wolfgang Van Halen playing bass in this band for a number of years. It must be nice to see him enjoying all the success with Mammoth WVH. 

“When you take away the Van Halen name, he’s just a really nice, down-to-earth kid – and he’s super-talented. When you hear him sing live, he’s incredible – plus he’s great on drums, guitar and bass. I found he was really good at learning stuff and memorizing parts. 

“Writing a record is a different skill; it’s very far away from being a shredder or killer drummer. I know so many great guitar players who don’t write. I was blown away when I heard the album. It’s an amazing record and one that I’d wanted to hear for a long time. 

“He and Elvis had been working on it for a few years, maybe even three years. I was online the other night and saw a clip of him playing in Hershey [Pennsylvania], opening up for Guns N’ Roses. I think he’s doing a little better than playing bass for the Tremonti band right now! [Laughs] I’m happy as hell for him.”

And you were also lucky enough to meet Eddie a few times, too. 

“I have some really special memories. One of them is when we were opening for Van Halen at Madison Square Garden and Wolfgang was there. He must have been six – he was just this tiny kid! His mom was there too. Eddie had given me one of his guitars backstage; he tapped away on it and said, ‘Yeah, feels good, here ya go!’ and obviously that’s become one of my most prized possessions. 

“When the show was over, we were backstage underground and there was 300 crew, guests, press everywhere, just swarming the place. We saw Wolf, his mom and Eddie walking out. Eddie saw me out of the corner of his eye and walked through hundreds of people to come over and say, ‘Hey I forgot to tell you – you need to take out two springs to make it play right – sorry I forgot to tell you that earlier!’ Then he gave me a kiss on the cheek and walked right through all the people clamoring for him again. 

“He did that for me?! He had his kid and his wife with him and knew he’d get caught up by everybody, but he took his time out because he gave a shit about his products and passing on knowledge. I got to see him at his core a handful of times and I was lucky. It was a very cool thing.” 

• Marching in Time is out now via Napalm Records.

What was the first serious guitar that you bought with your own money?

“It was an Ibanez DT250 – they called them ‘The X-Series’. The story is that we had some horses and I wanted to get an electric guitar and my dad said, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what. I’ll give you a dollar for every stall you clean…’ So I cleared horse manure for nine months, saved up my money, and bought my first electric guitar, which, to this day, when I see that guitar I smell horse manure! 

“About three years after I bought it I was playing in the school jazz band, which was funny because this guitar was totally heavy metal and didn’t belong in a jazz setting, but it was all I had. I left it at the school to see a David Lee Roth concert later that night – I wanted to see Steve Vai play guitar – and I got back to school the next day and someone had stolen it. I’ve been on a hunt for a decade trying to find one and I found one. Somebody had taken some liberties with it, but it was still in pretty good shape and I cherish it.”

What was the last guitar you bought and why?

“The last one I bought was actually a T-style called a Tango, made by a luthier over in Tacoma, Washington, named Joe Riggio. I like that guitar a lot. I have a friend that I buy some of my vintage guitars from and he was like, ‘Oh, man, we have this Riggio in and I think it’s the best one we’ve ever had. You should come check it out,’ and I loved it. 

“I ended up using it on the new solo record [The Ides Of March] on a few solos. It’s cool because it’s got a compound radius [neck] so it starts at 7.25 inches and goes up to nine or 9.5 inches by the 17th fret. So it’s a cool guitar, sounds amazing.” 

What’s the most incredible find or bargain you’ve ever had when buying guitars?

“I worked at a music store back in the early 90s and I was in the consignment centre and so people would bring in used gear. This person brought in a 1960 reissue Les Paul in Bullion Gold and I was like, ‘Well, how much do you want out of this?’ and I think he just wanted about $400 for it. Even back then, I think those guitars were listing for a couple of grand. 

“At the time I had no money, so I was like, ‘Uh, okay, if that’s what you want…’ Basically, I took it in the store, I paid the store the commission and I ended up getting the guitar. That was a smokin’ deal, for sure – and I used that guitar a lot throughout the '90s in a number of bands.”

What’s the strongest case of buyer’s remorse you’ve ever had when buying gear?

“I don’t know that I’ve had buyer’s remorse after buying gear. It all makes me so happy. When I bought my first really legit vintage guitar, it was a little more expensive than my Ibanez DT250, let’s just put it that way. I think it was a ’53 Blackguard Fender Tele and that was definitely a commitment – a bit of, ‘Well, you’re jumping off the deep end here,’ and my wife thought I was half crazy. 

“But I’m really glad I did it just because it’s brought me so much happiness and it kinda made me want to play again, to be honest with you. I hadn’t really been in love with playing guitar for a long time until I found that instrument. The buyer’s remorse came in when I looked at my bank statement, after the fact!” 

Have you ever sold a guitar that you intensely regret letting go?

“I don’t think so because I’ve hardly sold anything. Usually, when I buy something, I’m committed to it. I’m kind of a gear hoarder, so I have a really difficult time parting with anything. I have all these amps, some of which I haven’t even fired up in 20 years and they’re just taking up space. But I just want to be prepared in case I’m feeling fickle and want to use a 1969 Plexi again, who knows?” 

What’s your best guitar-buying tip?

“I would definitely do a lot of research. Apps like Reverb are amazing – you can type in whatever guitar it is you’re interested in buying, suss out the prices and all the various components… We live in a different era now where so much of what you buy is online, but if you can play and hear a guitar before you buy it that’s really helpful because every guitar is different. 

“You might think you’ve found this mid-'90s PRS or whatever and think that they feel the same and play the same, but it’s not true. Every guitar has its own identity and each piece of wood can vary greatly in terms of the overall tone.”

When was the last time you stopped to stare in a guitar shop window (or browse online) and what were you looking at?

“I have a friend here in Spokane [Washington] where I live and he’s got a shop called River City Guitars. Generally, I don’t window shop, I’ll just walk right in and covet whatever he’s got. In fact, that’s where I bought that Riggio T-style from. He’s got a korina Strat in there, I don’t know what year it is, and it’s a really cool guitar. It’s a pre-CBS one if I recall and that would be cool to have.”

If forced to make a choice, would you rather buy a really good guitar and a cheap amp or a cheap guitar and a really good amp?

“Definitely a really good guitar and a cheap amp. I think that, for me, the guitar has got to be there first. It’s like the first thing in the chain. I want the neck to feel a certain way; I want the tone to have a certain thing. And that’s really where it starts. 

“Let’s say you had an old Hondo from the '80s and you plugged it into a Dumble amp. I’m sure it would still sound good because those amps are amazing. But as far as what’s going to inspire me, it’s the way the guitar feels and so I’d really rather have a guitar that feels really good and then we’ll figure out how we’re going to massage the amp once we get to that point in the chain.”

Myles' go-to rig

“With Alter Bridge, it’s PRS guitars, sometimes Fender Teles, into either a Diezel Herbert or VH4. They’re awesome, I love them in that context. The solo realm I’m still getting figured out for the next few tours, but it’ll probably be a number of different things. Probably 335s. 

“And PRS makes a really good amp right now and I’m going to try that in conjunction with the Diezel Schmidt – that’s the amp they don’t make any more, but it’s a great sound. It’s like a Vox AC30 on steroids and so I’ll probably try a combination of those.”

• The Ides Of March is available now via Napalm Records.

Tremonti – the band conceived and fronted by Alter Bridge and Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti – have announced their fifth studio album, Marching In Time.

While the band's previous effort, 2019's A Dying Machine, was a concept album with a continuous story, the new effort takes the listener on 12 individual journeys, “drawing from current events from the last year to form the basis of each song”.

Released via Napalm Records, the album promises to see Tremonti “fusing uncompromising thrash-induced fret fireworks, wrecking ball grooves, and searing melodies all at once to present a definitive sonic statement”. It is produced by Michael “Elvis” Baskette – the producer Mark has worked with exclusively since 2007.

We've heard no word on the album's first single as of yet, but we'll keep you updated as we learn more. 

Marching In Time arrives September 24, and is available to preorder now. Check out its tracklisting below.

1. A World Away
2. Now And Forever
3. If Not For You
4. Thrown Further
5. Let That Be Us
6. The Last One Of Us
7. In One Piece
8. Under The Sun
9. Not Afraid To Lose
10. Bleak
11. Would You Kill
12. Marching In Time

Additionally, Tremonti will hit the road ahead of the album's release, with a US stint commencing September 3 in Pryor, Oklahoma at Rocklahoma Festival and wrapping up Orlando, Florida on September 26. A full list of dates can be seen below.

Considering his duties fronting Alter Bridge and Slash’s solo band, Myles Kennedy could very well be one of the busiest musicians in rock. Especially when you factor in his solo work, which began with his 2018 debut, Year of the Tiger, and continues on this year’s The Ides of March. 

Unlike his first album, however – or, indeed, any of his projects over the years – the new record showcases a different side of his guitar playing, proving he’s not merely a talented singer and songwriter. Talking to GW from his home studio, Kennedy explains how different situations call for different strengths.

The opening track, Get Along, has some blazing-fast pentatonic runs that are reminiscent of Eric Johnson and Joe Bonamassa.

“Eric Johnson is a big one for me, so I’ve definitely been trying to chase through certain patterns that he kinda invented, and that Joe Bonamassa took to a new level. I figured after all the time I’ve spent working on that stuff, it would be fun to throw in ideas like that here and there.“

There are a couple of moments like on the album where it sounds like groups of five using a mixture of economy and alternate picking.

“There’s definitely some economy going on. Some of that I incorporated from Frank Gambale, who was at the forefront of sweep-picking in the late-'80s. I saw him perform with Chick Corea and remember thinking, 'Wow, what is that?!' Obviously it sounds way different when you incorporate it into more of these pentatonic five patterns and whatnot. 

“Mark Tremonti and I were talking about Troy Grady’s instructional videos the other day, specifically the Eric Johnson one where he looks into some of those double strikes, down or up. What’s weird is that I started utilizing that technique but I reversed it… for some reason I find myself going the other way. It’s hard to explain, but I know there are definitely two ups and two downs in places.“

Although you’ve played in various bands over the years, it definitely feels like we’ve never heard this side of you before.

“I never really found the right application for a lot of those licks. But this being a more blues-rock record, I felt like sticking to a pentatonic or blues-based approach – especially with the fast runs. It just felt more appropriate.

“In Alter Bridge, we tend to be quite modal at times, with a lot of triplets… it’s just a different approach. I wanted this record to be congruent in terms of the leads. If I was going to have a burn here and there, it would have been inappropriate to kick into some harmonic minor legato run. It just wouldn’t fit!“ 

You mainly stick with a Diezel Herbert amp in Alter Bridge. How different is the rig in your solo ventures?

“Any time a Diezel was used on this album, it was actually the Schmidt – a discontinued model but a killer amp, like a Vox AC30 on steroids. I used one for my guitar tracks on the second Slash record, Apocalyptic Love. But what I used a lot of this time, because it suited the sound, was a 1958 Fender Deluxe with the 5A3 circuit, which is the magical circuit. It just has this thing. 

“I would say it’s the main sound of this album. A lot of the times if we were doubling, we used one of our producer Elvis’s amps [Michael “Elvis” Baskette], this ’74 Marshall combo he had in his collection. And any time I pulled out my ’54 Fender lap steel, we used an Amplified Nation.“

What are we hearing in terms of guitars?

“A lot of the record was written on and performed with my ’52 Fender Blackguard Telecaster. In recent years I’ve really become obsessed with Blackguards. This one just has something. I don’t know why – it could be the pickup, which almost sounds like a P-90. 

“There’s also a 1958 Gibson ES-335 that has the PAFs in it… basically the same ones you’d find in a Burst, for a fraction of the price. For acoustic stuff, I used the same 1945 Martin I used on [debut-album track] Haunted by Design. It’s a great-sounding instrument. But the one that blew Elvis away was a 1965 J-50, which sounded magical. The great thing about those Gibsons is that they’re not crazy-expensive like some of the old Martins.“

We heard you used a Klon at some point, too.

“Yeah! Though we actually didn’t get an original; we got a clone of a Klon and loved it. We used it a fair amount, especially on the leads and in a way that made its presence known. Another I used was the good old Fulltone Fulldrive 2. For the rhythms, we added a little bit of drive going into the front of the Fender Deluxe, just to push it a little harder. Actually, I committed the ultimate sin right before I went down to make the record…“

Indulge us!

“There’s something you need to do with those 5A3 Fender Deluxes. They don’t like taking pedals in front and a lot of purists say you shouldn’t change them because they sound amazing on their own. So I have to confess – and I might get some crap for this – but I took it to my buddy who tweaked something so it could take pedals a little better. 

“And now with the record done, we can return it to its old glory. I knew that amp was going to be such an important part of the sound but needed to make sure that if I was going to do leads, it would let pedals do what they do for us guitar players. That little push makes everything a little easier!“

The solo on Worried Mind shows another side of your playing — minimalist Clapton-esque blues with the odd diminished line. 

“Though I wouldn’t consider him to be old-school blues, Larry Carlton was such an important part of my development, especially the way he’d integrate diminished ideas or outside-sounding lines in a blues context. 

“Back in the day, I transcribed a fair amount of solos by him and Robben Ford. Those guys, like Clapton, know how to say more with one note than five or 10. When I heard them for the first time, I knew it was something I would have to try and understand... they’re the masters! 

“And as far as the diminished side of it, when I discovered what you can do with those half-whole or whole-half tones, boy… it opened up an entirely new world. And I learned it from those guys, but there are a lot of new players who do that brilliantly. One of my favorites is Josh Smith; I have his instructional thing where he explains what he’s doing. If you are on the one chord, diminished ideas seem to work really well as you do that change, using them to lead into the four!“

• The Ides of March is out now via Napalm Records.

The Florida rock four-piece Alter Bridge are stuck at home like the rest of us at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped them releasing a live EP, Walk The Sky 2.0, recorded on their most recent tour. 

Fans of the band, and there are many, will admire the album-faithful nature of the tunes. Bassist Brian Marshall, who is joined in Alter Bridge by Myles Kennedy (vocals, guitar), Mark Tremonti (guitar) and Scott Phillips (drums), explains: “When we’re rehearsing for the tour, we try to keep it as much like the recorded version as we can. There are certain parts that we’ll extend, but for the most part, we’ll try to keep it as we recorded it.”  

You’ll hear clean and distorted tones from Marshall’s Ernie Ball five-strings, he adds: “I run a Tech 21 Sansamp to get that grind, which helps the bass guitar cut through the mix. You know, it’s taken many, many years of playing with Mark and Myles, who are two prolific guitar players, to find my spot in the mix. I think being a finger player tends to lend itself better to the low end, although at this point in my career, I like the midrange and the high end too. I don’t mind the fret noise!” 

Be close to your band

“It’s important to find people that are on the same page as you, musically, and obviously you have to be able to hang out with those people outside of music, if you’re spending a lot of time together on the road. If you want to do this as a career, and not just as a solo artist, it’s going to take more than just music to make it work from a longevity standpoint. That means we can ride on a bus with a 10-man crew for months at a time.” 

Embrace remote technology

“Because the people in our band are so spread out, it’s not easy to actually get into a room together, even before the pandemic. Because of the development of Dropbox, and all the technical things that have come around, what we tend to do at this point is get it all done remotely. 

“Mark and Myles will put songs in the band’s Dropbox and then we’ll all take a listen to it and make comments on it before we get together in the same room. At that point, the juices start to flow and the song starts to change. It gets its peaks and valleys, as we work on the dynamics, the structure and the tempo.” 

Use your downtime profitably

“One good thing about not being on the road right now is that I’ve had a lot of time with my family. I’ve also been taking a lot of guitar lessons. I’m working on a country project with a friend of mine, and I’ve taken on a lot of writing, lyrically, and musically. We’ve got some songs that we’re working on and plan on recording.” 

Understand the bassist’s role in the group

“Bass is a different skill set and a different mindset. I think we’re just born that way. I was always drawn to the rhythm section – Rush, the Who, Led Zeppelin. All those guys really inspired me to play bass. A lot of guitar players kind of transition over to bass, because they can’t find a bass player. It’s hard to find a real bass player for that reason: You know, we’re unicorns out there!” 

Consider your volume needs

“Depending on the level that you’re at, you may not need a backline anymore, as long as you have a good monitor mix. Most of the time, my speakers behind me on stage aren’t very loud at all. Mark Tremonti has gone on in-ears now, so his stage volume has come down, and that in turn has helped us all to get a better mix in our ears. Myles has really sensitive ears, so we had to put Plexiglas around the cymbals.” 

Keep improving

“It’s important to practise as much as you can. I don’t ever feel like I’m good enough. As a musician, there’s never really a point where you say, ‘Okay, I’m done learning – I’m great!’ What’s great about our minds is that you can always continue to learn and to listen to other artists and pick and choose little things that you can pull into your skill set. If there’s something that you like, gravitate towards that and see if you can make it your own.” 

Challenge yourself

“Mark and Myles have constantly challenged me over the years. I’ll be sitting down and playing, and a family member or someone is watching, and they’ll say ‘How do you move your fingers that fast?’ The answer is that I have to play fast when I’m playing with Mark. We’ve developed as musicians and players over a number of years, and we’ve continued to challenge ourselves. In fact, the challenge is everything!” 

• Walk The Sky 2.0 is out now via Napalm Records.

Alter Bridge had only just started touring their sixth studio album, late 2019’s Walk the Sky, when – much like everyone else – their plans were grounded to a halt. 

Instead of quietly biding their time, however, the hard-rock quartet decided to give fans around the world a taste of “what could have been” in the form of Walk the Sky 2.0, an EP of energetic live offerings from their early 2020 U.S. tour, plus Last Rites, a brand-new studio track. We recently tracked down Mark Tremonti to find out a bit more. 

How did you go about choosing the takes heard on the new EP?

“Our sound engineer and tour manager had them on file. As a band we didn’t listen to them; that would have been the most tedious thing in the world! [Laughs] We trusted the people around us to find the performances that capture what we do live best. Our team knows exactly what our vibe is, so two versions of each song were chosen.“

Last Rites has quite a thrash-metal vibe in places. 

“Yeah! That one came out of riffs we had sitting around. They were on deck for the last record but never quite happened. We put it all together with Myles [Kennedy] singing from home over lockdown. 

“I feel like there’s a little bit of a Jerry Cantrell vibe on those pre-bends. He’s the best when it comes to that stuff and one of the greatest rock songwriters of our generation, so that might have seeped in subliminally.“ 

Would we be right in guessing we’re mainly hearing your PRS signature gear? 

“Sure, you’re hearing the MT15 – and we actually have an MT100 in development – plus a little from my Cornford RK100 and Rev F Dual Rectifier. I like to go direct so I tend not to put much in my chain. Usually the other guitarist in whatever band I’m in is the more effects-driven player. I’m more straight to the tonal point.“

There’s no solo as such, but it sounds like there’s a pitch-shifted lead track buried in the mix from the first chorus onwards. 

“I think it was the [Electro-Harmonix] POG. Our producer is a bit of a mad genius when it comes to pedals. He loves to use the Micro Synth a lot too – it’s one of our favorites in the studio. It could have been that – or my T-Rex Octavius, which I brought in one day. So yeah, it could have been any of those four pedals!“

• Alter Bridge's new EP, Walk the Sky 2.0, is out now via Napalm Records.

Mark Tremonti – the man GW readers named Guitarist of the Decade – has revealed he is in fact human, and named the Alter Bridge song he finds most challenging to perform.

In a new interview with Guitar World’s Amit Sharma, to promote the band’s just-released Walk the Sky 2.0 EP, the guitarist let us in on the track that still gives him trouble in the live arena.

“I Know It Hurts is the toughest thing for me to play rhythm-wise and lead-wise,” he admits.

“I always find I can get the positions right at first and then, as the title suggests, it actually starts to hurt because you have to hold the positions and it hurts the wrist and fingers.

“Before every record, I will dig as hard as I can on any new technique I’ve been working on in order to introduce new things – that way I can avoid repeating and regurgitating the same licks.

“When making that record, I stumbled on this Guthrie Govan ascending legato string-skipping extravaganza that clearly I felt good enough to tackle that day. It felt like the hardest thing I could do and a way of making myself better, because I knew I’d have to practice hard to do it live.

“That ascending legato lick is a page taken out of Guthrie’s book, and as we all know, he’s pretty much the most terrifying shredder ever to have existed. When we filmed that one live [for 2012’s Live at Wembley DVD], it was the song I spent all night thinking about.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Tremonti revealed that he’s currently writing new material – although that writing, in actual fact, has a negative impact on his playing.

Asked about his approach to improvising, Tremonti says, “It’s a beautiful thing when it’s working. But it can go in the opposite direction! If I’m not having a good day improvising, I’m just not in it and feeling too great.

“The moments where everything is working are the best and most satisfying moments of playing guitar. I’m in a songwriting mood so my playing has gone down the toilet a bit. Writing kills my playing a bit.”

Walk the Sky 2.0 is out now via Napalm Records. The full interview with Mark Tremonti will appear in Guitar World magazine’s March 2021 issue, on sale January 26.

In this ever-more-unpredictable world we all live in, routines – ones that never change no matter what crazy stuff occurs outside your door – can be hard to come by, but are always nice to have.

That’s why we at GW love every week to search for the most exciting happenings in the guitar universe, and bring them right to your fingertips. 

This week, we’ve got a hemisphere and genre-traversing masterpiece from The Nels Cline Singers, an unrelenting volley of heavy riffing from Alter Bridge, a meeting of two groundbreaking rock guitar giants and a whole lot more.

So, take a breather, tune in and, perhaps, find a new favorite!

Alter Bridge – Last Rites

Alter Bridge are chameleons in the rock world, able to seamlessly shift from gorgeous acoustic arrangements to tracks that give any of the genre’s heavy titans a run for their money. The group’s latest release, Last Rites, falls firmly in the latter camp.

Mark Tremonti and Myles Kennedy deliver an unrelenting volley of huge-sounding mid-tempo guitar riffs throughout, solidifying once again why they are such a force within the guitar world. The lead guitar is somewhat subdued in this track, but in its absence it’s all about rhythm and groove, and the Florida rockers execute it spectacularly. (SR)

Tom Morello - Interstate 80 (Feat. Slash)

The Rage Against the Machine revolutionary surprised-released Comandante, an EP of all-new material, last week – and some of his best output in years. While the EP is awash with killer six-string moments, its centerpiece is this hard-rocker built around Hendrix's old fave, the 7#9 chord, featuring the talents of a certain Mr Saul Hudson.

Slash lends his skills throughout the track, interspersing his trademark burning pentatonic leads between Morello’s Whammy freak-outs, building to an incendiary face-off at the track’s climax, as the pair emulate their Guitar Hero avatars. (MAB)

The Nels Cline Singers – Segunda

Leave it to Nels Cline to traverse hemispheres and a multitude of musical styles that – in theory – shouldn’t have all that much to do with one another, in a single tune.

Such is the case on the hypnotically grooving cover of Caetano Veloso’s Segunda that he recorded with his group, The Nels Cline Singers, for their new album, Share The Wealth.

His love of free jazz shining brightly, Cline uses his ever-exploratory, fleet-fingered lead work to engage in a fascinating musical conversation with his group, particularly saxophonist Skerik, who wails away with thrilling abandon.

With his incredible skills as an improviser and musical interpreter, the punk attitude of the song’s fearless, politically charged lyrics, and Cline’s brilliant sense of melody all vividly on display in his six-string work, this is a musical melting pot that’ll hook you right in from the get-go. (JM)

Rob Zombie – The Triumph of King Freak (A Crypt of Preservation and Superstition) 

Metal’s resident self-dubbed ‘Hellbilly’ returned right before Halloween with the characteristically and suitably horror-themed The Triumph of King Freak, ahead of his upcoming seventh studio album The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy.

Featuring Middle Eastern-influenced scale patterns combined with earthquake-inducing heavy metal instrumentation, this track holds all the riffs – most likely conceived by shred wizard John 5 – to keep any six-stringer satiated. (SR)

Indigo Sparke – Baby

The lead single from the up-and-coming Australian singer/songwriter’s debut album, Echo, Baby is a stunning statement of intent from Indigo Sparke.

Sparke’s vocals are otherworldly and beautiful enough to fill the massive desert landscape of Echo’s cover, but her urgent electric fingerpicking cuts right through that beautiful picture perfectly, giving the song a kind of intimacy that countless singer/songwriters attempt to achieve, but few genuinely capture.

Echo should be on everyone’s ‘must listen to in 2021’ list – it’ll definitely be on ours. (JM)

CATALAN! - Ungoogleable

Ungoogleable is taken from the Northern Irish protest-punk outfit’s debut album, Veritas, masterminded by Ewen Friers, the brother of And So I Watch You From Afar’s Rory, member of Axis Of, and touring crew member for the likes of Frank Iero, Laura Jane Grace and Thursday.

Fans of his sibling’s band will immediately dig Ewen’s hook-heavy guitar stylings, which meld the angularity of post-punk with math-rock buoyancy, but the stream-of-consciousness lyrical content takes CATALAN!’s output to a more existential plain. (MAB)

grandson – One Step Closer

Jordan Benjamin – better known as grandson – has carved a rock ‘n’ roll-leaning niche within the hip-hop world, and deploys this stylistic tendency to great effect in his often politically fueled original music.

His latest release, however, is a cover of Linkin Park’s One Step Closer, taken from the band’s 2000 album, Hybrid Theory. Apart from the obvious key change, the arrangement is largely the same, albeit with very grandson-esque electronic drums.

While the original is undeniably carved in nu-metal history, it is interesting to hear the composition with a more modern production style and with fatter-sounding guitars. We rate this cover highly. (SR)

Gustavo Santaolalla & Gary Clark Jr. – Valley of Last Resort

Written for the Hunter S. Thompson documentary, Freak Power: The Ballot or the Bomb, Valley of Last Resort is a lovely, remarkably self-assured meeting-of-the-musical-minds. 

Not only do Gustavo Santaolalla & Gary Clark Jr.’s voices work immaculately together, Santaolalla’s ronroco work is a wonderful backdrop for Clark’s Spaghetti Western-informed and bluesy lead stabs. 

Speaking to both the political unrest of Thompson’s time and our own, Valley of Last Resort is a compositional marvel that balances a number of musical traditions and influences with admirable ease. (JM)

The Anchoress – Show Your Face

Welsh multi-instrumentalist Catherine Anne Davies this week announced her second album, The Art of Losing, and with it, this lead-off single, a new wave-inflected retort to toxic masculinity.

Davies leans on a modified Fender Blacktop Telecaster for the track’s chunky chords, while Manic Street Preachers’ James Dean Bradfield crops up to slash away at the track’s moody, chorus-drenched six-string counterpoints. (MAB)

GHØSTKID – YØU & I

While relatively new on the metalcore scene, GHØSTKID have quickly established themselves as a band to watch. Five tracks have been released thus far from their upcoming debut album (out November 13) – including two versions of THIS IS NØT HØLLYWØØD with Timi Hendrix and, ironically, Hollywood Undead’s Johnny 3 Tears, respectively.

The group’s latest single, likely to be the last before the full album is released, YØU & I showcases their digital-meets-metal style from the outset, and demonstrates their seasoned approach to melodic metalcore composition. Oh, and the guitars really slap, too. (SR)

It’s been roughly 16 years since Alter Bridge first rose from the ashes of Creed’s initial incineration, and in that time the group has proven itself to be nothing less than a continually dominant force in the modern rock world. 

Guitarist Mark Tremonti and singer/guitarist Myles Kennedy, the creative duo at Alter Bridge’s helm, are among the most prolific musicians around, evidenced by the sheer volume of output between them in the past 16 years. 

With Alter Bridge, Tremonti and Kennedy have issued six studio albums, four live albums and a handful of box sets, EPs and assorted other goodies; Kennedy handled lead vocals for three Slash albums and issued his first solo album, The Year of the Tiger, in 2018; Tremonti has released four albums under the solo project that bears his name, as well as one science-fiction novel, A Dying Machine. 

That’s 14 studio albums, four live albums and one book in 16 years - a tremendous outpouring of music and imagination by any rocker’s standards.

But it’s not just the sheer numbers that make what Tremonti and Kennedy do so impressive - it’s the fact that the quality of their music continues to rise with each new offering, and that their fans are among the most impassioned and loyal in all of rockdom. 

The result of it all is that Alter Bridge have reached a point where they can almost do no wrong - where each new album is met with fervent enthusiasm by their fans and praise by critics, each new video racks up impressive numbers of views (usually in the million-plus range), and the group continues to tour the world regularly and have incredible experiences like their October 2017 shows at the Royal Albert Hall alongside the 52-piece Parallax Orchestra.

“I think we all recognize that that was probably the two best nights we’ve ever had onstage,” says Tremonti, who was named Guitarist of the Decade in the January 2020 issue of Guitar World. 

“Unless you’ve experienced something like that, it’s hard to explain. When you’re onstage playing your songs the way you always do, and all of a sudden you have a 52-piece orchestra all around you and playing your songs along with you, it’s really an intense, emotional thing to be a part of.”

The point of all this is that things couldn’t be better for Alter Bridge right now - creatively and in terms of the trajectory of their career. And if the success of the group’s most recent album, Walk the Sky, is any indication, the group is going to be riding these rails for quite some time - partly due to Tremonti and Kennedy’s furiously creative nature and partly because their fans are so rabid and clamor for any new scrap of music they release, year after year after year.

“It’s a great thing, to have that loyalty,” says Kennedy, “and we’re very cognizant of that and never want to let our fans down, so we don’t phone in our records. Mark and I put a lot of time and energy into the writing process to make sure that we don’t let our fans down, and maybe that’s why they continue to stick with us through thick and thin. We’re lucky, that’s for sure.”

“I think we’ve built a trust with our fans,” Tremonti adds. “They know we’re not just going to fall asleep at the wheel and start putting out music that we don’t believe in.”

Guitar World had the pleasure of sitting down recently with Tremonti and Kennedy to discuss the making of Walk the Sky and find out what exactly it is that keeps either of them from ever taking a break.

Walk the Sky features 14 songs and clocks in at just over an hour - not quite as lengthy as some of your previous albums, but still generally longer than records by your peers. What’s the philosophy behind albums that top the hour-long mark?

Myles Kennedy: "To be completely honest about it, I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we have two main songwriters in the band, and we each get attached to our songs and want them to be on the album, and it’s hard to cut any of your favorite songs.

"I think that’s why we continue to make these records that are as long as they are. Mark and I will write so much to prepare for an album, and the songs just become these children that we have a hard time letting go of.

"Believe me, there was a part of me that thought this should be either a 12-song record or even a 10-song record, especially with the way people listen to music these days and the fact that they have so many choices. 

"So my original intention was to keep this record short, like under an hour, but when it came time to decide which songs would make the cut and which wouldn’t, we just couldn’t all get on the same page, so we ended up with 14 songs.” [Laughs]

Mark Tremonti: "I like to write albums; I don’t like one song to be a representation of what the band’s about. I like it to be a dynamic journey between 10 to 14 songs that have all kinds of moods. As an artist you always want to show all your sides."

Mark, you handled lead vocals on Forever Falling, the 10th song on the album, with Myles singing backup. How did that come about?

Tremonti: "Usually we like to write together, but for this album we wrote most of our songs separately. The record is pretty much half mine and half Myles’ in terms of who wrote what. At one point Elvis [producer Michael Baskette] came to me and said that people online were really wanting to hear me sing a song on the album, and Myles suggested Forever Falling, which is one of my favorite tracks. 

"I immediately had to go into the studio and have them pitch the bass guitar down a whole step so I could track my guitars down a whole step and sing it. Myles ended up singing the chorus and I sing the verses and the bridge out - so we share the responsibility on that song."

You’ve been working with your producer Elvis pretty much exclusively for nearly 10 years now - he’s been behind the scenes on every Alter Bridge album since AB III, and has also worked on your solo albums and albums by Slash with Myles on lead vocals. What is it about Elvis that keeps you from working with other producers?

Tremonti: "We’ve been together for so long, we couldn’t even consider any other producer at this point. When you write and record music, it’s a very personal thing - you really don’t even want other people in the studio watching you record. So inviting a new producer into the mix would be a drastic change for us. 

"We know Elvis so well by now, and he just makes everything sound so good - he really is a master of sound. He draws the best performances out of us too - he pushes you, and if he doesn’t like something, he’ll let you know. But that’s what you need when you’re recording an album. 

"He’s just a good vibe and gets us great sounds, and he’s just obsessed with us making the best record we possibly can - I think he’s the biggest Alter Bridge fan in the world."

Kennedy: "He’s kind of like our George Martin, and we trust him, which is really the biggest component of all this. He’s a fan of the band and he listens like a fan, and we know that we’re not working with someone who has a very different opinion of what we’re known for. Elvis understands what we’re about and he understands how to get the best out of us. He’s just like this one-stop-shop for us, and in that sense he’s perfect."

Mark, what guitars and amps are we hearing on Walk the Sky?

Tremonti: "You’re hearing the PRS MT 15 and the Cornford RK100 amp, which has always been one of my favorite amps and has become a staple on our recordings. It’s one of Elvis’s favorite amps too. 

"I have a Fender Twin for some of the clean stuff, even though there really isn’t a ton of clean on this record. There’s also a Victory V40. Myles is just using a Diezel VH4 and a little Diezel Herbert amp. For guitars, I’m just using my signature PRS, and Myles is using some of his PRS guitars and he used some of Elvis’ Les Pauls, and a Tele and a Strat as well."

Let’s talk about your recent solo projects. Mark, in the summer of 2018 you issued the concept album A Dying Machine, your fourth under the Tremonti name - accompanied by a full-length sci-fi novel, co-written by you and well-known author John Shirley. How did it evolve into a book-and-record companion set?

Tremonti: "Writing a book has always been one of my bucket-list items. I started writing a book maybe 10 years ago, and I got about halfway through it and quit. After that I came up with a few other plot lines that I was thinking of turning into books, but I never had the nerve or the time or the patience or the confidence to do it. 

"So when this came along, I knew that I had thought so much about this story by creating this record that it was just the perfect template for me to write this book. So I started writing it, but I’m very slow when it comes to these things and I’m always second-guessing myself, so I thought it would be good to find a ghost writer to help push me along. 

"It’s the same as when I write songs - I like to have Myles to help me because it’s hard to write in a vacuum. It’s great to have someone to bounce ideas off of, and I found that person in John Shirley. Once he got on board, imaginations just opened up, and it was probably the most artistically satisfying year of my life between the book and the concept record. I was just so happy that it got finished and that I could finally cross it off my list."

Do you consider yourself a heavy reader?

Tremonti: "Sometimes, definitely - but not so much in the last six months as we were so busy trying to get this album finished. After I wrote A Dying Machine I slowed down a bit on reading - I kind of got it out of my system. 

"Right now I’m actually reading the book again because I’m shopping around for a publisher. I’ll be getting on the phone with a lot of people and talking about the story, and I just want to make sure I don’t forget any important details. But I’m enjoying going back through it again - it’s almost like listening to an old record."

Myles, you released your first solo album, Year of the Tiger, in March 2018. Is it true that you had attempted to write and record your first stab at a solo album years ago, and ended up scrapping it?

Kennedy: "Yes - everything was scrapped with one exception, a song called Love Can Only Heal, which ended up on The Year of the Tiger. Everything else from that previous album is just sitting on a hard drive somewhere. And there are actually a few songs from that album that I wouldn’t mind revisiting at some point. 

"The thing with that album is just that its shelf life had expired. By the time I could put it out, it had just sat there for so long and I just couldn’t relate to a lot of the material anymore and I just needed to start over."

Is that a familiar danger - songs sitting on the shelf too long?

Kennedy: "It happens a lot, actually, especially if you write all the time, as I tend to do; I always have a guitar in my hand, trying to create something. You just don’t have time to put it all out, and a lot of times something will just sit there. It’s kind of a drag, to be honest, the fact that you’ve got all these ideas that will never see the light of day.

Most people don’t realize that they’re only hearing a small percentage of what you’ve produced - and that’s kind of a bizarre concept. One thing that I do believe is that you can’t hit it out of the park every time, and just because you put a lot of time into something doesn’t mean it’s good or that you should burden your listeners with that. You really need to just pick out the tracks that best represent a moment in time and go with it."

You’re both so prolific when it comes to music. When was the last time you weren’t in the middle of writing or recording something?

Tremonti: "I can’t remember ever not being in the middle of something. [Laughs] At first it was a fight for survival because your career is just starting and you want to make sure you don’t fall into a sophomore slump, so you just keep working on new things and making everything better. 

"I think by the time we got to the AB III album we realized we had a solid fan base and that we could probably keep doing this for as long as we’re able to put 100 percent into it. And that was probably the first time in my life that I felt confident about what I was doing. But at the same time, I never get to slow down - and I don’t want to."

Kennedy: "To be totally honest, it’s really hard for me to be away from it. When we finished up a press run back in September and I got home, I told myself that I wasn’t going to do any work - it had been a really busy year up to that point, and I was just going to power down and spend time with my family. 

"I tell myself the same thing every time there’s a break, and it lasts all of 24 hours. I just can’t do it. I wonder if one day I’ll look back and think of all the time I could have spent with my wife instead of with my guitar."

Myles, you turned 50 on November 27, 2019. Is getting older a concern for you, especially considering the frantic musical pace at which you’ve always moved?

Kennedy: "There is a part of me that continues to ask myself, well, how much time do I really have? And what else do I need to say while I’m here? And what other skills do I want to acquire on the guitar? 

"And that’s become a real big thing for me of late - being immersed in guitar geekdom. All I want to do is sit there and play lead guitar and blues and learn new lines and go on Instagram and try and get inspired by other players - it’s weird, almost like I’m 21 years old again. 

"And it’s because there’s that part of me that thinks, well, what will I do if something happens and suddenly my hands don’t work as well as they used to? I want to get this stuff done while I still have everything working well, and say it while I’m here."

With everything you’ve done up to this point, do you think you’ve already made your mark?

Kennedy: "No, I actually don’t think that way. I still feel like I’m trying to write that perfect song or play that perfect solo. When I look back at things I’ve done over the past decade, I’ve maybe come close at times, but I still feel like I’ve got work to do, and I always feel like I could have been better. That perfectionism can be a real bitch sometimes. But I think that having that drive is what keeps me going."

Myles, your career rotates between Alter Bridge, Slash’s solo projects and, of course, your own solo efforts. Are you always the same Myles Kennedy regardless of the project you’re working on?

Kennedy: "There are different little sides of me that I get to explore in the various projects, which is really great. I think that what I do with Alter Bridge is definitely different from what I do with Slash. And that goes for the music as well as the lyrics.

"Alter Bridge is more introspective, these songs that take you on some kind of journey; with Slash, it’s more from-the-hip and about not taking yourself too seriously. With my solo album, lyrically that was about as heavy as you’re gonna get.

"So these projects are all very different and I love that. If they were all similar it would become redundant, and not only would I get bored but I think the fans would get bored. I’m really lucky because I’ve been able to carve out these little areas musically that I can step into and explore every few years, then shut the door and go into the next room and do that for a while. It’s definitely a luxury."

Alter Bridge fans tend to be some of the most passionate, loyal and vocal in modern rock. It’s like you have an army behind you that never wavers or loses interest in what you’re doing.

Kennedy: "It’s a great thing, to have that loyalty, and we’re very aware of that and never want to let our fans down, so we don’t phone in our records. Mark and I put a lot of time and energy into the writing process to make sure that we don’t let our fanbase down, and maybe that’s why they continue to stick with us through thick and thin. We’re lucky, that’s for sure."

Tremonti: "Our fanbase is always growing too, but it’s never a huge leap - it’s more like a slow appreciation, like we’re just beating inflation. [Laughs] We know that if we have 100 fans on this song, then we’re gonna have 102 on the next one, and 103 after that. 

"There’s never a big smash-hit where we’re suddenly selling out arenas all around the world. And I think we’ve built a trust with our fans - they know we’re not just going to fall asleep at the wheel and start putting out music we don’t believe in."

Between Alter Bridge and your various other projects, you guys have been enjoying some great success over the past decade. Do you remember the days when you were struggling?

Kennedy: "Oh, hell yeah. [Laughs] I can remember those days like it was yesterday. I remember when I was around 25, I got to a point where I was like, I don’t know if this is going to happen - and I wasn’t even sure of what I wanted to happen. 

"I just knew that I wanted to play music. At the time I was teaching guitar and working in a music store, and on my lunch break every day I would go down the street to this little Chinese restaurant and buy a little box of rice for a dollar.

"So I think back to those days, and even though I was unsure of the future at that point, there was a certain excitement in that and I’ll never forget it. In a way, I kind of miss that - that hunger.

"I remember once going to have some drinks with Jerry Harrison, the gentleman who produced the first Mayfield Four album, and he said something to me just after we finished that album that really stuck with me. He said that this is the time you’ll remember more than anything, and these will be the best days. 

"And I remember thinking, Hmm, really? Driving around in a beat-up van and eating Top Ramen? Fast-forward 20-plus years later, and you know what? He was right. It was that 'one-for-all and all-for-one, us-against-the-world thing going on back then, and it was really special and exciting."

Tremonti: "When Creed ended, I think we all just thought that millions of Creed fans would automatically become Alter Bridge fans, but that wasn’t the case. We pretty much started from zero. If anything, the Creed thing kind of hurt us in the beginning, because a lot of people would say that we were just Creed with a different singer. 

"Back then we had to buy ourselves out of some record deals, we changed managers a few times - we lived through a lot of stress back then.

"I remember back in the day we were asked to do all these lip-sync performances, and we’re just not doing that. People would tell us that we were going to lose our careers if we didn’t do stuff like that, but we didn’t care. 

"A lot of times people think they have all the right answers, but we know to just keep our eye on the prize and keep writing the best songs we can. And as long as we keep doing that, our fans will always be there for us. One of our biggest achievements is having that fan base - nothing can harm us any more."

"Walk the Sky is quite a departure, with how we’ve gone about writing the record, and also its overall sound is something new for the band. The way that the record came together was a different process this time. 

"With our singer Myles Kennedy playing with Slash and doing his solo project, our guitarist Mark Tremonti also doing solo work and us all being in different parts of the world, we used technology to bounce ideas off of each other, specifically the Dropbox system.

"Myles was on the road and writing in hotel rooms, and Mark was doing the same, whether it be in hotels or at home. They would upload material, and from there, Flip [drummer Scott Phillips] and I would get used to the ideas. 

"I would try to play with the demos and get an idea of what I’d like to do going into the pre-production and the writing process with the guys, because we didn’t have a lot of time. Once we were all together, that pre-production was only about a two-week process, if that.

We had probably 15 song ideas, some of which were a little more complete than others. The main thing that was a little different for this process is that they would piece together ideas. About a quarter to 50 percent of it was verse, chorus, and a possible bridge structure, and some of it had melodies on it. That’s something I really love to have - a good, firm melody - because as a bass player I tend to play off of what a vocalist would do."

"The drums, of course, were programmed [for the Dropbox demos], so that was obviously going to change a little bit in the studio, but at least there was an idea there. I could pick out what Mark was doing, and then bounce around as I like to do.

"I’m a bass player that doesn’t really like to stick to the chord structure unless I have to, and with a passage that’s moving real fast, there’s not much straying that I can do - for the most part, anyway.

"The pre-production all happened at the producer Elvis Baskette’s place. We did all the pre-production in a room in his house, separate from the mixing room. Where his console was, there were cables running through to his main control room. The pre-production happened in one of the rooms in his house and the recording happened in the console room.

"I only play five-string basses. This time I was just using the Ernie Ball five-string Stingray Special, the new guitar that replaced the SR5. They’re much lighter in weight, because EB have changed out some of the hardware to make it a lighter bass. I believe it’s maybe a pound lighter than it was. That’s my number one bass right now.

"For the recording I had an SR5 Special, and it’s a natural bass finish and a killer maple neck, so it really popped out. The amp was a Big Block and an Ampeg cabinet, I believe an 8x10, and that’s pretty much it, with Ernie Ball strings.

"For bass tones, Elvis [Michael Baskette] did a lot of that in post-production. We’d just get the general bass tone, and then, if there were sections in each song that needed some more dirt or whatever, we would add it in. If it called for it in the song and it made me feel better, then I would say, 'Hey man, would you add some dirt here?' It pumped me up and hopefully made the take that much better. 

"I have one other thing that I’m excited to get in my new rig; I just picked up this Darkglass Electronics distortion box. I heard it online and bought it, and I can’t wait to put it through my rig.

"Being in a band is a lot of hard work. Obviously the touring and the traveling is hard. There are sacrifices, but the payoff is being onstage, because that’s what’s the most fun for all of us - and it shows when we’re up there. You can just tell we’re having fun and that it’s what we love to do. Any musician will tell you that.

"We’ve taken a lot of time off, because Mark and Myles have been out doing their thing, and we released the Live At The Royal Albert Hall DVD in 2018. That was a good thing for our fanbase to have and to hold while we were off‑cycle and on hold. I’m looking forward to getting back out there, for sure. 

"I’ve been practicing the songs in preparation for the tour. We’re up to six records now, so I’m running through the catalogue and jogging my memory. Hopefully we’ll be playing some older fan favorites, and of course a lot of the new stuff as well.

"In my downtime, I’m also a real estate agent on the side. I live in Florida, and my wife and I work as a team. We sell houses and raise our kids. That’s basically what I do. 

"Obviously I’ve been playing a lot, though - I play with other musicians here locally, just to keep in it because I love it. I play in a little church thing as well, just to put myself out there, have some fun and give back a little bit too - that’s basically my life in a nutshell."

• Alter Bridge's Walk the Sky is out now via Napalm.

During Alter Bridge’s December 9 show at L’Olympia in Paris, frontman Myles Kennedy paid tribute to Jeff Beckley with a solo performance of Hallelujah, which he played on Buckley’s famous 1983 Fender Telecaster electric guitar.

The ’83 Fender Tele, which features a mirrored pickguard and a Seymour Duncan Hot Lead Stack in the bridge position, resides at Paris-based Matt’s Guitar Shop, which loaned it to Kennedy for the performance.

The Tele was Buckley’s primary guitar over the course of his short career, and, according to a statement accompanying the video, Kennedy’s performance was “the first time this song was played on this guitar in public” since his passing in 1997.

Said Kennedy at the start of the performance, “This song was played here over 20 years ago by a gentleman that is probably one of my biggest influences and a number of other people’s as well. We owe a great debt to Mr Jeff Buckley.”

The Leonard Cohen classic became closely associated with Buckley after he recorded it for his 1994 debut, Grace. It later appeared on Buckley’s posthumous live album, Live À L'Olympia. 

Three bands, 14 albums, a host of B-sides and one stunning shred instrumental… Mark Tremonti has left us a lot of playing to pick through here to highlight the guitar landmarks of his increasingly prolific career.

The longtime PRS artist is a rarity – a player who had massive success but continued pushing himself on a technical level. One who places songwriting above all other crafts.

Creed were one of the '90s' biggest rock bands – in a time when guitar music went multi-platinum. But they were maligned for all manner of perceived faults. When they imploded, Tremonti simply got on with the task of proving their detractors wrong in a new band alongside Creed drummer Scott Phillips, returning bassist Brian Marshall and Mayfield Four mainman Myles Kennedy.

“The way I looked at it with Alter Bridge was, how many people get a chance to start again with a new band and do it their way?” Tremonti reflected with us on his own mindset as a player starting a new chapter in 2004.

“Guitar solos were always something I liked. I wasn’t the greatest at it at the time but I wanted to develop it and them to be part of the new band.

"It’s one of those things where if you write songs, and my number one priority is being a songwriter, but when people hear songs they think there’s this one guy who sings and writes all the songs. So one of the reasons was if I become a good guitar player nobody can take that away from me. So I really wanted to develop my guitar playing.”

Six impressive albums in and that band Alter Bridge have developed into an arena-level act in Europe, a continent where Creed hardly played. With a songwriting tap he’s seemingly unable to turn off, Tremonti has even stepped up to the mic in his own solo band. 

Tremonti has proved himself one of the great rock guitarists of the last 20 years, with the songwriting talent to match. But this isn’t our pick of the best 10 songs Tremonti has been involved in – that list might look quite different, and some of our favourite Alter Bridge songs aren’t here (hello, In Loving Memory and The End Is Here).

Instead, we’re honing in on key examples of his playing to date with special archive insight from the man himself. 

1. Faceless Man – Creed

Something that often gets overlooked about Creed, especially outside their fanbase, is their music’s sense of the cinematic. They had a really good handle on the majestic in many of their songs like My Sacrifice, On My Sleeve. Some might even call it overblown but we won’t.

They showed this penchant for the epic early on with debut My Own Prison’s breakthrough title track (a track that featured Tremonti’s vocals heavily and foretold what would come much later). This is that song’s sequel. Its Empire Strikes Back, if you will.

Overshadowed by the hits Higher and ubiquitous With Arms Wide Open on the massive-selling 1999 sophomore Human Clay, this is really the album’s key song. Slowly rising and falling from balladic to rock euphoria.

Tremonti uses some subtle but hugely effective ascending runs in the bridge while holding the soundbed down. It's easy to overlook how he separated himself from his peers early with a willingness to embrace alternate tunings and the open D5 here inspired the eastern feel of the recurring riff  – as well as the wide open rhythm sound that gives this song so much breadth.

“When I wrote that I was in my early days of experimenting with open D5 tuning,” Tremonti told this writer in 2012.

“I just remember coming up with the line, really digging it, then I wrote a few melodies for the bridge. Then I called Scott and said, ‘I’ve got this cool idea going on and he said, I do too.’ Then we put them together and they fitted really well. Then we put that song together partly that night and the next day at soundcheck. It’s always been our favorite.”

2. My Last Mistake – Tremonti

Tremonti’s formation of a solo band in 2010 could have so easily become a recycling plant for ideas not deemed strong enough for Alter Bridge – not so.

A chance to flex his Slayer-disciplined picking hand, as well as his vocal chords, there’s still plenty of deeper light and shade across Tremonti’s four albums to date. Fellow guitarist and old friend Eric Friedman proving a perfect foil alongside drummer Garrett Whitlock.

Last year’s A Dying Machine concept album is right up there with anything he’s done. But it was the previous one-two punch of the Cauterize and Dust albums (recorded together and released a year apart) made the mission statement clear.

We’ve got to hail that right hand discipline of Tremonti’s here on one of his thrashiest opening riffs to date that’s expertly blended with a driving melodic chorus. The syncopation here between kick drum and picking hand here is crucial.

“The core of my style is probably a mixture between the down-picking stuff I grew up with - the speed-metal rhythm stuff and the palm-muting,” Tremonti said in 2015, “and then the fingerstyle I developed early on. I’d say it’s also the alternate tunings - hopefully, that’s something unique to my style.”

3. Brand New Start – Alter Bridge

While their 2004 debut, One Day Remains was a strong start for Alter Bridge, much of its songwriting was Tremonti working in isolation before singer Myles Kennedy had even joined the ranks.

The 2007 follow-up Blackbird was a different ballgame entirely with Kennedy contributing his formidable guitar chops as well as co-writes. Tremonti was in a two-guitar line-up for the first time but the spotlight is all on him in the solo here.

It’s one of the first examples of Tremonti making a guitar solo the peak of a song, and boy does he make the moment count.

“It’s the first time I’ve really been able to play a solo over a part that’s not full blast,” he told this writer ahead of Blackbird’s release in 2007. “It’s something where I could take a tastier approach to it. It was a breath of fresh air for me.”

Tremonti has proved he can deliver intense legato-laden solos with the best of them, but here he’s positively soulful as he ascends skywards; harmonically and metaphorically. Big bluesy bends and a lesson in build and release, the song changes up a gear from then on – what more can you ask from a guitar solo?

But as we detail later, this isn’t even the best one on the album!

4. Ahavo Rabo Taco Salad – Alter Bridge

Now this is an unusual one. In 2005, our UK sister title Total Guitar had Mark Tremonti as its cover star with a story on Alter Bridge. The remarkable part is the band agreed to record a whole new track for the magazine’s cover CD with the issue – and it was a monster instrumental shredfest that saw both Tremonti and Kennedy departing from the pentatonic into more exotic territory. And it also had a very strange name…

"The original idea we messed around with was Phrygian Taco Salad,” Tremonti told TG, “because the whole piece has that phrygian feel running through it. The Taco bit came from the cool Spanish breakdown in the middle where I pull out the nylons - but it didn't have that ring to it.

"Then Myles was surfing around the web and discovered that the name for the A harmonic minor scale I use in the solo is actually the Ahavo Rabo scale. So, there ya go!"

The music was a feast itself. "We got in the rehearsal pad and just went through some riffs,” added Tremonti. “I decided to make it more of a metal track so I could whip out the cool technical playing.

"I love that neoclassical harmonic minor sound. We did a metal riff to start the song off with, and picked three or four parts to splice together to make a little over a three-minute rhythm track. Then I got to work on the solos. It was like writing four solos in one song: two solo breaks, then a double solo break at the end.

“This was a chance for me to rip out the real fun diatonic solo stuff. This is strictly shred! I thought, for TG, the more technical the better - give the readers something to get their chops around!"

5. One Last Breath – Creed

We can’t comprehend offering a breakdown of Tremonti guitar highlights without giving props to his clean fingerstyle – there’s a wealth of them to choose from, from In Loving Memory’s emotive scene-setting to Unable To See’s classical mood. More than any other, One Last Breath’s earworm fingerstyle verses drive the song, providing the calm before the huge overdriven chorus kicks in.

“One Last Breath is one of my favorite guitar lines,” Tremonti told Songfacts ,”it's one of my favourite musical compositions for Creed. It's a song that turned out to be one of our biggest songs we ever put out. I think it had some of the most views we've ever had on YouTube, so it's a very important one for the Creed camp.”

Again, that classical touch can be detected in the fingerstyle part and it turns out that’s not coincidental. But Tremonti pinpoints the roots of his fingerstyle back to the influence of two specific pieces and one unexpected band…

“I love the fingerstyle stuff,” he explained to this writer in 2014. “Someone told me once, you remind me of the guy from Tesla [Frank Hannon]. You know what? I learned a lot of those [parts]. I loved that first Tesla record [Mechanical Resonance] and I agree. 

"Some of the fingerstyle stuff that they would do I would learn, and I would learn all the fingerstyle stuff that Metallica would do in Call Of Ktulu. Guitar magazines would have things like Bach's Bouree in E Minor and I’d learn that. 

"Over the years it just became a big part of my playing, it’s easier for me to write melodies by letting my fingers roll in a 6/8 kind of feel, stumbling around. It became natural.”

6. I Know It Hurts – Alter Bridge 

How could Alter Bridge follow Blackbird? Well they went darker and deeper with questions of faith and Tremonti employing a pink Kramer bass for some of the rhythm foundations on AB III. 

Tremonti’s feel playing was also coming to the fore – and he was blending melody with intensity in his solos better than ever (Fallout, Cour d’Alene) along with restraint (All Hope Is Gone’s sensitive changes, Life Must Go On’s majestic outro). 

Indeed, he’s very keen on outro solos throughout AB III, but this one takes the crown in a song that’s the perfect blend of AB heaviness and uplifting hope. Though it’s a real humdinger for Tremonti, both on the verses and that furious lead break

“That was actually the last solo I tackled on the record and it was probably the hardest one too," he told this writer in 2012. "It’s real up-tempo and I knew it was going to be more of an aggressive solo.

"But I would just play the track and improvise over it for hours and every time something flew by that I dug, I would just jot it down. I would keep going until the solo was full of good ideas."

You have to feel for Tremonti when he sees this song in setlist. It seems like the song is all too knowingly titled because the verse part is just as challenging. 

“That’s a tough, tough song to play for me," he admits. "The verse has a picking thing that’s like playing twister on your fingers. When I hear a guitar line sometimes I don’t care if it’s unconventional to play. 

"Sometimes, I’ve just got to hear the notes in my head. But my wrist is the only thing that hurts when I play too much guitar and if my wrist is hurting and I play that song, it’s a tough one.”

7. Bleed It Dry – Alter Bridge 

Alter Bridge’s fourth album found Tremonti consciously trying to vocalize his leads and leaving at least one comfort zone.

“I didn’t want to use a wah pedal on my leads because I felt like that was kind of my security blanket,” he told us. “I love playing wah but I wanted to try one record without it.”

Bleed It Dry is a hulking slice of heaviness with Kennedy contributing a Mastodon-inspired verse riff but its stunning blues solo breakdown adds the dynamic of light breaking through the black.

It finds Tremonti playing fingerstyle until he plays with a pick for the climatic end section. It’s a different approach in another way too.

“A lot of that, especially the ending, I came up with in my head and then learned how to play it on the guitar,” Tremonti added.

“Myles kept playing this fingerpicked pattern and I was like, ‘Oooh that’s very Opeth. This is the ultimate lead setup right here, keep going!’ I think he was a little apprehensive at first, like, ‘I don’t know do we want to keep the energy up? Do we want to bring it down like this?’”

It paid off. “It was the perfect solo soundbed, just because what I had to play over was so special, it made me really want to… I kept putting that solo off because I wanted to make that solo the best one. I spent a lot of time on it… it’s my favorite one for this album for sure. To me it has the most emotion in it.”

8. Dust - Tremonti 

The idea that Tremonti is just an outlet to scratch Mark’s thrashier metal itch doesn’t really hold up when you listen through the variation on the band’s four albums to date.

This song is a prime example of something that could have potentially been a big song for Creed or Alter Bridge. But it didn’t need to be – because Tremonti absolutely knocks it out the park here.

“It was all based around a chorus I had kicking around for a few years,” Tremonti told Guitar World in 2016. “I had tried using it in the Alter Bridge camp, but it never materialized into a song. It was one I really wanted to make happen. 

"Through my career, I’ve had a lot of ups and downs. It’s a song about those down times, when you notice the people who were around during your good moments have scattered when you find yourself struggling. Kind of like a close friend losing confidence in you. It’s one of my favorite tracks.”

It’s undoubtedly one of his strongest vocal performances to date; hear the emotion on that huge '80s-arena chorus. But the dynamic build and guitar solo here are equally crucial, because while the last two Alter Bridge albums have had a tendency to be sonically dense, this proves the strength in letting parts breathe.

The low key arpeggiated clean verses have space to ring out, the bridge clears the way for the surging chorus. Then that build again to the solo… and it’s simply one of Tremonti’s finest. Melodically, it sings.

9. Cry Of Achilles – Alter Bridge

Creed were pegged as a mainstream rock radio band but Tremonti has always had a progressive ear to his compositions. In terms of the sheer musical scope they deliver here, this opener to Alter Bridge’s Fortress album is tour de force.

Yes, the Tremonti and Kenney duelling Megadeth-esque solos of the album’s closing title track are highly impressive, but the confidence and range here are what really tips it as our choice. With Kennedy’s nylon strung intro and riff inspiring Tremonti on, it’s a real team effort that proves they bring out the best in each other.

“That intro just inspired a whole tune,” credited Tremonti. “And the chorus and the bridge were come up with all on the spot. The little off time part in the verses was on the spot too.” 

On a song that echschews the usual unusual altered tunings for half a step down, Kennedy takes the first solo, and pressure was on Tremonti for his final “stingy” lead break to contrast Kennedy’s muscular vibrato. It delivers as a pay off for everything that precedes it – you can feel through the speakers that Tremonti is pushing himself. 

“I knew that was going to be an important song so I was putting myself under a lot of pressure for that one,” Tremonti adds, though typically hard on himself – he adds a caveat…

“There’s a few notes in there that if I could go back and re-record it again I would play again or change but as a whole, I’m happy with it.” So are we!

10. Blackbird – Alter Bridge 

You didn't think we'd forget this one, did you? Even Tremonti knows it's his masterpiece, the kind of song artists hope comes along once in their career. Though it's all the better for being a true collaboration with Kennedy that he detailed with this writer back in 2011.

“It started with the verse fingerpicked line," said Tremonti of Blackbird's birth. "I’d been throwing it around for a while and I really loved it. It had such a sad classical feel to it. We were all at rehearsals and me and Myles were trying to come up with a chorus. 

"We’ve always had trouble coming up with big choruses that are in a 6/8 feel. I didn’t have anything and Myles didn’t have anything that matched either. So we went into separate rooms at the rehearsal pad and Myles came running back in with the chorus. We all loved it and ran with it.

"For the bridge, he had a musical part and I had a part – we just stacked them on top of each other and they sounded great. Then we did the back to back solos and once we had it all arranged we all looked at each other and it was one of those hairs standing up on your arms moments.

"That was the point we were ready to record the album – we felt that it was complete at that moment. That song was the most impressive we had done to date.”

The Kennedy/Tremonti solo section is a modern classic, so much so it was voted as the greatest guitar solo ever in a 2011 poll held by our sister title Guitarist. 

"The Blackbird solo was the last one written on the album," reflected Tremonti. "I felt a lot of pressure because the song itself seemed to be everyone's favorite. I must have written three rough outlines of the solo before tracking."

But he notes that inevitably it's the dynamic between himself and Kennedy that is key to the song's power.

“I remember from the moment we realized what kind of a guitar player Myles was we tried to really push that to the forefront and show Myles’ skill on the guitar because I felt that it was that secret weapon. 

"For a band not to have a player of his caliber even touch a guitar on the first record, to come out blazing on the next record would really shock people – and give it that wow factor. 

"We felt it was a great moment for our two different styles because he took the part where he could really follow the chord changes and throw his knowledge of his feel and phrasing into that. Then my more aggressive lead style back to back with that. It was a good combination.”

Following the release of “Wouldn’t You Rather” last month, Alter Bridge have released a second track, “Pay No Mind,” from their forthcoming album Walk the Sky. You can check it out above.

Walk the Sky is due out October 18 via Napalm Records. The album is the follow up to 2016’s The Last Hero.

The band— Myles Kennedy (vocals/guitar), Mark Tremonti (guitar/vocals), Brian Marshall (bass) and Scott Phillips (drums)—will also be hitting the road in September with Dirty Honey and co-headliners Skillet. You can check out all those dates right here.

You can preorder Walk the Sky here. Check out the album art and full track list below.

Walk the Sky track list: 

1.    One Life                                                        

2.    Wouldn’t You Rather                                 

3.    In The Deep                  

4.    Godspeed                                     

5.    Native Son                                    

6.    Take The Crown                                          

7.    Indoctrination                                                              

8.    The Bitter End                                                              

9.    Pay No Mind                                

10. Forever Falling                                                             

11. Clear Horizon

12. Walking On The Sky

13. Tear Us Apart

14. Dying Light

Alter Bridge have premiered the first song and music video from their new album, Walk the Sky. You can check out the powerful new tune — “Wouldn’t You Rather” — below. 

The clip, which was directed by Dan Sturgess, is a performance video that showcases the entire Alter Bridge gang, namely Myles Kennedy (vocals/guitar), Mark Tremonti (guitar/vocals), Brian Marshall (bass) and Scott Phillips (drums).

In other Alter Bridge news, the foursome will be hitting the road in September with Dirty Honey and co-headliners Skillet. You can check out all those dates right here.

Walk the Sky, which will be released October 18 via Napalm Records, is available now for preorder. For more information, step right this way.

Alter Bridge have released a new clip from their upcoming Live at the Royal Albert Hall release. The track, "The End is Here," originally appeared on the group's 2004 debut, One Day Remains.

Live at the Royal Albert Hall was recorded in October 2017 when the band performed two sold-out shows at the iconic London venue, backed by the 52-piece Parallax Orchestra led by conductor Simon Dobson. The live package is due out on Napalm Records on September 7.

You can preorder Live at the Royal Albert Hall here, and check out the tracklist below. 

01. Slip To The Void

02. Addicted To Pain

03. Before Tomorrow Comes

04. The Writing On The Wall

05. Cry Of Achilles

06. In Loving Memory

07. Fortress

08. Ties That Bind

09. The Other Side

10. Brand New Start

11. Ghost Of Days Gone By

12. The Last Hero

13. The End Is Here

14. Words Darker Than Their Wings

15. Waters Rising

16. Lover

17. Wonderful Life/Watch Over You

18. This Side Of Fate

19. Broken Wings

20. Blackbird

21. Open Your Eyes

Last week, Rusty Cooley posted a neat video that he dug up in his archives. Shot backstage at an Alter Bridge show at The Woodlands Pavilion in Texas in 2008, it shows Cooley and Mark Tremonti engaging in some six-string hijinks.

The video features plenty of Cooley's typical supersonic licks, with a delightful two-guitar metal jam at the end.

"Can't think of a better way to spend my day than hanging out with my brutha playing some guitar," Cooley said of the video. You can check it out for yourself above.

Today's lick features Mark Tremonti of Creed and Alter Bridge tackling a fast, descending pentatonic phrase that takes a Shawn Lane-inspired approach to playing single-note runs.

In Tremonti's own words:

This involves the use of individual fingers when moving between notes on neighboring strings at the same fret, as opposed to employing a more traditional finger "roll" or barring technique. Finger barrés often result in notes ringing together like a chord. By avoiding them, maximum note definition is maintained to create a cleaner-sounding lick.

To grasp this lick's fingering concept, note that you'll be using your fret-hand middle finger to fret the last note in each of the first three quintuplet groups. Doing this will allow your ring finger to jump back and cleanly fret the following note on the adjacent higher string without having to rely on a ring-finger barré to catch the note.

The tempo is 132 beats per minute, 94 for slow practice.

Myles Kennedy had his first solo record all ready to go. The singer-songwriter and guitarist, who splits his time serving as the lead voice of two high-profile bands (Alter Bridge and Slash Featuring Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators), spent seven years meticulously crafting an album of stripped-down, acoustic-based tunes. But then a funny thing happened: He realized that the record didn’t sound anything like what he’d envisioned.

“Basically, I spent too much time on it and lost the plot,” Kennedy explains. “It started out fine, but I fell into the trap of using Pro Tools and recording as many tracks as I wanted—‘Let’s add this guitar. Let’s have all of these textures.’ At the end of the day, it was over-produced and cluttered, which is the furthest thing from what I was going for.”

Kennedy scrapped the album and went back to the drawing board. Along with adhering to his self-imposed edict of keeping things simple (he recorded to analog tape to limit the number of tracks he could use), he also summoned up the courage to write about a topic he had never fully addressed before: the death of his father, who passed away when the singer was only four years old.

“I tried writing about my father a while ago, but it just felt like I was trying to peel away a scab too soon,” he observes. “This time, things felt different. These songs are almost like letters to my father. Once I started writing, everything came pouring out.”

Titled The Year of the Tiger (in the Chinese Zodiac, it’s the same year that Kennedy’s father passed—1974), the album is a far cry from the blitzing hard rock and metal sounds of the bands he fronts. Lush acoustics and rootsy resonator guitars form the foundation of the record’s bluesy, country-laced songs. Kennedy, working with drummer Zia Uddin and bassist Tim Tournier, does most of the instrumental heavy lifting: In addition to all of the guitars, he also plays banjo, mandolin and lap steel.

“I was tapping into a lot of the music I love,” he notes, citing Robert Johnson, Son House, Mississippi John Hurt, Big Bill Broonzy and Chris Whitley as influences. “There’s an intimacy to their records that is so powerful, and that’s what I was feeling. I also noticed that playing acoustics and resonators changed how I sang. I’m in a lower register because I’m not trying to shout out over a wall of amps. Singing lower sounded very pleasing to my ear, and it made it easier for me to emote.”

Although he could have called upon cohorts Mark Tremonti and Slash to guest solo, Kennedy relished the chance to let his own lead work shine on the old-school country stomper “Haunted by Design” and the wicked blues workout “Devil on the Wall.” “It crossed my mind to ask them to play on the record,” he admits, “but this was a solo album and I wanted to see how much I could pull off myself. On both of those songs’ solos, I kind of tipped my hat to Brian Setzer, and I used this incredible Gretsch Duane Eddy model. That guitar is so much fun to play.”

When it came to acoustics, Kennedy brought a small number of faves into the studio. “I didn’t want to haul in everything I own,” he says. “I thought, Let me just use what each track wants.” He calls his 1944 Gibson J-45 “Banner” his go-to instrument. “The thing sounds like cannon fire,” he enthuses, noting that “the Banners were all built by women, because men were off fighting in World War II.” He also used a 1945 Gibson 000-21 as well as an early Nineties J-200. For resonators, he relied on a 1930s National Triolian and a brand-new National NRP model.

At the suggestion of producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette, Kennedy agreed to try his hand at playing lap steel. “That gave me a little pause for thought,” he allows. “But Elvis really wanted it on the record, so I thought, Okay, I’ll give it a go. He had this inexpensive Dillion lap steel, and I found out that I loved playing it. And that was kind of perfect. It turned out to be another cool part of this journey I took during the making of this album.”

PRS Guitars and Mark Tremonti have announced two new signature pieces of gear, just in time for the 2018 Winter NAMM Show—the MT 15 amplifier and the SE Mark Tremonti Standard guitar. Both are the result of a close collaboration between PRS and the Alter Bridge guitarist. Both were designed with players in mind and offer exceptional sounds and value.

Let's take a look at each one.

Lunchbox Hero: Mark Tremonti MT 15 Amplifier
“We knew we wanted a low-wattage amp. The challenge was getting a lot of tone and features in a little box. We’re all blown away with how it turned out. It’s going to be great for someone to take it out of the box, set everything to noon, and have it sound great.” –Mark Tremonti

The MT 15 is a commanding two channel amp with balanced aggression and articulation. Powered by 6L6 tubes, the MT 15 has a large, bold sound, so you can dig in heavy with rhythms but also get singing lead tones out of one amp. Whether recording, practicing, writing, or playing a small room, this amp has everything you need.

The MT 15’s design started with heavier players in mind, but in the end, it has a lot to offer players of all genres. Like the PRS Archon amplifier, the MT 15 features five gain stages before the Master for full, lush distortion. The gain channel gets big, chunky tone with massive, tight low end, but it never loses its articulate note definition or great lead tone. The clean channel is bright and chimey, good with chords and fingerstyle playing—whether with a pic or not. The clean channel also features a push/pull boost control that adds a little overdrive for old school crunch. No matter what tone you dial in, the MT 15 stays balanced across the spectrum with a sweet, smooth tone that won’t bite your head off.

Additional features include an effects loop and bias adjusters that are accessible from the back panel for ease of servicing. Despite its 15 watts, the MT 15 sounds more like 50, so a half power switch that takes the MT to 7 watts is a welcome addition. Bottom line, the amount of features, the hugeness of the sound, and the raw horsepower of the circuit make the MT 15 an impressive lunchbox hero.

Rumors and speculation have been flying around this amp for the better part of year; fans can now dig into all the specs and demos and finally place their orders. Shipping is expected to begin in March of this year. The MT 15 is Mark Tremonti’s first signature amplifier.

Ready to Rock: SE Mark Tremonti Standard
“I’m excited to re-introduce my signature SE Standard model, giving players all the features I demand with the most affordable guitar yet.” —Mark Tremonti

The PRS Mark Tremonti Standard has a powerful voice that's well suited to heavy rock rhythm playing and melodic, soaring leads. The Tremonti “S” pickups and dual volume and tone controls allow players to dial in a wide variety of tones, never losing this model’s signature articulate aggression.

Additional appointments include, an all-mahogany body, rosewood fretboard with PRS bird inlays, as well as a Wide Thin maple neck and trem-up route, making the SE Mark Tremonti Standard fast, fun, and hard to put down.

“With so many aspiring players struggling to stick with guitar past the first year, we knew we wanted to deliver an affordable, quality guitar that players didn’t have to fight. We want the guitar to inspire you to play; it can’t be something you have to worry about staying in tune or simply working right. So while the [SE] Standards are our most affordable guitars to date, that doesn’t mean we compromised on tone, versatility, playability, or reliability,” said Jack Higginbotham, COO, PRS Guitars. “We’re proud to offer these guitars to the world.”

For more information about the Mark Tremonti MT 15 Amplifier and SE Mark Tremonti Standard, visit prsguitars.com.

“Up to that point, it was the biggest headlining show we’d ever done,” Mark Tremonti says about Alter Bridge’s performance at London’s O2 Arena on November 24, 2016.

That gig, which the guitarist estimates to have taken place in front of roughly 15,000 fans, can now be heard in full on the recently released Live at the O2 Arena + Rarities.

The three-CD package features the evening’s set list spread across two discs, as well as a third disc of rare cuts that includes two previously unreleased tracks—“Solace” and “Cruel Sun”—from the sessions for Alter Bridge’s 2004 debut, One Day Remains. “I’ve always loved those two songs,” Tremonti says, “and I’ve been saying for years we should put them out. It just never came to fruition until now.”

But while the Rarities disc unearths some interesting deep cuts, the meat of the new release is the spectacular live set, which encompasses everything from defining Alter Bridge hits like “Open Your Eyes” and “Isolation,” to fan favorites like “Metalingus” and “Blackbird,” to recent tracks like “Show Me a Leader” and “The Writing on the Wall.” As for why the band decided to release the entire show on CD? “We always want to capture those key moments, when we hit those new benchmarks,” Tremonti says.

But, he also admits, playing those benchmark shows can be stressful.

“We were hyper-focused, because we knew we were recording and that it was going to live on for a lifetime and become part of our legacy,” he says. “So you want to make sure you don’t play too stiff, you know? You want to have a good time.” Tremonti laughs. “Then again, you don’t want to play too loose and have too good of a time, either.”

Below, Tremonti walks Guitar World through 12 snapshots from his band’s momentous day at the O2.

1. “This is one of my favorite sounding and playing guitars. Paul Reed Smith and I designed it on his dry-erase board. There’s two of them—this brown one, and then there’s also a black one. The black one was the actual one-piece mahogany guitar that was kind of the guinea pig, and this was the more perfected version. I think it’s too radical a shape for some of the traditional guys there to wrap their heads around, but maybe one day PRS will put it out. It’s funny, all the younger guys in the factory love the guitar, but then all the guys who are kinda like the business people are on the fence about it. But it’s killer. That’s Frosty, my guitar tech, holding it.”

2. “This is Myles’ [singer Myles Kennedy] pedalboard. He really loves that MXR [GT-OD] pedal for overdrive. He always uses that. And he’s used those Line 6 pedals for years and years for all his delays and effects. He’s totally the effects guy in the band. I’m the meat-and-potatoes tone guy. If you hear crazy delays or flangers or choruses or octaves or whatnot, that’s usually him. As you can see in the later photo, my board is much more simple. I don’t have a switching system or anything.”

3. “The big triangle picks you see here are Brian’s [bassist Brian Marshall]. The little ones with the signature on them are Myles’. And then the yellow and red ones are the picks Myles actually uses. None of these are mine!”

4. “Soundcheck on the day of the show. We’re just talking things through. You can kind of see the seriousness on our faces. [laughs] We know the weight of the show. We usually play ‘Cry of Achilles’ first, because it has clean tones, dirty tones and lead tones, so it’s a good one to do in order to check the sound. And then we’ll just work out the set list for that night and take songs that aren’t as common and rehearse them. After that, we’ll usually let in all the meet-and-greet folks for the soundcheck party, and then we’ll play some other songs that we need to rehearse for the night.”

5. “My guitars. The C# tuning is probably the most common tuning. Everything is mostly half-steps down to begin with, and then we have about four songs that are maybe down a whole step. And then open D5 shows itself two or three times during the night as well. To make things easier live, we just take all the open-D5 stuff and put it down a half step. Then we have the oddball tunings, like a drop-C tuning. Each guitar in each tuning also needs to have a backup guitar in that tuning. So I have about eight or nine guitars out on the road with me.”

6. “The most important pedal to me is the wah [the Morley Mark Tremonti Wah]. Ever since I was a kid it’s just something I’ve loved. And it has a built-in overdrive as well. My signal chain goes right through the pedals—there’s no switching system. I don’t want it to get too complicated. So the wah goes right into the hand-wired [Ibanez] Tube Screamer, which is my favorite overdrive, then the Dunlop Uni-Vibe and then the T-Rex Octavius. But the wah is my main thing. I could get away with doing the whole show with just that one pedal.”

7. “A shot of the crowd that night. The general-admission area is where all the action’s at. It’s just intense when you look out at it. Especially when those house lights kick on and you see everybody. A lot of times you’re standing up there and the light’s in your eyes and you get put in your own little world. But when those lights turn on it’s always amazing.”

8. “That’s the crew day sheet. My day sheet, I do a guitar clinic every day and then I do a meet and greet. I usually go from about two o’clock in the afternoon until maybe 6:30. Then we have a couple hours to have dinner and whatnot. And then show time is around nine. This one also says ‘Happy Thanksgiving.’ Sometimes it sucks when you’re not in the States for some of these holidays. It’s just weird. There’s no Thanksgiving in England, you know?”

9. “The set list for the night, with the tunings that correspond to each song. Usually I try to have it so I don’t have to switch guitars every song. But this particular set list, it looks like I’m switching almost every single song. That was tough on Frosty! And the guitar laying there is the same one from the first photo.”

10. “The guitar in this photo is my favorite PRS of all time, which is my charcoal burst. This was, I think, the third or fourth guitar PRS built for me, and it just feels right. And below the bridge, that’s a sticker of Dimebag. We were doing a show in Orlando, and it was right after his passing. And a fan was going through the line and just handing out these memorial stickers. I got my hands on one and just put it on my favorite guitar. You can see how faded the sticker is now. It’s been on there for a lot of years. And a lot of people see it. I’ll be playing a show and people will point at it and give me the horns and show their appreciation.”

11. “That’s Mr. Ian Keith. He’s Myles’ guitar tech. He’s probably the longest-standing Alter Bridge crew member right now. He’s been with us for a lot of years. He’s excellent at what he does.”

12. “After the show. The crews are taking down the P.A.s and cleaning up the mess that the folks have made. But it looks pretty clean already. You know, folks in England, they clean up after themselves! As for the band, on a night like this there’s probably a lot of talking with guests afterward, having a few drinks and relaxing. Because leading up to the show there was a lot of stress and a lot of focus. And then you can kind of let loose afterward, and see your friends and family. Then you get to bed around three in the morning and you do it all again.”

Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti was asked to name who he thinks is the most underrated guitarist in history.

His answer? American blues rock guitarist Eric Gales.

“He’s still a relatively unknown player but he’s jaw-droppingly good,” Tremonti tells Classic Rock.

“I first heard him when I was on tour and my drum tech gave me a CD of his to check out. The CD was great but it wasn’t until I saw him play some clips on YouTube that I was just absolutely stunned.”

Tremonti adds that on Alter Bridge’s last tour, he and lead singer Myles Kennedy were on the bus watching video clips. “And we ran into some Eric Gales clips, and we were just like, ‘This guy could be the best player on Earth,’” Tremonti says.

“He’s definitely an unknown, for the most part, master of the guitar. And the good thing about him is he’s not a technique-driven guy. He’s got a great feel and a great personality on the guitar. You can tell he’s spent his whole life playing that thing.”

If you’re unfamiliar with Gales, we’ve provided a couple of clips below to help you become better acquainted with him. The first shows Gales jamming over the backing track of his 2006 song “Crystal Vision,” while the second is him and his band performing “Voodoo Child,” “Kashmir” and “Back in Black.”Alter Bridge will launch a headlining tour across North America in support of their new album, The Last Hero. The tour begins January 21. Tickets can be purchased at Alter Bridge’s official website.

In the meantime, if you’d like to learn more about Eric Gales, visit EricGalesBand.com.