Mark Tremonti is the guitarist of modern legend. In the UK
he is the 'Riffmaster General', in Germany, 'The Riff-meister,', and in Latin he is
'Riffus Dominus.' I’m not making this shit up. Anyway, I digress….
Tremonti began writing in his Orlando studio in early 2014. Joined by his
band, Tremonti penned more than twenty-five songs over the course of multiple
sessions. “We wanted to do a ton of songs,” he affirms. “I decided to take my
entire catalog of material, get everything out, and purge it. On ‘All I Was’,
we couldn’t spend as much time on pre-production. This time, we were able to
take the time to tear the songs apart and put them back together so they could
become as dynamic as possible. That helped make the new music what it is.”
Emerging from the most prolific period of his two-decade career, Tremonti
is actually delivering two successive albums - ’Cauterize’ and follow-up
companion album ‘Dust’. With ‘Cauterize’ leading the charge in June 2015 and
‘Dust’ to follow in the not-too-distant future, it’s a one-two punch of modern
thrash and melody that has become the group’s signature. Think riffage of
gargantuan proportions. Tremonti allows, er, Tremonti to play all the mental
stuff he has NEVER done with Creed, and only scratched the surface with in
Alter Bridge. Take, for example, opening track ‘Radical Change’, it’s an
absolute onslaught of bass, guitar and drums, that will leave you gasping for
breath. It’s a song about feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders,
something a lot of us can bear testament to. ‘Flying Monkeys’ I’m hoping is
influenced by one of my childhood fave movies, The Wizard Of Oz, and it has
this low down chugging drawl of a start, dirty and yet with a catchy refrain.
Cauterize is a is the burning of part of a body to remove or close off a
part of it in a process called cautery,
which destroys some tissue (in this case its definitely my ears) in an attempt
to mitigate bleeding and damage, so at least the good Doctor knows what he is
doing to our bodies in listening to this.
After the collective battering so far, and up to ‘Arm
Yourself’ you’re almost praying for mercy. Either that, or a nice ballad! ‘Dark
Trip’ is about as light as it gets on the Tremonti scale of balladry. Journey
it definitely aint, but it’s a break in proceedings all the same. ‘Another Heart’ is as close as
we get to Alter Bridge, more melodic than the rest on offer, such is the case I
half expect Kennedy to wade in with the vocals. ‘Sympathy’ if it were on the
telly (when MYV used to shoe music videos) a few years back, would be
abso-fucking–lutely HUGE. It’s an anthem of stadium size proportions and is my
favourite track by far.
Tremonti has a knack for coming up with blistering riffs. Not only that,
on from All I Was, his vocals have gone up a notch also. If he doesn’t watch
it, sometime soon, he may have to decide if he can keep both Alter Bridge and
Tremonti on an even keel, as Tremonti has all the right elements to take them
higher, much higher.
I fall into 3 canmps with Mark Tremonti. I couldn’t really abide Creed. I adore
Alter Bridge with a passion, and Tremonti (the band) is growing on me with
every listen. I liked ‘All I Was’, but with ‘Cauterize’, they have taken it up
a notch or three in quality, I think that’s purely down to that fact that they
have taken more time with this opus
‘Brutal riffs with a melodic lilt’. That’s how I best describe
‘Cauterize’. Fans of the man, and band will be lapping this up like a metal
lovin’ kitten in catnip scented pyjamas. Essential metal listening for 2015
Score 90/100
Tremonti are
Mark Tremonti – Vocals, Guitars
Eric Friedman – Guitar
Garrett Whitlock – Drums
Wolfgang VH – Bass
Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette – Producer (and fifth member od Tremonti!)
Tracklisting
Radical Change
Flying Monkeys
Cauterize
Arm Yourself
Dark Trip
Another Heart
Fall Again
Tie The Noose
Sympathy
Providence
