Out today/Friday, Oct. 14 is Pawns & Kings, the seventh studio album from Alter Bridge — the quarter featuring Creed co-founders Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips with singer-guitarist Myles Kennedy from Slash's band. It's the quartet's follow-up to 2019's Walk the Sky, which was Alter Bridge's sixth consecutive Top 20 debut on the Billboard 200 and is the group's sixth studio set to be produced by Michael “Elvis” Baskette.
Tremonti tells us that the group's goal this time out was to make the 10-track set sound leaner and more direct than its predecessors: “We tried to make it simpler production on this record. We wanted to make it straightforward… 'cause a lot of records you'll hear, y'know, a band or a producer take violins or cellos or pads or keyboard pads and put a cushion underneath the song that you don't know it's there, but it's there. It's cushioning everything and making it feel bigger. We took all that away on this record. We made sure it was just me and Myles, guitar…then you have just bass and the drums. So you have all this extra sonic real space for these instruments to breathe on the record. You would think it would sound smaller without these other things, but I think the effect was to make each instrument feel bigger and fill more space. It's just more straightforward.”
Kennedy adds that after 18 years together, Alter Bridge has developed a working arrangement that keeps the band members on point even when they're apart from each other doing other projects: “It generally just falls into place. Mark and I will start bringing our ideas to the table and people will gravitate towards what they like and what is typically embraced will then be perfected in the studio and kind of refined. And from a lyrical standpoint you just do your best to try and tell a story that's congruent with the way the music sounds.”
Pawns & Kings has been preceded by the title track, “Silver Tongue,” “Sin After Sin” and “This is War.” The four singles reflect the entire album's broad dynamic range, including the eight-and-a-half minute epic “Fable of the Silent Sun.” Tremonti says that at this juncture Alter Bridge is happy to keep branching out and not be limited to any particular style or format: “Over the years it's become one of our strengths, to stray away from the three-minute song and let the song tell a story and don't force, don't edit a song because you want it to be short and concise. Edit a song to cut the fat, but don't make the song suffer. I know I personally have stopped thinking about fitting songs to any kind of format years ago. I think it limits you.”
The full track list for Pawns & Kings includes:
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
Alter Bridge begins an extensive North American tour on Jan. 25 in Tampa Fla., running through April 1, with Wolfgang Van Halen's Mammoth WVH as the primary opening act. The full itinerary includes:
Jan 25 – TAMPA, FL – Seminole Hard Rock *
Jan 27 – ORLANDO, FL – Hard Rock Live *
Jan 28 – ATLANTA, GA – Coca Cola Roxy *
Jan 30 – NASHVILLE, TN – Ryman Auditorium *
Feb 1 – MONTCLAIR, NJ – The Wellmont Theater *
Feb 2 – HUNTINGTON, NY – The Paramount *
Feb 4 – SILVER SPRING, MD – The Fillmore Silver Spring *
Feb 5 – PHILADELPHIA, PA – Franklin Music Hall *
Feb 7 – WALLINGFORD, CT – The Dome at Toyota Oakdale Theatre
Feb 8 – BOSTON, MA – Roadrunner *
Feb 10 – WATERLOO, NY – Del Lago Casino Resort (On sale soon) ^
Feb 11 – TORONTO, ON – HISTORY ^
Feb 14 – DETROIT, MI – The Fillmore *
Feb 15 – INDIANAPOLIS, IN – Murat Theatre at Old National Centre *
Feb 17 – PRIOR LAKE, MN – Mystic Lake Casino Showroom *
Feb 18 – CHICAGO, IL – The Riviera Theatre *
Mar 10 – QUAPAW, OK – Downstream Casino Resort #
Mar 11 – KANSAS CITY, MO – Arvest Bank Theatre at The Midland #
Mar 14 – CHESTERFIELD, MO – The Factory #
Mar 15 – OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – The Criterion #
Mar 17 – HOUSTON, TX – 713 Music Hall #
Mar 18 – DALLAS, TX – South Side Ballroom #
Mar 20 – DENVER, CO – Mission Ballroom #
Mar 21 – SALT LAKE CITY, UT – Union Event Center #
Mar 23 – SEATTLE, WA – The Paramount Theatre #
Mar 25 – AIRWAY HEIGHTS, WA – Northern Quest Resort & Casino ^
Mar 28 – ANAHEIM, CA – House Of Blues #
Mar 29 – TEMPE, AZ – Marquee Theatre #
Mar 31 – RENO, NV – Silver Legacy’s Grande Expo Hall #
Apr 1 – HIGHLAND, CA – Yaamava Theater at Yaamava Casino Resort ^
^ Alter Bridge – Mammoth WVH
* Alter Bridge – Mammoth WVH – Red
# Alter Bridge – Mammoth WVH – Pistols At Dawn
TL; DR
Out today/Friday, Oct. 14 is Pawns & Kings, the seventh studio album from Alter Bridge — the quarter featuring Creed co-founders Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips with singer-guitarist Myles Kennedy from Slash's band. It's the quartet's follow-up to 2019's Walk the Sky, which was Alter Bridge's sixth consecutive Top 20 debut on the Billboard 200 and is the group's sixth studio set to be produced by Michael “Elvis” Baskette.