Album Review: Tremonti - A Dying Machine

While Alter Bridge cohort Myles Kennedy finally issued his long-delayed, stripped-back solo debut mere months ago, axeman/singer Mark Tremonti and his crew have been knocking out hard-rocking affairs with some regularity for a few years now.

Kennedy drew from real-life tragedy as source material, but A Dying Machine is largely tied together by a fictional narrative, of which a novel is also reportedly due. The instrumental hum of its album closer aside, the fiery fretwork of opener Bringer Of War reinforces the notion that A Dying Machine largely just continues, rather than reinvents, what Tremonti is all about. Namely, huge choruses and even bigger riffs, underpinned by his teenage love of classic thrash. Several cuts walk that delicate tightrope between metallic aggression and melody, and thankfully succeed for the most part. Meanwhile, ballad The First The Last and Take You With Me rank among the record's more accessible numbers while managing to never feel out of place.

The main man's leads are not surprisingly exemplary, but perhaps this LP lacks enough solid-gold hooks to sustain its hour-plus running time. It may not expand the Tremonti project's following by much, but the work is certainly executed with enjoyable self-assurance and melodic sensibility.