18 Things Only Alter Bridge Fans Will Understand

5. We're Genuinely Proud Of The Guys For Every New Accolade

From the smallest venues the world-over through to 2011's first arena tour and now this year just one tier away from headlining Download, many of us have been there every step of the way, standing outside in the rain just to meet the guys and get something signed or take some pictures. It's a testament to their tireless efforts to come out after a gig and interact with the fans on nearly every tour date that's built the community around them into something amazing.

And we're not just talking "Okay where do I stand, right then, pose... okay I'm gone!"-type stuff, the band will regularly take extended amounts of time to make sure everyone in attendance who's made the effort to visit them backstage gets something in return. In a world where artists are looking for that secret 'X-factor' ingredient to make sure people check them out live, well it turns out all it took was a little gratification from artist to fan, and back again.

Scour the forums of The AB Nation, the myriad of fan-pages for each band member or the Army of 12 pages that come from Tremonti's own company Fret 12 and you'll instantly read stories and interactions where nearly every single person has their own story to tell alongside a piece of memorabilia from a show or impromptu meet and greet.

4. Mark Tremonti Remains One Of The Best Guitarists On The Planet

By far a total showcase for what dogged practicing of scales, right-hand patterns (and pushups) will do to your guitar playing, Mark Tremonti's playing has come so far since his days in Creed, that he's barely recognisable as the same guy.

Back when Creed's Stand Here With Me solo was one of his first attempts at bending notes, the melody and structure of that solo still elevated the entire song into an album highlight for 2001's Weathered. Well, take that inbuilt sense of how to write a memorable, Kirk Hammett-style solo of peaks, troughs, ebbs, flows and genuine progression, fire it through fingers that are more laser-focused than one of Tony Stark's ion-beams, and you have compositions that can go from the genuinely furious (solo-album piece So You're Afraid, AB III's intro verse-solos on Slip to the Void, Blackbird's ending run) through to the absolutely gorgeous and endlessly-soaring (Blackbird's Brand New Start, One Day Remains' Down To My Last and Open Your Eyes).

With a style all his own that sits somewhere between a blues mentality of held notes and sumptuously flexing vibrato through to tenacious head-blending riffs on the likes of Peace is Broken or White Knuckles, Tremonti remains something of a hidden gem that each and every one of us are ecstatic we discovered.