Alter Bridge: Ranking Every Album From Worst To Best

2. Blackbird

Long thought to be Alter Bridge's best album, Blackbird is what came from Mark Tremonti realising that Myles Kennedy used to be a guitar teacher, and is also an unbelievably good songwriter and player.

The elements of blues, softer playing and overall phrasing to guitar solos saw a MASSIVE upgrade between One Day Remains and Blackbird, and it's something thankfully recognised in the modern day, as after being highlighted by Guitarist magazine, Blackbird itself is regularly cited as having the best guitar solo of all time.

Across the board, Blackbird the album embodies the energy the band were feeling at the time. Having gotten to know each other on tours years before forming, this was Myles and Mark realising their assumedly contrasting styles - soft acoustic blues and thrash metal - were actually a match made in heaven.

It gave us a batch of songs that combined, means there's not a wasted SECOND. It's real lightning in a bottle stuff, and, look, just run these down:

Ties That Bind, Watch Over You, Come To Life, Buried Alive, White Knuckles, One by One. Blackbird the song speaks for itself, and even bonus track We Don't Care At All is a banger with a stupidly fun solo.

Speaking of which, Mark Tremonti has long said that before Alter Bridge, he hadn't really sat down and "composed" guitar solos before.

In the nicest way possible you can tell, and after those furtive attempts at crafting guitar parts that could elevate a song through multiple components and phrases on One Day Remains, the solos he lays down here are genuinely soul stirring.

Brand New Start, Rise Today, Buried Alive, Wayward One, taken alongside an immaculate rhythm section locking everything together - Scott Philips' beats allowing for Myles and Mark to share the spotlight - Blackbird, like its namesake, utterly SOARS.