Tremonti is rivalling Dimebag Darrell for the sheer amount of tracks that manage to kick an entire village of doors in with just a couple of frets. It cannot be understated; the evolution of Mark's guitar tone over the years has finally landed on one of the most impactful and weighty in the business. As we saw with Alter Bridge's Farther Than The Sun, it only takes a couple of notes for Tremonti to make it feel like the world could crumble around you if he turned the volume high enough. With Arm Yourself it's a man comfortable of these possibilities, driving another freight train of a riff straight into your frontal lobe and holding it there with a combination of pace-changing footwork from Whitlock on drums as Mark matches up his vocal-stabs in perfect time. You can pick any track on here and point to the many things that feel more confident and self-assured than on the first album (something Tremonti himself has mentioned, as Cauterize feels more like a 'band' than beforehand), and with an effects-layered bridge, the swagger and fun you can tell they've had putting that chorus together and the whole band lining up for the big finish, it's one hell of a solid effort.
