On the heavier side of things, I particularly enjoyed 'Indoctrination' which features a Sitar-like instrument and a wicked beat and 'Forever Falling', which sees Tremonti taking lead duty following his significant improvement as frontman of his own act. The power of Brian Marshall’s bass combined with what is my favorite drum track on the record gives us an unbelievable segue back to the current sound of AB. Plus the second of those two has in my opinion at the beginning one of the most interesting riffs from all the songs of the album.

And then Forever Falling came and I could not believe how great this guitar mage progressed with his singing voice. With its amplifiers dialled up to 11, and with vocalist Myles Kennedy hitting the high notes like an air-balloonist with a death wish, what is on offer here is superior music from a fearless band. I haven’t talked about lyrical content but there is sort of an introspective feel on this entire album.

Following In The Deep is again brushing along this calming vibe, even though the music itself is nothing close to slow or quiet. And then nicely bursting out to heavy Wouldn’t You Rather with this epic riff that is a product of a bit of frustration as Myles has mentioned in a couple of interviews. I was looking forward very much to this new synth vibe and hearing it play out with the classic Alter Bridge style. We challenge ourselves to not repeat ourselves and find new inspiration to add a different layer to what we do.

Ultimately, 'WTS' offers perfectly competent hard rock that is almost certain to satisfy long-term fans. This is likely (at least in part) due to the busy careers these men have built, as alluded to earlier. It's particularly challenging when you've had so many records, but when I showed Myles what I was thinking, he absolutely loved it and was on board right away. As someone who is quite familiar with the various side projects related to AB such as the aforementioned Tremonti as well as Projected, Slash and the Conspirators and the Mayfield Four, I consider myself rather well versed in the musical talents of Myles, Mark, Brian and Scott.And when I realized that the sound at the beginning which seems to be a guitar is actually Myles doing wonders with his voice, that’s when my mouth literally hit the floor. In doing so, the band understand that power is nothing without control; when the music is reined in, as it is on parts of the Soundgarden-esque Walking On The Sky – not in the sky, you’ll notice, but on it – they purr like a finely tuned engine popping out for a pint of milk and a paper. The next song on our throwback road trip, Godspeed, has that head bobbing, straight kick groove going on and I love it.

But with songs of the quality of the soaring Wouldn’t You Rather, the propulsive and insistent Native Son, and the waltz-time wonder of closing song Dying Light, there is enough expertise at work here to make the bombast – what’s the word? This is simply by the sound and feel of the next couple of songs but hopefully you’ll pick up what I’m laying down. Mark Tremonti remains one of the finest and most explosive guitarists in rock, and any album he’s involved in will squeal like a rat in a gangster movie. It does stand out for an obvious reason, the message is powerful and the guitars, together with Myles’ voice are just something to absolutely cherish. The instrumentals are perfectly solid, but lack the complexity, layering and frequent changes in pace found in AB’s earlier records, leaving an ever-so-slightly underwhelming impression.This time, the guys tried to reinvent themselves in a whole new spectrum while already bringing to the table sometimes nearly finished songs. And as Myles sings “Do you feel alive” directly into your ears, it travels so deeply that one has just the urge to answer, “Oh hell yes! For now, 'Walk the Sky' will find a comfortable home in my playlists next to the bands’ previous works, but I doubt any of these tracks will be remembered as their best, which is the records biggest sin.