Tremonti - Cauterize

Published May 27 2015

*=Staff's pick	Radical Change* Flying Monkeys Cauterize Arm Yourself* Dark Trip Another Heart Fall Again Tie The Noose Sympathy* Providence

Genre	Heavy Metal	Mark Tremonti	Vocals
Tracks	10	Mark Tremonti	Guitar
Running time	44 Min.	Eric Friedman	Guitar
Label	Fret12 Records	Wolfgang Van Halen	Bass
Release	June 08, 2015	Garrett Whitlock	Drums
Country	USA	-	Keyboard
Producer	Michael "Elvis" Baskette
Similar artists	---

Mark Tremonti, the guitarist and founding member of both Alter Bridge and the currently dormant rock band Creed, is now putting out his second solo effort, Cauterize, 3 years past the release of the debut album All I Was. Cauterize is the first of 2 albums, which were recorded simultaneously late last year, with Dust being the second. A release date for Dust is yet to be announced.

With this new record, Tremonti and his crew takes on a number of different approaches. It's a varied and balanced album which contains lots of heavy riffing in mostly mid-tempo tracks, but also mellow and emotional stuff in a few songs, as well as some occasional speedier moments with kind of thrash metal guitars. All this put together in contrasting variations forms an ongoing impulsion during most of the 44 minutes of playing time.

The overall performance is a bit separated from what I've heard with his other bands. This solo effort comes out confident with a massive amount of eagerness and it also contains an almost tangible vivid and direct atmosphere. The vocals all throughout the record are definitely all right, even if he ends up in a kind of similar tone rather frequently and perhaps doesn't carry the widest range known to man.

I think that Cauterize is a leveled album with mainly strong songs. It perchance doesn't comprise the real killer tunes, but neither does it contain any fillers. In my book, it's a solid and an effective album and it's well worth the 7 chalices that I hand out.

See also review of: Dust
See also: interview with Mark Tremonti

Performance	Originality	Production	Vocals	Songwriting
7	7	7	6	7

Summary
7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe