EP REVIEW: Walk The Sky 2.0 EP – Alter Bridge
For Orlando hard rock titans ALTER BRIDGE, 2020 was set to be yet another highlight year, Riding high on the critical and commercial success of last year’s sixth studio album Walk The Sky, and due to continue touring the world in support of it, the band comprised of vocalist/guitarist Myles Kennedy, guitarist Mark Tremonti, drummer Scott ‘Flip’ Phillips and bassist Brian Marshall, were deep into a US tour for their album and planning even bigger things before the onset of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic essentially forced them and every other act to cease operation and head home. Impressively undeterred, and seeking to give their fanbase something to tide them over during uncertain times, they now return with an EP of material to accompany a re-release of that album, entitled Walk The Sky 2.0 EP.
Kicking things off with a bang is the release’s sole new song Last Rites, a track written and recorded in lockdown based on demos from the original Walk The Sky sessions, which opens with a punchy burst of chug-heavy riffing, before giving way to Myles Kennedy’s signature soaring melodies which sit atop yet more wonderfully grungy riffs like a metaphorical king upon a throne. Feeling very much like it could have slotted in anywhere on the album it follows, this is ALTER BRIDGE at the peak of their arena rock band powers, albeit with an eerily prescient lyrical styling for the politically-charged time of its release, as Kennedy sings “You don’t know where this goes/Wait until tomorrow” with an almost knowing wink to the audience.
Making up the rest of the EP are a selection of six live versions of tracks from Walk The Sky taken from the band’s most recent round of US touring prior to COVID-19 bringing things to an earlier-than-expected conclusion. As you’d expect from a band with the reputation for quality that ALTER BRIDGE have cultivated in the sixteen years since their debut, and a band whose live album catalogue is almost extensive as their studio output, these are an impressively slick encapsulation of where the Floridian outfit are in 2020.
Monolithic single Wouldn’t You Rather opens things up, sounding perhaps even more beefed-up than its studio counterpart, with the track’s already catchy-melodies given even more lift atop a wall of crunching guitars; while the airy synths the band experimented with when crafting the original album come even more to the forefront on uplifting renditions of Pay No Mind, and in particular Godspeed which powers along with a crackling vibrancy that lifts proceedings to ridiculously catchy levels by the time its chorus hits. Dying Light meanwhile, caps off the EP fantastically, flexing the band’s considerable muscle for balladry in a vein not dissimilar to their much-beloved Blackbird thanks to one hell of a chorus from Kennedy as he and his bandmates craft yet another impressively detailed musical canvas across just under six glorious minutes before hitting a triumphant conclusion.
Like most stopgap releases of this type, Walk The Sky 2.0 EP is by no means an absolutely essential release within the larger ALTER BRIDGE catalogue, given the relative lack of substantial new material, however that absolutely does not negate the band’s impressive consistency they continue to display. Last Rites is yet another slam-dunk song in the band’s repertoire from a creative standpoint, and the accompanying live tracks are sure to be of some comfort to the many fans robbed of the chance to see the band perform their newest songs live until they’re able to resume touring, however long that may be.
Rating: 7/10
Walk The Sky 2.0 EP is out now via Napalm Records.
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