Critic's evaluation
Since his musical emancipation in 2010, Mark Tremonti has led his solo group with considerable mastery. Having three albums in his catalog and reaching the pinnacle of sound quality, composition and vocal maturity on the conceptual A Dying Machine, Tremonti now has the task of maintaining the posture on Marching in Time, his fourth and most recent studio album.
Dark smoke drifts through the environment in a provocative and sinister waltz. Dense and equally dark clouds meet and block any chance that light can invade the sandy ground. Flares are seen inside the clouds of increasing and gradually increasing size. It is then that heavy drops begin to fall uncontrollably, turning the ground into a slippery, unstable mire that becomes even more frightening as thunder and gusts of wind break the dulled calm. This is the scenario provided by the introduction of A World Away, a song that presents itself in a mix of thrash metal and death metal until it evolves, through the verses, into a sinister, powerful, and precise metal. There are notes of despair and helplessness in the story narrated by Tremonti, which presents a character who feels alone, unprotected, and lacking in attention and affection. Depression is an inherent detail in the story of the lyricist, who moves the audience in his search to stop suffering. As for the melody, the protagonism is undoubtedly credited to Ryan Bennett, whose speed, pressure, and resourcefulness were essential to create a dense ambience. Counting also as a solo of emotional character, the song has a closing track whose melody is very similar to the one employed in Bleed It Dry, Alter Bridge's single.
Pressure and low riffs provide the first notes of the intro Now And Forever. However, different from the previous song, the cadence presented here is more restrained and with a more commercial metric. This more radio-like character is concretized mainly in the chorus, when the song becomes soft and easy to digest. Even so, the lyrics are loaded with obscurity in their most visible spheres. However, between the lines what exists is the reconstruction of a wounded heart, the recovery of self-confidence and firmness. Curiously, the way in which the lyricism is brought bears a lot of resemblance to the literate content of Take The Crown, Alter Bridge's single, after all, both carry the message of overcoming and seeking victory in life.
The sound comes from the synthesizer, and what you hear is a set of violin notes going back and forth from the bass to the treble in a dramatic symphony. Suddenly, in the background, a melody begins to emerge that promises explosion. While Tremonti begins the lyrical placements, drums and guitar share the same space in the background in a way that creates a spiky sound with rough touches. It is when the catch phrase "Fill this heart of mine" is uttered that a melodic explosion erupts. Eric Friedman's lead guitar sails with high notes and soft cadence above a metallic groove in bar 4x4. This section is the bridge between the introduction and the chorus, at which point the structure of If Not For You finds an emotional, surrendered, and yet suffering terrain. After all, it is here that the lyricist takes the blame for not having paid support and attention to a friend who was facing depression and an air of heartbreak for life. Even with heavy metal spices in the second verse and a delicate lyrical content, the song takes over as a single because of its melodic and radio-fonic character, placing itself far from the singer's thrash comfort zone.
The guitar emerges governing phrases with a light insertion of bass distortion that, from the riding sound, communicates immersion into the thrash metal field. The driving cymbal dome enters the context providing an air of suspense and the awakening of the driving. However, it is with a strong and precise hit on the box that the introduction of Thrown Further actually begins. Acidic in sound and soft in tone, the constructed sound recalls the melodic structure of Rammstein's songs. The song has a mixture of melodic and aggressive riffs, with overlapping guitars, which gives the metal a guide to the rhythmic base of the track. With double pedals and a commercially attractive chorus structure, the track is energetic, exciting, and with a lyricism that, as Marching in Time has been showing, is focused on the dawn and development of well-being, the overcoming of fears, anguish, and loneliness.
The fade in effect pronounces itself by bringing the accelerated sound and angry notes of the guitar gradually gaining strength and presence. The drums invade the scene in a firm manner in which the hits on the snare box resemble rifle shots, a common artifice assumed by drummers of subgenres such as death metal and thrash metal itself. It is then that a low, explosive, dense, and dark-edged unison covers like burly clouds the entrance of any beam of light. However, when the first verse begins, a new horizon is formed with a rhythm of more melodic cadence and providing a more attractive notion. Here, the guitar comes out of the bass sphere, but continues with riffs and ripped notes, which ultimately offers an exaltation of flavors. In this respect, it is even possible to perceive a wild sensuality in Let That Be Us, a song that lyrically criticizes the outbreak of fake news during the pandemic, promotes the social perception that truth is the best way, and narrates the way fate can transform people. Like Thrown Further, Let That Be Us is an undisputed candidate for the album's compilation of b-side singles.
The folk can be perceived between the lines of the melody in structure. With a choppy cadence full of breaks, the sound is softer and more minimalist in a way that resembles the one built into the first verse of Creed's single Overcome. With vocal peaks, Tremonti takes the risk of offering greater extensions in his vocal phrases, a feat that is accomplished flawlessly. The introspective and even sentimental energy hovers throughout the execution of The Last One Of Us, a song that metaphorizes biblical figures when it places on the lyricist's back the responsibility to, through written words, change the world. Nevertheless, there is harsh criticism here of the blind, unquestioning faith that some people absorb for themselves. Melodically, because of its soft and easily digestible rhythm, The Last One Of Us takes over as the ballad of Marching in Time.
As with Thrown Further, the guitar employed by Tremonti in the wake of In One Piece has rough, riding phrases. As the chiming becomes firmly pronounced, the riff also enters a crescendo until the unison explodes. It is at this point that the track ends up building a melody phrase similar to the one present in the introduction of Poison In Your Veins, Alter Bridge's single. This similarity vanishes as soon as the vocal comes out, at which point the harshness and aggressiveness take the place of the excessive heaviness present in the previous period. With insertions of electronic sounds hovering in the atmosphere, one can perceive the same experimentation lived by Alter Bridge in the process of composition of Walk The Sky. Even so, the track makes it clear that Mark Tremonti has an unquestionable ability to build songs that move freely between largely aggressive melodies with others that are more commercial because they assume a more palatable sonority. Exciting and with flirtations with hard rock, In One Piece is a track that, lyrically, deals with the relationship of the lyrical self with feelings such as fear and insecurity.
The tinkling guitar sound is reminiscent of the guitar sound built into the introduction of Myles Kennedy's single Love Can Only Heal. With the drums' blow, the dawn of Under The Sun enters under a new light, where, for the first time in the whole album, there is the clear sound and the protagonism of Tanner Keegan's bass. Full-bodied and present, he offers precision in the dance of his linear phrases, which, together with the groove in 4x4 drums division, design the cadence of the song, which is dominated by introspection. However, the introspection gains airs of a rebellion that, in fact, begs for hope during the execution of the chorus. Rough and melancholic, the melody drawn in the section very much resembles that structured in Solace, Alter Bridge's song, but out of print. Discussing the indecision and ambivalence of society, the lyricism is visceral, intense, and even emotional in such a way that even the guitar has moments that shed tears through the melody. For these reasons, Under the Sun is another great composition from Marching in Time.
A booming sound emerges. Alongside it comes a clean, velvety guitar riff inserting notes of a tone divided between pastel and cold. A nostalgic-melancholic feeling is set in scene and captures the listener. Emotive, of epic and even moralistic atmosphere, the lyricism of Not Afraid To Lose makes a magnifying impact on the harmony of the song, which reaches an emotional apex during the execution of the chorus. No wonder Not Afraid To Lose ranks next to The Last One Of Us in the list of ballads on the album. And when it comes to lyricism, there are several interpretative ramifications ranging from a romantic theme, the search for overcoming and the metaphorization of faith.
The beginning arouses suspense, tension and expectation. Gradually growing in harmony, the song receives, with each passage, a new instrument in the melodic phrases until the dramatic, angry explosion in the chorus. In Bleak this atmosphere serves as a bed for a lyricism that seems to be a structured dialogue between the lyric self and God. A dialogue in which the central character is skeptical and questioning of the events that have occurred. On the other hand, however, the lyrics of the song may be employing a harsh criticism of the apparent socio-behavioral regression glimpsed during, in the case of the US, the election of Donald Trump, and in Brazil, the election of Jair Bolsonaro.
The blend of thrash metal influences is audible at the beginning of Would You Kill. From Metallica to Slayer. From Megadeth to Anthrax. This mixture, fused with metal, provided a somber, heavy, harsh, angry sound, with touches of bitterness. This is the atmosphere that opens up and accompanies a lyricism that criticizes society's impulsive and opportunistic instincts. After all, the questions "would you kill if the chance came again? And are you brave when you can't see tomorrow? Would you kill, would you beg, steal or borrow?" translate well this criticism.
Suspense and a sense of fear hang over the listener's emotions from the middle notes of the guitar that echo through an empty, dark environment. Tremonti's voice appears as an encouragement in the form of a reflective narrator. Then Bennett enters the scene and inserts in the melody a groove whose lines seem to have been played by Scott Phillips, because there is a great similarity to the sound created by Phillips in Alter Bridge songs. This stylistic similarity increases considerably with the evolution of the song, which takes on a body that leaves it in the same design as Waters Rising, Alter Bridge's signature single whose lead vocalist position is even assumed by Tremonti. With all due proportions, just like If Not For You, the title track has a dramatic character that permeates its entire performance. However, the lyricism presents a message of even greater strength than the dramaturgical content, after all, here the narrator encourages the eu-lyric to continue living, always looking ahead and not weakening before a global reality surrounded by wars, market interests, and that brutally fails in the humanitarian issue. Here, there is even a criticism of the way governments may be imposing on people a cold and unfriendly personality. Even after the end of what is the longest song on the album, what repeats itself in the listener's mind like an endless echo is the phrase "don't fail to show your strength". A song of pure supplication for the maintenance of social welfare.
At first, what can be said about Marching in Time is that it clearly shows the maturity and professionalism of Mark Tremonti when it comes to building energetic, exciting, and thought-provoking harmonies. Examples of this are obtained in tracks like A World Away, Thrown Further, Let That Be Us, Under The Sun and the commercial tracks like If Not For You, Not Afraid To Lose and The Last One Of Us.
Mixing his passion for thrash metal and his familiarity with the sub-genres of hard rock and metal, Tremonti, for many times, made the same mistakes made by Billie Joe Armstrong in Love is For Losers, album of the side project The Longshot: a sound excessively similar to that built in the other bands he is part of.
After all, Alter Bridge and even Creed can very well be heard on tracks like A World Away, Now And Forever, The Last One Of Us, In One Piece, Under The Sun and the title track. Still, the dramatic-aggressive-emotional nature of the album makes it a different product than the one made by Armstrong.
While Love is For Losers sounds like Green Day under another name, Marching in Time sounds like Tremonti in the process of Mark Tremonti becoming independent from the sounds of his other bands. In addition to metal and hard rock, the album also includes flirtations with folk, a fierce immersion in thrash metal, and an increasingly powerful vocal awareness.
All this maturity has been well crafted by long-time companion Michael "Elvis" Baskette, who has built a polished production that captures all the melodic experimentation exercised by Mark Tremonti throughout the album's 12 tracks.
The friendly atmosphere closes with the cover art. Made by his own brother, Daniel Tremonti, it has a ghostly atmosphere as it brings people in shapeless drawings positioned in decreasing circles that create an illusionistic image by seeming to move when closely observed. It is the idea of marching through time very well illustrated.
Released on 09/24/2021 via Napalm Records, Marching in Time is an album that, despite not surpassing A Dying Machine in conceptual terms, has several songs with powerful melodies and dramatic-emotional lyricism. An album that manages to tear up tears at the same time as it excites and energizes.
