Alter Bridge

Formed in the aftermath of Creed's 2004 breakup, the American hard rock group Alter Bridge picked up the creative thread left by that earlier act once its dissolution became official. As Creed frontman Scott Stapp launched a solo path, his former bandmates brought in vocalist Myles Kennedy and delivered their opening release, One Day Remains, which climbed to number five on the Billboard 200. Retaining a hard-charging approach and Kennedy's soaring delivery, the band stayed inside the Billboard 200's upper tier; their 2016 set The Last Hero ultimately became their strongest-charting album to date. Entering a new decade with assurance, they issued Pawns & Kings in 2022 as their seventh full-length effort.

Once Creed's split was confirmed in 2004, groundwork for Alter Bridge's first album was already advancing. Guitarist Mark Tremonti and drummer Scott Phillips brought bassist Brian Marshall into the fold and recruited ex-Mayfield Four singer Myles Kennedy. The resulting Wind-Up debut, One Day Remains, arrived in August 2004 and rose to number five on the Billboard 200. Largely penned by Tremonti, the record leaned further into hard rock and metal textures than the post-grunge style of his prior band. After extensive touring, the group parted ways with Wind-Up and joined Republic, an imprint of Universal. Late 2007 brought Blackbird, an album that incorporated additional songwriting input from Kennedy.

Creed's 2009 reunion placed Alter Bridge on hiatus while the singer joined Slash's live lineup and began solo work. The band soon regrouped, however, releasing AB III in 2010 and the concert document Live at Wembley: European Tour 2011 in 2012. Following those dates, they entered the studio for their fourth album, the well-received Fortress, issued in October 2013 and marked by a stronger thrash edge. The set became their highest-charting release since the debut and initiated a sustained climb through the remainder of the decade.

The much-anticipated fifth studio album, The Last Hero, appeared in 2016 and featured the single "Show Me a Leader," lifting the band inside the Top Ten for the first time in more than ten years. A large-scale global tour followed in 2017, during which several performances were captured for Live at the O2 Arena, released that September along with assorted rarities. Two nights at London's Royal Albert Hall were also recorded; the resulting album arrived exactly one year later and incorporated the 52-piece Parallax Orchestra. The group then returned to the studio for 2019's Walk the Sky, again produced by longtime collaborator Michael Baskette yet free of his co-writing input for the first time. The album contained the heavy singles "Wouldn't You Rather" and "Take the Crown" plus the John Carpenter-influenced track "Pay No Mind." In 2020 the band released the EP Walk the Sky 2.0, adding the new studio song "Last Rites" and six live cuts. Their seventh studio album, Pawns & Kings, surfaced in late 2022, mixing styles that included heavy prog on the eight-minute "Fable of the Silent Son" and Tremonti's vocal turn on the power ballad "Stay."