Tremonti

Mark Tremonti assembled his thrash-focused solo venture in 2010 to house the abundance of songs that fell outside the stylistic boundaries of Alter Bridge, the band in which the Grammy-winning guitarist had previously served as lead axeman for Creed. He drafted ex-Submersed players Eric Friedman and Garrett Whitlock into the fold, then tracked his first release, All I Was, across a three-month stretch in 2011 while Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy toured as Slash’s vocalist. Critics responded favorably to the record, which introduced a markedly heavier and quicker style—intense, rapid thrash metal clearly shaped by early Metallica, yet anchored by a melodic sensibility that echoed the post-grunge textures of Tremonti’s other projects.

His second and third solo albums, Cauterize and Dust, emerged in 2015 and 2016 respectively after being captured in tandem; both featured bass contributions from Wolfgang Van Halen. The fourth full-length, A Dying Machine, arrived in 2018 via Napalm Records—the same imprint that had lately welcomed Alter Bridge—and presented a more progressive, concept-driven statement. The band’s fifth outing, Marching in Time, followed in 2021 as a contemplative collection shaped by contemporary happenings.