Alter Bridge Shows Us Some Potent Political Muscle

The damned song has a super charged intro before Myles Kennedy even appears to blast home some political fire and brimstone on vocals. We're talking 1 minute, 15 seconds of pronounced muscle flexing just to get your palate warmed up. Yes folks, Alter Bridge wants to talk presidential race with us and aims to do so in all their electric guitar venom pierced glory. Mark Tremonti and Myles lay out the electric thunder. The bridge brought me to my knees in amazement. The drumming courtesy of Scott Phillips as part of the aforementioned intro melted face. No two ways about it, "Show Me a Leader" thoroughly encapsulates the spirit of this political season. Enough with the half-hearted promises that never amount to jack squat. Myles and crew want a candidate who doesn't bring lies as part of the package. They want hope to survive and, believe me, in this political cycle, one wonders if it has boiled down to the lesser of the two evils rather than some white knight on a stallion ready to save us from ourselves. "Show Me a a Leader" crackles from stem to stern. If you lean in close you can practically smell the fire in the band members throats. There comes an emphatic "NO" throughout the main verses. No to the way it has always been. No to pretenders to the throne. No to business as usual in Washington. Way to shift chords and speed, guys. That, in the intro, underscores how uneasy this particular election is making everyone, particularly from sheer overexposure. It feels like the Clinton/Trump wars have been raging on since the Stone Age. This song sounds perfect as the vehicle to bring the assorted divisions to a rousing climax. Absolutely stellar melody. It is programmed to send shivers down an unsuspecting spine or three. "Show Me a Leader" sounds a lot like Alter Bridge's stab at a magnum opus. If so then this was a success to end all success stories. You don't get much crispier than Alter Bridge's sustained power rant against the waged power struggles. Brian Marshall gives amazing balls to his wielding of the bass. In fact it too lends this outing menace, as if that was running low in the first place at the outset. Disillusionment fills the smoke penetrated hallway. It has come time to act and make peace with decisions made, ruminated over, and possibly regretted in the long run. Myles rages about the fool's errand that's known as waiting for the one whose intentions are pure gold. That's like waiting for a unicorn to traverse the morning sky. Nice fantasy but no basis in reality, but the fantasy has its sex appeal for sure. "Show Me a Leader" shows us the 2016 version of Alter Bridge has boned up on the steamy political climate and knows how to turn that ample frustration into a laser sharp hard rocking diamond that looks you right between the eyes, daring you to be the one who blinks first.