Video Premiere: ALTER BRIDGE's 'Wouldn't You Rather'

ALTER BRIDGE will release its sixth studio album, titled "Walk The Sky", on October 18 via Napalm Records. According to a press release, the 14-track follow-up to 2016's "The Last Hero" is a "complete career retrospective drawing upon elements from each of the band's previous releases to create something new."

The official music video for the first single from the LP, called "Wouldn't You Rather", can be seen below. The clip, directed by Dan Sturgess, is a performance video that showcases the quartet comprised of Myles Kennedy on vocals/guitars, Mark Tremonti on guitars/vocals, Brian Marshall on bass and Scott Phillips on drums. Other songs included on the record include "Dying Light", "Godspeed", "Native Son" and "Walking On The Sky". A song called "Forever Falling" features Tremonti on lead vocals.

Tremonti told Kerrang! magazine about "Walk The Sky": "It's kinda like a [revered horror maestro] John Carpenter movie — this old-school synth-wave kind of vibe. Somebody might hear the record and have no idea that was intended, but for a batch of songs, I tapped into some old loops that I either created or found randomly online, and worked with them in the background to inspire me to go in a different direction. I loved working like that. We challenge ourselves to not repeat ourselves and find new inspiration to add a different layer to what we do. It's particularly challenging when you've had so many records, but when I showed Myles [Kennedy, vocals/guitar] what I was thinking, he absolutely loved it and was on board right away."

As for how "Walk The Sky" compares to the rest of ALTER BRIDGE's discography, Mark said: "It's hard to completely get away from who we are — the same four guys in the band — but everyone who's heard the record says it has its own personality and doesn't sound like any particular ALTER BRIDGE record. But that being said, it's familiar ALTER BRIDGE territory, and Myles has said it's kind of the answer to 'AB III'. That was a very brooding and dark lyrical record, whereas this one is the yang to the yin of that. 'AB III' was kind of about a loss of faith and not believing. Myles was having a dark moment in that time and he wrote the majority of the lyrics. This is more of an enlightening, Zen kind of record. It's not a preachy record by any means; it's more of a free-spirited kind of thing."

ALTER BRIDGE and SKILLET will embark on a co-headline tour this fall. The "Victorious Sky" trek kicks off on September 22 in Baltimore and runs through October 25 in Orlando. DIRTY HONEY will also appear.

Photo credit: Dan Sturgess