Personally, I think that Creed's debut Album is one of the greatest I have heard. Anything beyond that I dislike greatly. 'My Own Prison' is so great to me for a few reasons. First and foremost, Mark Tremonti's guitar work. Granted, it wasn't anything extremely fresh, or overly skillful. It was the writing, the craft of the album.

Now that that is out of the way, I believe Mark is one of the greatest Modern guitarists. At least of the last 13 years. His work on Alter Bridge's 'Blackbird' album is what really pushed me to pick up a guitar. I was already interested due to Metallica, Pabtera, Megadeth, Stevie Ray Vaughan etc...

But, hearing the guitarist of Creed play what he did in Alter Bridge, it was just so fucking awesome. Like, "holly shit! That's the dude from Creed?".

By the time his first solo album came out, I was already a huge fan. Hearing him play Speed/Thrash Metal just made me more of a fan. His vocals could use some work, but as a self taught guitarist, he is easily in my top three. At number two, I'd say. With Devin Townsend and Joe Satriani fighting for first.