QUEENSRYCHE

Right, I did not dislike Tate's "Frequency Unknown" album and believe that it was very unfairly received by the public. What do I think of this Tateless iteration of the band with this new release?

"X 2" - A dramatic short album opener that bodes well for the rest of the album.

"Where Dreams go to Die" - pretty standard metal fare. LaTorre sounds very similar to Tate and if I didn't know any better I would swear that it was Tate. There is no mistaking the Queensryche sound here.

"Spore" - well performed however it just doesn't grab me. I'm missing the really sharp Queensryche sound of old.

"In this Light" - Better than the previous two tracks but again nothing here grabs me by the cheeks and shakes my head enough to rattle the old grey matter. It's by the numbers what I would expect Queensryche to sound like but without the break into a sweat inducing brilliance of the first five or so Queensryche albums.

"Redemption" - I am almost reminded of a heavier version of Journey here.

"Vindication" - At this point I'm looking for a softer Queensryche track to change the mood for a while. Hard Rocker that doesn't do much for me at all.

"Midnight Lullaby" - Very short mood inducer that kind of serves as an introduction to the the next track.

"A World Without'" - The change of mood that I was looking for but nothing as powerful as I'd hoped for.

"Don't look Back" - Kind of like a Judas Priest rocker.

"Fallout" - OK rockout track.

"Open Road" - Like "A World Without", a slower more emotive track. Brings the album to a close.

So, my thoughts? Well for one I preferred the Tate album by more than a country mile. I find this ok but pretty standard fare without any hair raising moments of brilliance. I absolutely loved the Queensryche sound up until and including the "Empire" album - I would go so far as to say that I was a most definate "fanboy" of the band up until then. My candid opinion is that the reception of both albums by the public was "politically" distorted in the drama that ensued with Tate leaving the band and in the way that things transpired leading up to and after that fact. The Tate album is actually way way better to my own way of thinking. At least the Tate album is musically interesting whereas the Queensryche album is just an album that I probably wont be listening to again after the two full listens I gave it for this review. If I spool up the Queensryche album after listening to Judas Priest or Symphony X then it leaves me totally cold in that there is nothing special throughout that album that contras what I was listening to before. The Tate album has some very interesting musical ideas that makes the listen a pleasure. "In the Hands of God" from the Tate album leaves anything on the Queensryche album standing in the dust and that's one track. A very serious 2 star rating for the Queensryche album where I'm of a good mind to up the Tate review that I did to a 4 star rating as that is what it is compared to this.