TRIBE

"Tribe" is the 8th full-length studio album by US heavy metal/hard rock act Queensrÿche. The album was released through Sanctuary Records Group in July 2003, almost 4 years after the release of the predecessor "Q2K (1999)". Since the release of "Q2K (1999)", guitarist Kelly Gray has left, leaving Queensrÿche a four-piece. Although it had been quite a few years between albums, Queensrÿche found themselves short of material before entering the studio to record "Tribe", and therefore opted to contact former Queensrÿche guitarist and composer Chris DeGarmo to hear if he would help contribute material for the album. DeGarmo accepted, but after writing some tracks, co-writing a few others, and playing some guitar parts, he left the sessions. Mike Stone was recruited to complete the recording sessions and ended up being hired permanently.

I´m not sure if it is DeGarmo´s presence or his songwriting contributions, which have done it, but after a couple of lacklustre albums, Queensrÿche have actually produced a pretty good quality heavy metal/hard rock album in "Tribe". Several of the tracks featured on the album are memorable (tracks like "Open", "Blood", and "Desert Dance") and the well sounding production also helps being out the best in the material. There´s a strong conviction behind the performances which is audible too and upon conclusion I´m left with a nice positive impression when the 10 track, 41:41 minutes album is over. Yes it´s not as interesting as the early releases by the band, and this more hard rock infused "mature" sound has a tendency to become a bit tedious, but on "Tribe" I think Queensrÿche have hit a good balance and a generally high quality songwriting level and therefore a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.