QUEENSRYCHE - Dedicated To Chaos

I'm going to present a quick review of this album on it's own merits, not comparing it to any of the band's greatest achievements.

Dedicated To Chaos (track by track):

Get Started - sort of pedestrian rock...not even hard rock. Main riff, with the right production, could have been an Empire b-side. Just OK, but nothing worthy of repeated listens.

Hot Spot Junkie - lyrics are trite and forced and serve to instantly date the song...and adding "with a loaded gun" just reeks of trying to feign intensity. Musically, slightly edgy and has a decent groove. Would be OK if not for the lyrics. Avoid.

Got It Bad - musically this one reminds me of latter day Duran Duran. In that context, it's not bad...even kind of cool. But, even DD would not express the sexual nature of a song like this so blatantly and on the surface as GT does here. The lyrics are a little too obvious and, like Hot Spot Junkie, are trite and forced; replacing feigned intensity with feigned sensuality. Avoid.

Higher - this one just sounds kind of haphazard and thrown together. The groove is by the numbers. The sax interludes sound like bad Dave Matthews Band. The attempt to mix in a harmonized solo and an intense build-up fall flat. It's like nobody could decide on a direction for the song, so they just threw it all in. Avoid.

Wot We Do - more GT by way of Duran Duran. This one could actually be a DD song in terms of vibe and arrangement, with the groove and string punches. Even the way GT sings it is sort of LeBon-esque. But, again, GT's put-on sensual aura comes off less sexy and more creepy...and the lyrics, again, trite. Avoid.

Around The World - melodic, unpretentious. It doesn't sound fake, it doesn't sound rushed. It sounds natural. A good, melodic track that sounds like it could have come from the Tribe sessions. The guitar tone and melody are good...with a nice, atmospheric, hopeful sound. The sentiment (and obvious Bealtes nod) of the lyrics may be a little cliche, but it's a welcome, refreshing change from what the album has presented thus far. This song is too good to be on this album. Good.

Drive - not too bad, overall. Musically, it presents a brooding vibe and non-grooved tempo. The guitars don't come in until a minute or more into it, more as texture. Again, not bad. More of GT's wanna-be sensuality in the lyrics. The guitars that come in at 2:27 are overflowing with U2-worship. Decent chours part, but the vocal arrangement & phrasing overall are awkward...trying too hard to be clever in spots. Just OK, but nothing worthy of repeated listens.

At The Edge - this one has promise. They bring a sort of grainy, dark vibe back a little...reminicent of parts of Tribe, maybe Promised Land. I like the music on this one, and the vocals for the most part. But, the lyrics suffer again and drag it down a couple notches, but not nearly as bad as some of the other songs. The sax solo should be a guitar solo. Better than most of the rest of the album, but not quite on par with Around The World. Good.

I Take You - similar to At The Edge...dark & grainy. This is another one that is actually decent. The vocal delivery is good and I like the solo...melodic with a dash of intensity. It's as good as At The Edge, which when combined with Around The World, makes 3 decent songs so far on an album full of "meh to bad". Good.

Retail Therapy - lame, trite, embarrassing lyrics (like the album's early songs), but musically decent. A little more driving, but still carries a dark undercurrent. The vocal delivery is good, solo is decent. More along the lines of the previous two songs. If the lyrics were any good at all, it would elevate this song...but sadly they're not and I can't even listen to this one because of them. They ruin what would have made the 4th song worth listening to. Avoid.

The Lie - this one sounds like it could have been on Q2K or even HITNF. Decent rock song, good groove, passable lyrics, good vocal delivery. Harmonized solo sounds like Mindcrime 2 type stuff. With this, I have found the 4th song worth listening to on the album. Good.

Big Noize - bad title. This one sounds like it's trying to head in the direction of Spool or Right Side Of My Mind...the dark, atmospheric album closer. It partially succeeds in that it's not as good as either of those songs, but still turns out to be one of the best songs on this album. As good as Around The World, only replacing the hopeful vibe of that song with a more melancholy pessimism. Bad title aside, this one makes 5. Good.

So, on a 12-song album we end up with, IMO, 5 songs worth listening to...and they're all on the back half of the album. The front half is packed with the most embarassing, forced, weak material to ever carry the Queensryche name. The back half shows that they were at least capabale of decent songs. Why they chose to even include the other 7 at all is a mystery for the ages.

Place the songs I've labelled "Good" together as an EP and, IMO, it's not too shabby...but as an entire album, DTC fails.

I am huge Queensryche fan and can find something good on every album they have released with the exception of this disc, which is a dog IMO

Try going back and listening to the 5 I tagged "Good"...without playing the others at all...they're actually good...not great or amazing...but good.

I am going to go back and listen to those 5 tracks sometime today, and give those at least another chance.

That was a much kinder review than most of what I've read.

MetalGuy71 wrote:

That was a much kinder review than most of what I've read.

And much kinder than the review I did in the QR discography thread......

and I'm still not going to listen to it.