QUEENSRYCHE

superjuice wrote:

"The Right Side of My Mind" is a progressive rock masterpiece.

Not sure I'd call it progressive, but definitely a masterpiece. That song is brilliant. One of their best.

Queensryche, for me, was about Geoff Tate's vocal range, the sudden entry of the backing vocals (or overmixed vocals) making it sound big, and the guitar tone that made it sound bigger. Not quite loud and distorted like your average 80s metal band, but more like something you'd hear in a large hall. They were one of the first to use sound effects in classic metal, but we don't often hear of them getting credit for it. Then there's the twin lead of DeGarmo and Wilton, which had an identity of its own, not so much like all the Tipton-Downing or Murray-Smith pair clones, who only played fast, duelling leads.

I had first heard of them in a video for Silent Lucidity- the wrong song for a new fan, and thought it's a soft ballad band that does Winds-of-change-ish songs all the time, and then came across Jet City Woman, then not too remarkable. What made me into an instant fan of the band, though, was the song Empire.

They did go a tad soft in PL, and fell away in subsequent releases, much like certain other bands, but OM2 was a comeback, not so much to the top, while American Soldier is something people love more due to sentiment than music, although there's some good music even in that. Yet, this isn't quite the band I want to see live. Maybe now, since they've got their metal sound back and have a vocalist as forceful (though not so soulful) as Tate. The overall band sound and orchestration has also got to come back, but with Chris DeGarmo choosing to fly on and Michael Kamen no more, it will be tough.

People have already accepted LaTorre as the vocalist and the new band lineup, despite a few remarks about them being a nostalgia band (a common criticism of AC/DC lately), but they do sound a lot more beefy than several prog/power bands operational today, and like a more refined version of the Vanderbilt-era Kamelot.

Will he establish himself the way John Bush did in Anthrax, or fall away like Tim Owens did in Judas Priest? That's another discussion.

Arjun_M wrote:

fall away like Tim Owens did in Judas Priest?

?

I think that Geoff tate and Queensryche are better off without each other for the time being. I really like Todd La Torre(Crimson Glory) as his replacement in the Ryche. Best of luck to both parties!

1.Operation: MindCrime 1
2.Rage For Order

You're baaaaack. Good to "see" you man.

So Tate has played a couple of shows since announcing his new Queensryche line-up (Blotzer, etc)....has that line-up even taken a promo pic? I don't think they've played live yet.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

So Tate has played a couple of shows since announcing his new Queensryche line-up (Blotzer, etc)....has that line-up even taken a promo pic? I don't think they've played live yet.

None that I have seen, he is playing in my area, it is just being billed as Geoff Tate, not Geoff Tate's Queensryche.

manny wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

So Tate has played a couple of shows since announcing his new Queensryche line-up (Blotzer, etc)....has that line-up even taken a promo pic? I don't think they've played live yet.

None that I have seen, he is playing in my area, it is just being billed as Geoff Tate, not Geoff Tate's Queensryche.

It's the Tate solo band with his nut-swingers (to borrow from the term from Fat Freddie) like Kelly Gray and his wife's ex husband in the band. He played nearby me last night (I didn't go) and heard he;s been getting 150 people to show up....

Kelly Gray is also in his version of 'Ryche w/ Blotzer and Sarzo. Just wondering why, after the announcement, that line up has yet to play a date...

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Kelly Gray is also in his version of 'Ryche w/ Blotzer and Sarzo. Just wondering why, after the announcement, that line up has yet to play a date...

My guess is Tate sobered up. "Wait, WHAT? I said WHO is in my band?!? The dude from Ratt??"

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Kelly Gray is also in his version of 'Ryche w/ Blotzer and Sarzo. Just wondering why, after the announcement, that line up has yet to play a date...

I thought they did.

Didn't they have a Blabbermouth clip of them playing "Eyes of a Stranger" and it had a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE clean guitar tone? I thought that had to be Drover.

Temple of Blood wrote:

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Kelly Gray is also in his version of 'Ryche w/ Blotzer and Sarzo. Just wondering why, after the announcement, that line up has yet to play a date...

I thought they did.

Didn't they have a Blabbermouth clip of them playing "Eyes of a Stranger" and it had a HORRIBLE HORRIBLE clean guitar tone? I thought that had to be Drover.

No, that was his solo band. The other guitar player is his wife's ex-husband

In his interview with CRN, he comes off a bit arrogant, but understand why he won't perform certain songs:

His former band’s use of backing tracks means they’re under pressure to regulate performances according to the pre-recorded elements.

And the singer loves the freedom that comes with not using such tracks.

He tells Pure Grain Audio: “I’m having a really good time touring with my solo band. I’m creating new music on the spot. We just make stuff up, live. Improvisation – who’d have thunk?

“It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years but I never could do it with the Queensryche guys because they couldn’t play without a click track.

“It’s freedom, and it feels so good to be able to be spontaneous.”

Tate admits the formation of his own Queensryche – with Glen Drover, ex Megadeth, Rudy Sarzo, ex Quiet Riot and Bobby Blotzer of Ratt – is partly for economic reasons.

He says: “There’s a huge amount of pressure to be a nostalgia act, just play Empire songs. No – I don’t just want to keep playing Empire songs. I want to write new music. I want to keep stretching and growing as a musician and an artist.

“A certain record has some success and a large percentage of people only want you to do that. That’s all they have a stomach for and if you deviate from that you’re evil. I don’t understand that way of thinking at all, but I know that it exists.”

One of the factors leading to his acrimonious split with Queensryche was the asking of his wife Susan, who was managing them at the time. He’s retained her services – and he has a message for those who believe it’s a bad way to do business.

“Smurf you. That’s what I say. Smurf you. You don’t know what you’re talking about. You are talking out of your ass. That’s the thing about ‘people’ – are they in our organization? No. Have they spent ten years doing it? No. Have they spent one minute doing it? No. Then they have no smurfing opinion.

“Susan is incredibly good at spinning plates, keeping people on the same page and putting them into a scenario in which they can accomplish things. She’s very business savvy and has steered the band through incredibly difficult times.

“She managed to create opportunities for the band for the whole time that she was managing them. We call it pulling a rabbit out of the hat. It’s creative management and it’s what’s needed. Giving the band work, keeping them on the road, keeping them making records and keeping them making a living.”

Tate’s former bandmates accused him of refusing to play the band’s earlier music, a charge he denies on the whole. But he admits: “I don’t do some songs from the past because I can’t deliver them with any kind of conviction. I can’t get behind those lyrics. I gave up Dungeons & Dragons when I was 30.”

He tells Rock Show Critique why he won’t perform early track Queen Of The Ryche: “It’s not really a song that I enjoy singing – lyrically its pretty adolescent. I honestly can’t relate to the content of that song. It’s really cartoonish and juvenile to me.”

Wow that dude is so full of $h!t...

His (Tate) reasoning for not doing "Queen Of The Reich" is an insult to the same fanbase he should not be trying to alienate. Again, he needs to cop to what "EVERYONE" already knows....That being he no longer has the ability to sing that song anymore". Him refering to Queensryche as a nostalgia act is nonsense. They are recording a new release, right. If he tours and plays any Queensryche song, that kinda/sorta makes him a nostalgia act likwise. Dude is shooting himself in the foot (at present) and more than likely in the head (later on down the road) if he maintains this trip of insulting people's intelligence.

I figure if he "floods" the media and internet with his B/S and keeps on reading it over and over and over. That will make it true

James B. wrote:

His (Tate) reasoning for not doing "Queen Of The Reich" is an insult to the same fanbase he should not be trying to alienate.

How exactly is that an insult to his fans? He was calling his own work "juvenile and cartoonish", he didn't say "...and if someone likes the song they are juvenile" which is how it sounds like you interpreted it.

I took a quick glance at the lyrics for that song and they aren't exactly poetry for the ages...

I can understand for whatever reason an artist choses not to do a song, especially they cannot relate to it anymore.

I personally think he's full of smurf poo - I agree with James and the reason he doesn't sing those songs anymore is he can't hit the notes. As far as the "nostalgia act", it's all BS - in other interviews he has said he's booking the Geoff Tate's Queensryche, Staring Geoff Tate, the original voice as the "25th anniversary" tour of Operation: Mindcrime.

Either he's just lost his mind, or as he says he is "free" to be himself now that he is out of Queensryche. That tells me that he's always been this way behind the scenes.

It appears that he's gone from telling fans they suck to telling them FU.......

I do agree that an artist has a right to do what they want or feel like doing, but if it sucks I won't be buying. Tate will continue to play to 100 people at small bars (if he's lucky) - his comments and actions are shrinking his fan base and moved his career into the oblivion. Many of his current shows have been advertised as "Geoff Tate's Queesnryche" and he's only getting 100 - 150 people per night.

He wants to play slightly grunge adult contemporary music, go for it and good luck.

In Florida he is playing a mid size venue and so far its been billed as Geoff Tate, but I doubt it will sell it, if Roger Daltry when he toured solo did not sell out the venue, and Daltrey is part of the Who for god's sake, did not sell out, (its a 500 seater), Tate does not stand a prayer.

Shawn Of Fire wrote:

Wow that dude is so full of $h!t...

you got that right. He calls QR a nostalgia act on one hand while on the other he is trying to promote himself as the voice of QR. What songs does he think gained QR the status they have? does he honestly think its the 'grown up' songs he has penned with the last several albums? Tate is really just a hypocrite who knows that his solo stuff doesnt amount to jack and wants to use the 'juvenile' songs everybody knows to make some cash, all the while trying to ridicule them so the real band is materially affected.

Explain something to me....

Tate admits the formation of his own Queensryche – with Glen Drover, ex Megadeth, Rudy Sarzo, ex Quiet Riot and Bobby Blotzer of Ratt – is partly for economic reasons.

He says: “There’s a huge amount of pressure to be a nostalgia act, just play Empire songs. No – I don’t just want to keep playing Empire songs. I want to write new music. I want to keep stretching and growing as a musician and an artist.

Where exactly in this section does he say Queensryche is a nostalgia act? It sounds to me like he is talking about his OWN band.

I don't have a ton of confidence in either camp.

I think the CRIMSON GLORY album, if it ever gets done, will be better than a record by either of these two.

S.D. wrote:

Explain something to me....

Tate admits the formation of his own Queensryche – with Glen Drover, ex Megadeth, Rudy Sarzo, ex Quiet Riot and Bobby Blotzer of Ratt – is partly for economic reasons.

He says: “There’s a huge amount of pressure to be a nostalgia act, just play Empire songs. No – I don’t just want to keep playing Empire songs. I want to write new music. I want to keep stretching and growing as a musician and an artist.

Where exactly in this section does he say Queensryche is a nostalgia act? It sounds to me like he is talking about his OWN band.

He said he doesnt want to do the older songs even though the rest of the real band does - he is saying they are nothing more of a nostalgia act if they dont write 'adult' songs like he is penning.

S.D. wrote:

James B. wrote:

His (Tate) reasoning for not doing "Queen Of The Reich" is an insult to the same fanbase he should not be trying to alienate.

How exactly is that an insult to his fans? He was calling his own work "juvenile and cartoonish", he didn't say "...and if someone likes the song they are juvenile" which is how it sounds like you interpreted it.

I took a quick glance at the lyrics for that song and they aren't exactly poetry for the ages...

I don't know. If I just had to listen to him play saxophone for an hour, I think I've earned a "Queen of the Reich" or 2.