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REVIEW – I know when people talk about Geoff Tate these days they are always focused on the drama of the last few years. I know most will not be in the same boat with me, but I feel when he was still the vocalist of Queensryche that after Hear in the Now Frontier, Queensryche’s material just got more and more lackluster. I am not sure if they lost their passion when DeGarmo took off or that the band was just comfortable just putting out anything and putting the word Queensryche on it. Since he has left the band, he put out a very weak Queensryche cd that sounded like Geoff was trying to be Steve Perry like in just underwhelming fashion. Then we got the solo record that was just as uninspired as the other release. It just sounded that while the band moved on with Todd LeTorre and seemed re-energized and passionate again, that Geoff at the time just felt like he wanted to put music out just to say he did. Now, he has a band named after Queensryche’s cd Operation:Mindcrime and to be honest the expectations for this was so low but I was hoping that Geoff was going to get that passion back.
The new record I will say is better than the last two records combined which is not saying much, but this record delivers more than I thought it could and it seems Geoff has awaken from a long sleep and delivers the record he needed to. This record sounds like the bridge between the past and the last few QR releases before Geoff left. That being said, I really dug the song Burn. It sounded the closest to the old Rage for Order days, that the band or Geoff has got in a very long time. It is a mid-tempo rocker that is catchy but it has some dark lyrics about “getting gasoline and burning everything”, that you feel Geoff knew he had to go to a dark place with the material and some of these songs seem to embrace that mindset. Ready to Fly is another winner that sounds like it came from the Empire recordings. Re-inventing the Future is another song that sounds like it came from the Empire recordings. Geoff has found a band that shares his passion and if anything is close to a “classic Queensryche cd”, it would be this record. From start to finish, this record really delivers for the most part and is the best thing that Geoff has put out since Hear in the Now Frontier. This could be seen as the “comeback of 2015”.
