HEAR IN THE NOW FRONTIER

I got this album to help compete my Queensryche collection after hearing the "Big 4" and feeling like I owed it to Queensryche for giving me awesome music and I found it both disappointing and good in different ways.

1. LISTENING AS A QUEENSRYCHE FAN - I decided to approach this album in two ways and this was the first way I tried. I was quite disappointed in how they had changed since Promised Land and their previous albums before that. For one, Tate's vocals had really gone downhill. In one song, "All I Want," it doesn't even sound like Tate.. In fact, most of this album does not even sound like Queensryche at all.

I decided to read into the reason why they'd change so much and was pleasantly surprised and actually was able to respect them a little more for really having the guts to change their sound and water it down as they had as the "evolution of Queensryche" continued.

2. LISTENING AS A NEW FAN DISCOVERING A DIFFERENT BAND ALTOGETHER - I was quite surprised. Here was a band who had evolved from a hard metal which was not appealing to me, to a Progressive Metal band, which was VERY appealing and in turn, have yet again changed their sound to a kind of... Rock-ish sound. I enjoyed songs like "Sp00L," "Hit The Black," and "Some People Fly."

I also found some duds like "All I Want" and "You" but in all I have nothing but respect for a band who has the balls to re-invent themselves every record they release.

Though I can give this release a 70/100 for any rock collection, there are very little Progressive moments if at all. So I can only give it a 45/100. It's good, but not essential. And if you're a fan, go out and get this album to see how Queensryche have re-invented themselves every release.