Date Of Release: 28 June 2011
Label: Roadrunner Records
The Band
Geoff Tate - Lead Vocals, Sax
Michael Wilton - Guitars, Backing Vocals
Parker Lundgren – Guitars, Backing Vocals
Eddie Jackson – Bass, Backing Vocals
Scott Rockenfield – Drums, Keyboards
1 Get Started
2 Hot Spot Junkie
3 Got It Bad
4 Around the World
5 Higher
6 Retail Therapy
7 At the Edge
8 Broken [bonus track]
9 Hard Times [bonus track]
10 Drive
11 I Believe [bonus track]
12 LuvnU [bonus track]
13 Wot We Do
14 I Take You
15 The Lie
16 Big Noize
Let me start by saying that most people here know I am one of the biggest Queensryche fans on the planet. This was one of my personal most anticipated releases this year. I have been listening to this for 2 weeks as it leaked early. With today being the official release, I thought this would be a good time to offer my first review here. I imagine most here are already thinking "Oh yeh, THIS is going to be an impartial review." I have stood up for this band on many occasions when others trashed their more recent work. With "Dedicated To Chaos" I can no longer do that. This is abysmal.
This album is a horrific continuation of the already terrible idea of the Queensryche Cabaret tour. Every aspect of this release just feels rotten to me, starting with ridiculous song titles like "LuvnU", "Wot We Do" and "Big Noize". Geoff Tate's presentation is particularly disturbing. I have no idea why (again, I have to think it's the Cabaret vibe taking hold), but his whole "wannabe Barry White sexy voice" thing on songs like "Higher" and "Got It Bad" is disturbing.
A message to Geoff and the boys: Your heritage in this business comes from writing smart, socially challenging songs that featured a voice that was one of the top 5 strongest in the history of heavy metal. That's seemingly been avoided here. Songs like "Wot We Do", with their dirty back bar lounge vibe, just aren't what Queensryche fans want to hear. In fact, the keyboard part in the background of the bridges sound like something a bad 80s rap group might have done.
"Hot Spot Junkie" just feels kind of like an obscure attack on the computer generation...a generation that really was much more relevant 3-5 years ago when hotspots were all the rage before wireless internet was pretty much everywhere. Equally sad is the attempt to revisit Beatles folklore with a song that actually sounds a bit like U2; the first single "Around The World". The "all you need is love" mantra is two things. First, it's a very naive thought, and second, it's just not true. The songwriting here is the worst of Queensryche's career.
Listening to another lame chick song, "Drive", you have to imagine that the band was clearly annoyed with their parts that they had to aimlessly perform. I don't have a single musical highlight to tell you about, or I would to simply try to stop the negativity. I'm stunned by how bad it truly is. I think it's time for even the hardest of the hardcore fans (of which I truly think of myself as one) to admit that it's over. This is a sad collection of tunes from a group that should be able to listen to it and know that this doesn't even come close to the standard they have set for anything with the name "Queensryche" on it. In the "Tribe" era of the band, these songs would have maybe been B-sides. In the classic era, none of these would have made it past demos. Sad to say it, but this is as bad as it can get for Queensryche. Start to finish, this is horrendous.