Dedicated To Chaos (Special Edition) [Special Edition]

It's only been 2 years since we were last introduced to the moderately well received American soldier back in 2009. Now fast forward two years into 2011 the band are back once more to present their latest new release "Dedicated to Chaos." and so with the band returning back upon a nice and solid bedrock of a decent enough predecessor and after the recent signing of the band to Roadrunner records things up until now have been ticking over quite nicely for the group; and although we haven't been exactly wowed with any such stratospheric moments or material as such; like from the Operation mindcrime era when the band were on their bestest form, several albums since including albums like- Promised land, Tribe, and more recently records like American soldier have been fairly satisfying opuses. In between some of that, several average to poorer efforts surfacing have been a continued trend for the band in the more recent half of their career.

Unfortunately, Dedicated to Chaos hasn't been able to build on recent encouraging material and instead focuses-in on different aspects of musicality such as rhythm, injections of alternative arrangements and more heavier rock fueled riffs. Fair enough, but for some reason the band this time just haven't been able to compile those fluid, soul filling and charismatic aspects to give us a tight and decent offering. Instead, horrible disjointed- melodies contrast pretty tap-water like' approaches from Tate which don't really in any way compliment any of these basic sounding rockers. Significant album space is also given to other musical genres such as soul, pop and rap of which are in no short supply throughout, but it's the terrible poppy numbers and ridiculous lyrics which do the most to bring it all down; these make most of an appearance within the awfully titled "Got it bad." Elsewhere, there is little much else than the very weakly composed, shallow & typically bland non-entities such as the gob-smackingly average "Get started" and the absolute abomination of "Hot-spot junkie" which should never have never made it off the drawing board.

Tate's vocals are traditional sounding ambience but they feel remarkably out of touch and out of tune with most of these awkward and clicky tracks. "I take you" is another plodder which contributes nothing to the album along with "Wot we do" a horror fest of slightly dancey rock music for radio, overlayed with some stupid and outrageous background melodies which quickly becomes the ultimate smack-in-the-face. "If you got a wild fantasy, we are here just for you." Tate sings;.... unforgivable and despicable. Later on, along comes the song "Drive" which aims high for the rock elite heavens but ultimately fails shamlessly in this ambitious quest and quickly descends into a flatish and stupendous fest. "Broken" does admittedly start off very promising at first but the end result is the predictable oncoming destruction in bad, clunky- irate and unexpected axework. Cutting the album a little abit of slack is the song "Hard times" which probably is a fairly decent enough Queensryche ballad on a standalone merit and could well be the only song on the whole album I can tolerate, despite the badness towards the end, a most welcome closure of this hell-ride in the total sham of "Big noize!" and that equation is not even to their standards.

The legacy of long absent Queensryite man Chris Degarmo has become alarmingly apparent on this latest record. Despite some reasonably good Queensryche artwork I would have expected much much better. So as an objective rock & metal fan I'm quite familiar with this band and the classic rock/metal sound that is associated with the group, so I had a rough idea of what I hoped to hear, but got nothing close?!.... and so as I am usually very supportive of small to large leaps in direction or experimentation in band progression, but ultimately it should boil down to the quality of the music, but in this album in particular, I just haven't been able to justify any of that because all I have managed to uncover beneath it all is a brash, simplistic and soulless rock album. The experimentation going on here has been a modest one for the band as to which should rate as a nice enough touch on a basic level, but it goes without saying that such a high proportion of these new sonic additions are just simply incompatible, and do not work together within what is essentially a collection of mostly sub-standard musical side-orders anyway.

Conclusion: I found the experience listening to Dedicated to Chaos to be a horrible one and a overwhelmingly lustre-lacking shambles. The meltdown that's going on here surely has to rate as such the ultimate disappointment to ryche fellowship. Though I personally had failed to be moved by a single song of this album to which hasn't been the case with any previous ryche record I can recall previously, the shortcomings have been really astounding (to be honest) and have taken me completely off guard. For me at least, the bottom line is that Dedicated to chaos is very poor and unsavory sounding new album, for which I am for the time being willing to accept and trying in some form to like or at least understand;- failing that, if the band do return back next time round with another formidable exploration into this dodgy haphazardly done formula of compensatory rock; as opposed to a more considered and refreshing 'ryche, then i'm sorry to say i'm out!!

The poor souls with their endless wait for a new Mindcrime should steer clear of this one. I suppose Queensryche have never been consistently a metal band anyway, allowing their progressiveness take them in different directions. And they've certainly done it here. It was going to be 3 or 4 stars and I eventually went for 4 just because this is the first time in years that Queensryche have been so daring with such a musical stretch.

Go into this with an open mind and you will not be disappointed. I was worried by all the "I've been a QR fan since Warning" fanboys slagging it off. Having been a fan since Rage I've pretty much always expected the unexpected from them. There were some who couldn't get their head round Rage when it came out. So I was glad when I actually heard this album and that it was nowhere near as bad as some had made out.

Again, this is not metal, more alternative progressive rock, or something. They could actually appeal to a new audience with this one. The opening track "Get Started" is a rocker and about the only track with a strong enough melody you could actually sing along to. After that there are no real 4/4 rock standards and it becomes a more involved musical ride, with more textures and layers in the production than I've heard on a QR album since Promised or even Rage. I'm pleased about that, because I was worried with Kelly Gray at the helm we might end up with a fuzzy Q2K kind of sound, which this isn't. There's a lot going on here. The bass is quite prominent on all tracks and Scott and especially Eddie really get to shine with some interesting bass lines. Most tracks are different in their own way, though some start to sound alike as the album goes on and a couple sound like they might have fallen out of the Tribe sessions. Wilton takes more of a back seat here, with only a couple of tracks requiring a guitar solo, and it is only on those that I hear anything of QRs traditional sound. Also there are no epic length tracks on here, most about four or so minutes on average.

Unfortunately there are two big letdowns for me. Firstly the lyrics could be more inspiring. With a title like Dedicated To Chaos I was expecting a lot more rousing political commentary from Tate, and although songs like "Retail Therapy" reflect today's world, there are too many sex related themes on here. On the other hand, "Wot We Do" which sounds like an SM club's anthem could have really gone to town with a horn section instead of its cheap synths to hit the mark, and as it stands falls short.

The other letdown is, I am sorry to say, Geoff's limited ability when it comes to writing strong melodies. His voice is unique, yes, but his vocal range is not what it was and those Tate-isms, although adding to the overall multi-layered musical experience, are not enough to carry an entire album and by the end takes off some of the shine. I find it strange to think I'm actually saying that Tate is biggest disappointment here, but if we had just a few memorable vocal lines this could have been a five star album. As it is I give it four marks for the effort and the daring step in the musical department, but three for the execution and limited tunefulness in the vocal department.

For open minded listeners only.

I was wary of listening to this due to the vast amount of negative reviews regarding this album.Geoff Tate has called it a headphone album ,so for my first listen I used my phones and I can see why .There is a lot going on ,parts remind me of Rage For Order ( the best QR album in my opinion)but with a modern twist.This is the best release Queensryche have done in years finally breaking away from trying to recreate the past and doing what a progressive metal band should do and progress.