Mark Morton bails on Jackson

I haven’t gotten the chance to hear it all yet, just the first couple on my way into work. The new Ryche came out today as well and I wanted to get some of that in. LoG is much more promising after hearing the first 3 tunes off each album.

Oh, Willie still tours plenty with the band, I think he only skipped that tour because he was sick or he didn’t get the vax and wasn’t allowed to wherever they were traveling. He’s been at every show since.

I had to pat myself on the back a little when I was listening this morning, I actually dig the mix on the song I just put out more than what I was hearing on the new LoG. Or Ryche for that matter. I generally LOVE Josh Wilbur’s mixes, except on LoG albums. He did a f*cking phenomenal job on the last couple Trivium albums, particularly What The Dead Men Say. The drum mix alone on that album deserves a Grammy.

I’m hoping to hear some different sh*t on this album. They only step out of their thing generally once per album and those are the songs I generally dig the most. Introducing clean singing was one a lot of fans hated and while I didn’t care for the song itself so much, I was just stoked to hear them doing something different.

Mark recently ranked the LoG albums by his own ranking and while a couple really surprised me, for the most part I agreed with him. Even he likes their older sh*t more, but more due to what was going on behind the scenes than the songs themselves.
 
DrewJD82 said:
I haven’t gotten the chance to hear it all yet, just the first couple on my way into work. The new Ryche came out today as well and I wanted to get some of that in. LoG is much more promising after hearing the first 3 tunes off each album.

Oh, Willie still tours plenty with the band, I think he only skipped that tour because he was sick or he didn’t get the vax and wasn’t allowed to wherever they were traveling. He’s been at every show since.

I had to pat myself on the back a little when I was listening this morning, I actually dig the mix on the song I just put out more than what I was hearing on the new LoG. Or Ryche for that matter. I generally LOVE Josh Wilbur’s mixes, except on LoG albums. He did a f*cking phenomenal job on the last couple Trivium albums, particularly What The Dead Men Say. The drum mix alone on that album deserves a Grammy.

I’m hoping to hear some different sh*t on this album. They only step out of their thing generally once per album and those are the songs I generally dig the most. Introducing clean singing was one a lot of fans hated and while I didn’t care for the song itself so much, I was just stoked to hear them doing something different.

Mark recently ranked the LoG albums by his own ranking and while a couple really surprised me, for the most part I agreed with him. Even he likes their older sh*t more, but more due to what was going on behind the scenes than the songs themselves.
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Didn't know about the 'Ryche. Gonna have to check it out.

Scott back in the fold playing drums? Or is LaTorre doing them again?
 
la szum said:
Didn't know about the 'Ryche. Gonna have to check it out.

Scott back in the fold playing drums? Or is LaTorre doing them again?
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Casey "Weird Hair" Grillo is.

Larry David Reaction GIF
 
la szum said:
So just Wilton and Jackson remain from the OG Lineup?

Didn't Casey tour with them prior?
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I think so? We saw them with Priest in a smaller spot here last winter? They were good. Song selection and performance was great. I will say this. I had heard they were using modelers and you could certainly hear the lack of oomph. Whether it was their sound guy or the opening band aspect or whatever.

I thiink LaTorre has a great voice. And I think he has done good for the band. I don't think the solution to their problem is bringing back Tate and/or DeGarmo. I think they are in a weird spot where they are damned if they do/damned if they don't on matter what. I also saw them on Operation Mindcrime and Empire tours and there is no way in fuck they are going to be able to compare to that era. No matter how good the replacements are.
 
la szum said:
Oh yeah, that new 'Ryche is killin'. 30 seconds in. :LOL:
Gonna be a good night. :headbang
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I wasn’t getting into it earlier, but it was just bong ’o clock over here and I’ve got it on now so we’ll see.

I just wrote a book of a post due to bong o’clock, I’ll try to keep this shorter-

I’m 3 songs in and while I’m digging it more than I did earlier, this is the first time I find myself saying ‘This sounds more like a band heavily influenced by Queensryche than it does Queensryche”. Two major things are contributing to that; Todd is just singing like Todd now, he’s not purposefully trying to sound like Tate like he was on the earlier stuff and the drums. Todd did a great job on the last album and I didn’t miss Scott a single bit outside of his drum sounds, but Casey doesn’t play like Scott at all, they hit the drums entirely differently and while his playing is GREAT, it’s really making it hard for me to hear this as a Queensryche album.

I mean, I LOVE the parts he’s playing, he’s doing some really cool sh*t on these songs, it’s just the drum sounds and the difference in player’s between Scott and Casey. If they just tightened that snare up a bit, damnit! I know they tracked acoustic drums for this and The Verdict, but they dropped some samples over them and it sounds like they’re using more samples than the acoustic kit. I’m guessing after these last albums that Scott played a heavy role in his drum sounds.

I’m on the 4th tune now, this is pretty damn good. The playing in this one isn’t making me miss Scott. I’m digging it more as I get into the album. I LOVE The Verdict and that’s got two songs on it that are in my top 10 favorite Ryche songs.

I’m gonna stop before I keep writing a f*ckin’ book. This is exactly why I need to be in my studio at bong o’clock.
 
la szum said:
So just Wilton and Jackson remain from the OG Lineup?

Didn't Casey tour with them prior?
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Yep, Casey’s been with them live since Scott went on leave and never showed up. Todd just did the drums for the last album because Scott was still up in the air and he was writing the songs with the band so it just made sense.

Not sure how much Mike Stone played on this one, he replaced Parker after the last album. I thought Parker was a good fit, he took it seriously and considering that dude went from playing in a punk band to Queensryche almost overnight, he really stepped up his game. He wrote some pretty cool stuff in the band as well.

I’m just glad Stone is learning the parts like they were played on the album. He was with them before, I can’t remember if it was before or after Kelly Gray but why they allowed both those guys to improvise the solos live I’ll never know. Do whatever you want if you wrote it, but improvising your way through any f*cking thing Chris DeGarmo wrote is just stupid, especially since he played them note for note live and it’s just what’s expected.
 
DrewJD82 said:
Yep, Casey’s been with them live since Scott went on leave and never showed up. Todd just did the drums for the last album because Scott was still up in the air and he was writing the songs with the band so it just made sense.

Not sure how much Mike Stone played on this one, he replaced Parker after the last album. I thought Parker was a good fit, he took it seriously and considering that dude went from playing in a punk band to Queensryche almost overnight, he really stepped up his game. He wrote some pretty cool stuff in the band as well.

I’m just glad Stone is learning the parts like they were played on the album. He was with them before, I can’t remember if it was before or after Kelly Gray but why they allowed both those guys to improvise the solos live I’ll never know. Do whatever you want if you wrote it, but improvising your way through any f*cking thing Chris DeGarmo wrote is just stupid, especially since he played them note for note live and it’s just what’s expected.
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Improvising solos in Queensryche is the dumbest fucking thing ever. Especially if you don't have improvisational skills for your own level of player; let alone Chris Fucking DeGarmo.
 
DrewJD82 said:
I wasn’t getting into it earlier, but it was just bong ’o clock over here and I’ve got it on now so we’ll see.

I just wrote a book of a post due to bong o’clock, I’ll try to keep this shorter-

I’m 3 songs in and while I’m digging it more than I did earlier, this is the first time I find myself saying ‘This sounds more like a band heavily influenced by Queensryche than it does Queensryche”. Two major things are contributing to that; Todd is just singing like Todd now, he’s not purposefully trying to sound like Tate like he was on the earlier stuff and the drums. Todd did a great job on the last album and I didn’t miss Scott a single bit outside of his drum sounds, but Casey doesn’t play like Scott at all, they hit the drums entirely differently and while his playing is GREAT, it’s really making it hard for me to hear this as a Queensryche album.

I mean, I LOVE the parts he’s playing, he’s doing some really cool sh*t on these songs, it’s just the drum sounds and the difference in player’s between Scott and Casey. If they just tightened that snare up a bit, damnit! I know they tracked acoustic drums for this and The Verdict, but they dropped some samples over them and it sounds like they’re using more samples than the acoustic kit. I’m guessing after these last albums that Scott played a heavy role in his drum sounds.

I’m on the 4th tune now, this is pretty damn good. The playing in this one isn’t making me miss Scott. I’m digging it more as I get into the album. I LOVE The Verdict and that’s got two songs on it that are in my top 10 favorite Ryche songs.

I’m gonna stop before I keep writing a f*ckin’ book. This is exactly why I need to be in my studio at bong o’clock.
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I can hear some of that. I am 6 songs in now. Todd is more Todd than Geoff, and you can tell he
is consciously NOT trying to cop those Tate-isms.

Rockenfield's style is so iconic and instrumental to the band. I am going to have to listen harder
and again---as I was also doing my domestic duties while it was playing.
 
Fwiw; Mike Stone did great at that show. I was very impressed. The other guy who used to be with them (long goatee, top hat) who I believe is Kelly Grey always struck me as the very wrong person for that job.
 
I was just reading up, and now it looks like Scott is suing Eddie and Michael---because they
cut him out of the band. Damn!

Holy dysfunctional outfit. I am thinking maybe Chris was the only smart one in the band, and
got out when he could.
 
And you’re right, @JiveTurkey, they’re using Kemper’s live. Michael said a while back they went and profiled the Mindcrime/Empire Marshalls he has.

I’ve seen them three times since they started using them and the bigger venue definitely had more of an ‘empty’ feel to it, but it’s an outdoor amphitheater with noise limitations so it’s not surprising. Dokken opened that show and I got to hear that vocal butchery live. Literally cringed for 45 minutes straight. The other two times I saw them was a smaller venue that sounds great with pretty much every band that plays there and I wasn’t missing anything guitar-wise at those shows. It was mostly Mike’s solo’s where you could tell he spent some time recreating the album tones, his main rhythm tone is much more distorted these days.

The clean stuff is something I don’t feel they’ve nailed yet, though. Those clean tones on Mindcrime/Empire don’t even sound dated to me with all the chorus on them; they’re so cold and sterile in a good way they just fit feel of the songs they used them in perfectly.
 
la szum said:
I was just reading up, and now it looks like Scott is suing Eddie and Michael---because they
cut him out of the band. Damn!

Holy dysfunctional outfit. I am thinking maybe Chris was the only smart one in the band, and
got out when he could.
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Yeah, I read all the documents back when it came out, the overall gist of it is that they fired him after he kept bailing on formal meetings they had arranged and his refusal to communicate with them. They’ve got a majority rule thing going on in their business agreement but Scott is trying to use some bullsh*t way of disregarding it while also claiming he made himself available for writing and recording the whole time and they’re just lying about it.

I find it a bit hard to believe all three guys would be saying the same thing about not hearing from him at the same time Geoff Tate was saying he knew Scott wasn’t in a good place at the time and he hoped he gets the help he needs.

OK, the last song on this album, well, before the “Rebel Yell” cover, “Tormentum”……holy shit this song is a ripper and totally caught me by surprise. It’s a legit prog song, this reminds me more of f*ckin’ Dream Theater than Queensryche halfway through it. If they keep going in this direction I’d be pretty damn happy!
 
I moved onto the new LoG, this is pretty f*cking ripping! There’s some bangers on this for sure, some straight up punk stuff, some straight up thrash, tons of classic LoG riffs. I guess they cut the drums to this live, along with the band playing, including Randy and most of the vocals on this are the takes from those sessions. There’s certain songs I definitely get that vibe.

This is pretty slammin’, I’m pushing the limits of volume in an apartment because it’s making me want to hear it loud. I think that’s like the official measurement of how good something is, so I’m gonna say the album is pretty damn good. It’s still a LoG album in that you know what you’re gonna get, but it’s a really f*ckin’ good version of it.
 
DrewJD82 said:
And you’re right, @JiveTurkey, they’re using Kemper’s live. Michael said a while back they went and profiled the Mindcrime/Empire Marshalls he has.

I’ve seen them three times since they started using them and the bigger venue definitely had more of an ‘empty’ feel to it, but it’s an outdoor amphitheater with noise limitations so it’s not surprising. Dokken opened that show and I got to hear that vocal butchery live. Literally cringed for 45 minutes straight. The other two times I saw them was a smaller venue that sounds great with pretty much every band that plays there and I wasn’t missing anything guitar-wise at those shows. It was mostly Mike’s solo’s where you could tell he spent some time recreating the album tones, his main rhythm tone is much more distorted these days.

The clean stuff is something I don’t feel they’ve nailed yet, though. Those clean tones on Mindcrime/Empire don’t even sound dated to me with all the chorus on them; they’re so cold and sterile in a good way they just fit feel of the songs they used them in perfectly.
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DrewJD82 said:


The 2nd half of this song is NOT what I expected on a Ryche record and that’s f*cking awesome.
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The word "shot" doesn't even begin to describe Dokken's voice :oops: The guy seems to have lightened up a bit in the past few years but hearing him sing live has been painful for some time. It's tough getting old!

That QR song was actually damn good!

Here's my book on QR situation. They are in such a weird place. Their biggest problem is their catalog. They kicked absolute ass from the EP, up through Empire and into Promised Land on a song or two. Some of the TLT era was damn good too. But their style is soooo inconsistent different (beyond falling somewhere under the progressive rock/metal umbrella) from one album to the next it's really hard to get a groove going for them in a live setting if they aren't just playing an album in it's entirety. Which they can't do because they need to focus on the new stuff because that's where Todd is pointing them.

Trying to put Queen of the Reich next to I AM I does not work. Watching them live was like watching a cover band hop from one thing to the next with no thread connecting them. I mean; you know it's the same band and they have been all over the place in their careers. There's no real flow to their material when you chain it together out of each album's context. Very herky jerky; despite all being killer tunes.
 
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