Queensrÿche - Digital Noise Alliance

There are some De Garmo's style riffs in some song of this album, not bad at all. Let me know when you listen to it.
 
I gave this a couple listens over the weekend, lifelong Ryche fan here. Major Ryche fan. Overall, I dig it.

I’ve loved most of everything they’ve done with Todd in the band and am very grateful he came into the fold and brought back a band I had given up on. It was hard for me to imagine living in a world where I stopped buying Ryche albums, but after Q2K or Tribe I was done. “The Right Side Of My Mind” was the last great song they wrote until Todd got in the band, IMO.

My only gripe with the album, which is largely out of their hands, is the drum sound. While I didn’t miss Scott on the last album (The Verdict is in my top 5 favorite Ryche albums) and Todd did a great job pulling double duty, Scott just has a snap and power to his playing that I didn’t realize played such a huge part until he wasn’t in the band anymore. Todd got a bit closer with it and while Casey is definitely doing some Scott stuff (the hi-hat/ride patterns are a big Scott thing) the drum sounds just weren’t grabbing me. It’s not that they sound bad, but it sounds like they’re using more samples than the mic’d acoustic kit. Same deal on The Verdict and I even thought they recorded it with V-Drums, made a comment about it on Todd’s FB and he then posted a vid of him recording the drums on an acoustic kit, so I had to pull my foot out of my mouth.….a little….because there’s still samples slapped on those acoustic drums.

Outside of that, I really dug the album and I’ll gladly keep listening to it. “Tormentum” threw me for a loop and a half, at first you think it’s just a straight ahead Ryche banger and then half-way through turns into something I’d expect to hear on a Dream Theater album. Definitely reminded people “Yeah, we still got the prog thing going on”.



I think I listened to that song 6x before moving onto the new Lamb Of God album, which is a ripper, as well! First album from them I’ve listened to on repeat since Sacrament!
 
I'm the only one to like the new album? Yes, I loved Chris de Garmo guitars in Operation and Empire, and loved (and still do) Geoff Tate's voice, but I find Digital Noise Alliance a nice record.

You are not alone. Mindcrime and Empire are my happy place. I gave the new album a few listens and I am really enjoying it.
 
I'm the only one to like the new album? Yes, I loved Chris de Garmo guitars in Operation and Empire, and loved (and still do) Geoff Tate's voice, but I find Digital Noise Alliance a nice record.

To my ears, this tune has a strong Lizzy Borden vibe. In a blind test, I don’t know that I would have said Queensryche in the first ten guesses.
 
I've seen QR live more times than any other band. Think I'm at 11 live shows now. The last 3 of those have been with Todd. Every time I've seen them with him, he's been on point. Much moreso than Tate was the last show I'd seem them with him. Each of those shows you take a quick look around and there are people floored at how good he [LaTorre] is.

As for the last few albums, I enjoyed a majority of the 2013 self titled disc. For some reason I had a hard time getting into Condition Human. Not bad, just never fully clicked. The Verdict is a damn good disc. I've only listed to the new one about 2/3rds of the way, but so far I like it the best of the Todd stuff. Like I've seen LaTorre and Wilton say, they cover a lot of the band sound over the course of their career on this one. And, it's subtle, but every song seems to have an discernable, but different QR 'era' vibe to it. 'Hold On' sounds to me, like a very Empire & Promised Land (a criminally underrated QR album) feel to it. 'Tormentum' to me honestly sounds like it has a bit 'The Warning' vibe.

I'd love for them to work things out with Rockenfield. I don't hold out much hope for DeGarmo coming back. He seems to be pretty content with what he's doing now. What I'd read though, sounds like Wilton talks to him regularly, they play golf, do lunch, etc. But they don't really talk about the band. Believe I'd read somewhere that DeGarmo is also still semi friendly with Tate. I got the sense that even though his [DeGarmo's] interest in coming back is minimal, he also feels like if he played with the current iteration of QR, it might negatively affect his relationship with him.

I don't know. Things and people change. Bands evolve and people that expect that 3, 4 or 5 people are going to stay on the same page for their entire career are fooling themselves. Cripes though, there are a lot people need to give up on the nostalgia and just enjoy the music. Because they're still putting out some great stuff.
 
I'm the only one to like the new album? Yes, I loved Chris de Garmo guitars in Operation and Empire, and loved (and still do) Geoff Tate's voice, but I find Digital Noise Alliance a nice record.

OK, I didn't know this just came out. Just downloaded and I'm really digging it! Last time I saw them was when they opened for Scorpions back in 2015 with Todd - blew me away how good they pulled it all together. Really liking it!
 
major Ryche fan here , loving the Todd albums and didn't realise this had been released so as soon as I get wifi I'll be downloading it for a spin, then it'll a waiting game till they tour the UK again,
seen the Ryche more times than I can remember, seen the Todd version 3 times and he knocks it out of the park,
ironically saw Tate last year doing Empire and Rage for Order , he did an awesome job

G \../
 
I saw Tate last Sunday, playing the Empire with his band, he is in really great shape and though it is not the original crew, the whole album is a piece of art and I enjoyed a lot watching it. I really do not dig much of Queensrÿche after that album, to be honest, I tried, but Operation Mindcrime and Empire are another level.
 
I have it but I need to listen to it, I like LeTorre's vocals he's a great replacement for Tate I've seen them live with him and he delivers on the older material , but man I miss DeGarmo and his writing.

That's the big thing. I've given later albums a listen, but I've never put any into rotation, and long ago stopped buying them. It's been how long since the good years? It sucks, but it is what it is.
 
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