It’s probably not overestimating things to state that Queensryche is kinda in the shit right now. Relatively speaking, of course. Not like Afghanistan- or Michael Todd-type in the shit. Not that bad. But the weeks surrounding release of twelfth album Dedicated To Chaos seem like an extended, multi-pronged PR gaffe, one which must spawn from confusion in the Queensryche camp about averse receptions to their good product. And D2C is pretty good. Srs.

Lettucereal tho Dedicated To Chaos has at least one huge problem that takes effort, stamina, and will power to endure. So we can’t label it a ‘great album’ oh my no. But aspects of it can be great — it’s just not metal. We’ll talk about that later, k? First shall I back up the above ‘extended PR gaffe’ claim? Great! No offensies!

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It’s easy to be jaded after attending a billion or so live shows, but climbing the hill up to San Manuel Amphitheatre, the site of Cypress Hill’s MetalSucks co-sponsored SmokeOut festival, I was transformed into a gawking greenhorn. (I would soon be treated like one, as well.) Behind my rib cage,  calm battled with rising euphoria, and not only because I stood with a hefty joint in my shoe at the gates of a tri-county puff-athon on the nicest late-October Saturday ever; mostly, I was just tweaking to look in on a magnificent but savagely wounded band at this early stage of recovery. Yes, the SmokeOut would feature the Deftones, who have played around ten shows since an auto accident left their bassist, Chi Cheng, in a coma. And despite the puzzling news that to-be sixth album Eros had been shelved, the band already had been showing positive signs and seemed poised to reintroduce themselves via a violent new song (“Rocket Skates”) and a spritely, newly-slimmed singer (the gossip had Chino Moreno at anywhere between twenty and eighty pounds lighter). Exciting!

Two hours later, right before the Deftones took the stage, night had fallen, the denizens of the cheap seats waded ankle-deep in litter, and I was pissed off as shit.

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Been a while since we’ve done one of these. But an astute Noisecreep commenter named “Trav” pointed out that as he ages, Queensryche crooner Geoff Tate is starting to bear a striking resemblance to everyone’s favorite cowbell-player / all around creepy dude Christopher Walken. Don’t front.

-VN