I must say I am not very familiar with QUEENSRYCHE, I only know of them by name, especially with Geoff Tate, I only know of him because he is often called one of the “Three Tenors of Metal” along with Rob Halford and Bruce Dickinson, so of course when I listened to “Kings & Thieves”, Tate’s second solo album, I was expecting Heavy Metal, maybe something along the lines of Bruce Dickinson’s solo work, but, alas, that wasn’t what I got, what I got instead was something that, to my ears, sounded like a mixture of lame rap, with blues and rock influences, such mixture best exemplified by the track “Say U Luv It”.
I don’t know if it was my misguided expectations or my lack of knowledge in regards to Geoff Tate’s music vision, but I absolutely hated this album, I couldn’t listen to a song without dreading what might come next, it is not so much that the album is poorly executed, far from it, it is obvious that they have technical abilities in their respective instruments, but the songs are so bad and lifeless that it overshadows the great execution of the instruments.
Tracklist:
1. She Slipped Away 2. Take a Bullet 3. In the Dirt 4. Say U Luv It 5. The Way I roll 6. Tomorrow 7. Evil 8. Dark Money 9. These Glory Days 10. Change 11. Waiting
Lineup:
Geoff Tate – Vocals Kelly Gray – Guitars and Bass Randy Gane – Keyboards Gregg Gilmore – Drums Jason Ames – Harmony Vocals Emily Tate – Harmony Vocals Chris Zukas - Bass