FWIW, the history of QR and songwriting is very nuanced.
In the early days, Wilton had a bit of a head start on DeGarmo. Wilton would write some cool riffs, put together some basic arrangements, and they'd go with that. Particularly on those EP tracks (which were written without Tate, for the most part), and then with The Warning, Chris started coming along more quickly as a writer, with Tate's penchant for prog pushing them in directions. As the years went on, DeGarmo started really becoming a complete songwriter, whereas Wilton sort of stayed in with his strengths - coming up with cool riffs and parts. For years, DeGarmo would help arrange those parts, and at times, allegedly not even take credit for doing that arrangement. Chris naturally became the main songwriter in the band. As someone once told me who was connected with them -- if you're Tate, are you going to gravitate toward the music writer who has complete song ideas? Or are you going to gravitate to the songwriter who just has a part or two? The answer is obvious.
So yes, Wilton is credited on a large amount of the EP and The Warning. He had some great songs, great solos, etc. But as QR evolved, Whip just focused on what he did best. Doesn't mean he's not a good songwriter. Of course he is. But I don't think he evolved as much as Chris did. At least not looking back at the catalog. If you look at the records with TLT, you can see Wilton is very involved again. But they made it a point of being way more collaborative. Also, unlike Tate, TLT can play guitar decently enough to write songs on his own and does. That helps when you're working with a guy like Wilton. If Whip has a killer riff, but not sure what to do with it, Tate couldn't make that into something (see "Murderer?" from OPMC II). BUT, today, La Torre CAN and has done that. And songs like that are credited as La Torre/Wilton.
To be frank, Queensryche is a much, much different entity than it was. It's much more collaborative now in terms of writing. La Torre/Jackson/Wilton are the writers, and when your singer is a guitarist and drummer, it makes it that much easier for a guitarist to get the singer to adapt to a cool part...because the singer can then take that guitar part and build it into something. Whereas when Tate was in the band, if Wilton came at him with a cool riff, that's cool, but Tate can't do anything with it musically to make it something to sing over.
That example of "Murderer?" is perfect. Bad ass metal riff. Tate loved it. But that's all Wilton had. Tate loved it so much he asked Jason Slater to make it something he could sing over. So Slater took it, and arranged it into an actual song.
That situation no longer exists, because the singer now is La Torre, who can take a cool riff from Wilton, and then write his own musical parts to sing over.
So all the talk about Wilton writing things -- he has, and does write cool stuff. But in the early days (EP) it was just very basic. DeGarmo was, IMO, the arranger to take Wilton's riffs and make them into something Tate could write over. It was the same when Kelly Gray was in the band, and same again when Slater was doing the writing. Nowadays, it's easier, because La Torre has abilities as music writer that Tate doesn't have.
HITNF is my biggest musical disappointment, ever. I still remember taking the bus after my afternoon IT course to buy the record the day it was released, I couldn't believe how bad I thought it was on the first listens. I don't care for the musical "vision" around a disc if the songs aren't there, melodies are weak, Tate's voice is ruined, the production is very low-value for QR standards... sPOOL and You are good songs, but that's it. Except for some of Pearl Jam albums, I never was into grunge/alternative hard rock, that may be the reason. Promised Land, on the contrary, is still pure gold to my ears, almost 30 years after.
EDIT : At this time I was into Savatage, and with the piano/keys on Lady Jane/Someone Else, I was hoping they would go into that direction.
Tates differ. I didn't "get" HITNF right away either. I got an advance cassette copy from a friend in...I want to say around mid-February 1997, about six weeks before the record dropped. I didn't get it. When the album got released and I bought the CD, I liked some, but didn't understand. But here we are, 27 years later, and year after year, I've gotten what they were trying to do more and more. Not overthink it, go off the cuff, and write a record more spontaneously. I think it's very cool. Too much filler, but cool. When DeGarmo returned for "Open," "Desert Dance," "Falling Behind," "Art of Life," "Doing Fine," and "Justified" from Tribe, you can hear the songs start to go a different direction again. Queensryche was the ultimate hard rock/heavy metal chameleon band back then.
Topic: Official Queensryche thread: Kickstart the next album (Read 704468 times)
