I'm cutting the band major slack with everything. After DTC and the cabaret debacle, I lost major interest in the band and couldn't have cared less if they never released anything again. So at this point, anything they release with Todd, that rocks hard, is pure bonus for me and icing on the cake
I can relate to that although I'm hoping for a lot more
What the fans expect? If they are worried about making sure that would they do lines up with the fans expect, then it has failure written all over it.
Right on they should try and please what's left of their old fan base and "meet expectations". And by expectations I mean very generally something that has the same strengths as albums like Rage For Order . Concise yet progressive , melodic yet heavy and plenty of boundary pushing.
Queensryche are in a far weaker position than DT were when Portnoy left as they alienated their old fanbase and produced nothing to attract new ones. DT disappointed some old fans - me included - but did a much better job of retaining a fair share and adding a younger fanbase , as is evident on DTF.
So to me Queensryche MUST produce something that meets the expectations of the diehards that remain before they can attract a decent number of new ones by word of mouth etc....... I'm not talking about the housewives who bought Empire to hear Silent Lucidity - they're long gone. I am talking in general terms and - perhaps I'm giving them too much credit - but I think the band have a fair idea of what's expected and I can see a plan there.
If I was in their shoes I may have done the same. Rush out a new album that's written and recorded quickly , but is decent enough to let fans know that the band are back in terms of rocking . If they hadn't done that then I probably would've lost interest by now. Then work through their best ideas and try to come up with something special to follow . I'll be the first to say the next album is shit if that's the case but I can see why they might be doing what they're doing , so we'll see. Hopefully I'm right.
And I can see a few similarities in the way DT went about things after MP left - although clearly ADTOE is a far better effort than Queensryche S/t.