Yes, but...they were definitely feeling their way forward in a different direction, with a brand new writing partner, and their primary writer being gone. Samsara has said this numerous times on his prior site, and I tend to agree: It would have been really interesting to hear where they went next had things not blown up with Kelly, and had he stayed in the band. With an entire album and tour under their belt, they would have gelled more as a writing/performing team, and it is entirely plausible (and likely, IMO) that their next album would have felt a lot more cohesive and felt more "Queensryche" than Q2K.
There are many things at play during the HITNF/Q2k years. Regarding HITNF, no one aside from Chris wanted to make a record, yet the label was pushing them (Chris) to do so. If you read between the lines of what was said at the time (that they wanted to try a more spontaneous, less rehearsed direction), in retrospect, you can see that. Chris gets credited with the direction of HITNF, and I agree with that. But if you take a close look at Empire, Promised Land, and HITNF, you'll see that musically, it was Chris pretty much musically dictating the direction. The band became less metal after Mindcrime, as Chris explored melody and other sides of rock, and Tate preferred not to be pigeonholed as a "metal" singer. Chris adapted to Tate's needs, his own needs, and helped bring the band together on the various projects. I've said it repeatedly - like it or not, Queensryche had a sonic evolutionary path that I personally believe Chris was very much aware of, and even when he returned from Tribe, he tried to expand on it.
Anyway, so Chris gets everyone on board with HITNF and the sparser direction, writes a record that honestly fits perfectly with the times, its first single is pretty darn big, it's second single starts to take off...then the label folds. There goes all the push at radio, all the tour support, everything. The band finances their own tour, QPrime dumps them, and QR is at ground zero. Talk about repeated haymakers. To add insult to injury, some fans turned on QR for HITNF because they didn't like the direction, which Chris steered, in my opinion, based on what he saw with Soundgarden (see here -
https://anybodylistening.net/downontherycheside.html) and Alice in Chains. Queensryche sort of...ran its course to an extent, with the band's personal lives very different and all the interpersonal stuff surrounding them all.
So in comes Kelly Gray. Tate's buddy. Former Myth guitarist. Will never tell Tate "no." Gray and Wilton connect a bit, although both are very different. They come up with Right Side of My Mind. Vibes start happening. But then Gray steps into DeGarmo's shoes. He writes the best record he can at the time (he thought it was a "good" album with a healing element on it). It doesn't sound like Queensyrche's sonic evolutionary path (duh), and the style differs completely (double duh, given that your main writer and arranger is now a guy who is light years different as a player, very influenced by different guys, and is a different writer than DeGarmo).
Again, in retrospect, looking back 22 years, what did we really expect? I was pretty naive at the time about everything. All I knew was, my favorite band did a new record and was still playing and I was into it. Now...I see a reinvention. I see a band getting comfortable just being who they are on Q2k. To me, that record may not have been a sales success, but it was certainly a success in helping four guys move forward. And that's in large part in thanks to Kelly. It's not really "Queensryche" to me NOW, but it was then. And there were some gems on that record. Right Side of My Mind (Gray, Tate, Wilton) and Liquid Sky (Gray, Rockenfield, Tate) were very much "fan favorites" and a bunch of folks dug the ballad "When the Rain Comes" which musically was written by Wilton (myself included). The material was strong enough to succeed. But what happened again? Atlantic didn't support them (they should have known that), the industry changed, and pretty much what happened with HITNF happened with Q2k.
Had the fans embraced Kelly, and Kelly been able to control himself on the road (read the liner notes from Tate on the Q2k expanded edition from 2006), Kelly would have likely continued on. Seeing him get to know the guys, what works and what doesn't, would have led to a better record overall. Would people have "liked" it? Would it sound more "Queensryche" (how is that defined -- the DeGarmo era, the late 80s/early 90s?) You never know. But take the name "Queensryche" off the record, and I know I personally really like about 2/3 of Q2k. My guess is, I would have at least LIKED a follow-up with Kelly Gray.
When DeGarmo came back for Tribe, the band had floundered, Chris came in after hearing about Tate's lyrical theme, had some ideas the band really liked, and really liked some of his suggested additions to other songs they had already written, etc.) Those songs, Desert Dance, Open, Falling Behind, Doin' Fine, The Art of Life (and Justified) -- do you all like them? Because that's honestly "Queensryche" again, with all five guys a part of it in some way, shape or form. That's the sonic evolution of DeGarmo-Tate continuing. Chris left in the middle of the sessions, because of various reasons, which aren't important for this post. But that handful of songs is generally that continued evolution of "Queensryche"
I think the problem is, people consider "Queensryche" or the "Queensryche sound" to be defined by albums and time. Specifically, I think people define the band by the EP-Empire. For me, while looking back at it all, I think what is "Queensryche" is more defined by the musical relationship of DeGarmo, Tate, and Wilton. How that changed over the years. The funny thing is, if you consider "Eyes of a Stranger" to be a definitive QR song, and I think most people do, that's a DeGarmo/Tate track. The evolution and defining of what Queensryche was, songwise, is in my opinion, that relationship, and where they took their partnership as writers. Not the albums that defined them, but their path as writers (along with Wilton to a degree, although he was less involved over time, for whatever reason).
Coming back to Q2k, it's a solid hard rock record that had a lot of potential to be more successful than it was. And if the situation was different, I think a second record with him would have continued the same sonic path as Q2k, but with some other keyboard elements added. Whether people would have "liked" that, is anyone's guess.
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Topic: Official Queensryche thread: Kickstart the next album (Read 699874 times)
