The Laser's Edge's description of the Tate-Ryche album...

[labrekk]

https://www.lasercd.com/node/9718
The split between Geoff Tate and the rest of Queensryche took an ugly turn awhile back and now we are seeing the first fruits of the fallout. He finds himself on Cleopatra Records - the perfect marriage of exploitation partners. I'm not sure why anyone would want to actually own this album but I guess if you are an uber-Tate fan you have to have it. Tate's version of the band features Kelly Gray, Rudy and Robert Sarzo, Simon Wright, and Randy Gane. The music sounds a lot like all the crap Queensryche was putting out over the past 10-15 years but maybe even less inspired. Tate took it upon himself to cover 4 classic Queensryche songs as a bonus (oh joy). Special guests on the album include KK Downing, Chris Poland, Ty Tabor, Paul Bostaph, Lita Ford, Brad Gillis, Dave Meniketti, and Craig Locicero. If Jimi Hendrix was on this album it couldn't ressurect this swill. There is one good thing about the album - the cover. Its a pretty clever jab at his old bandmates. I'll give him that and not much else. Fanatics only please.

Very rare to see a vendor who doesn't want to sell its stuff. I guess he didn't order many copies...

 

[SF Metal Man]

Not only does he not want to sell this CD, but apparently not anything else QR has released in the last 10 to 15 years either.

 

[sccaldwell]

Very rare to see a vendor who doesn't want to sell its stuff. I guess he didn't order many copies...

It's not that he doesn't want to sell it...Ken's just extremely honest and up-front. He knows the die-hard Tate fans will buy it anyway.

I've actually been in line to buy CDs from The Laser's Edge at ProgPower before and had Ken take one OUT OF MY HANDS, put it back, and say "you don't want this." I don't know if it was based on the shirt I was wearing, learning my tastes over the years, or just based on the other discs I had in my hands, but I took his word for it.

I think it's just that he's first and foremost a music FAN, so he's more interested in selling CDs to people that they'll ENJOY them than just making a quick buck selling someone some garbage. If he tells you it's garbage, and you still want to buy it, that's your business. My favorite review on TLE was some disc where the entire description was "Surely someone must want this."

All of which is why I usually buy from Ken. I know that his reviews are brutally honest, and if he says a CD "will appeal to fans of [band I like]" then I probably really will like it. I've bought CDs *purely* on the basis of his review, and generally been very pleased. Great guy.

Craig

 

[Sumeet]

It's not that he doesn't want to sell it...Ken's just extremely honest and up-front. He knows the die-hard Tate fans will buy it anyway.

I've actually been in line to buy CDs from The Laser's Edge at ProgPower before and had Ken take one OUT OF MY HANDS, put it back, and say "you don't want this." I don't know if it was based on the shirt I was wearing, learning my tastes over the years, or just based on the other discs I had in my hands, but I took his word for it.

I think it's just that he's first and foremost a music FAN, so he's more interested in selling CDs to people that they'll ENJOY them than just making a quick buck selling someone some garbage. If he tells you it's garbage, and you still want to buy it, that's your business. My favorite review on TLE was some disc where the entire description was "Surely someone must want this."

All of which is why I usually buy from Ken. I know that his reviews are brutally honest, and if he says a CD "will appeal to fans of [band I like]" then I probably really will like it. I've bought CDs *purely* on the basis of his review, and generally been very pleased. Great guy.

Craig

Agreed. My first order from The Laser's Edge was like 16 years ago, and Ken's recommendations have always been... well... Golden.

 

[nomisofsiman]

WAIT!!!! KK Downing is a contributor?

 

[AngraRULES]

WAIT!!!! KK Downing is a contributor?

Who cares?

 

[AngraRULES]

Ken has told me point blank at his booth at ProgPower, and I quote...

"Don't buy this album. It's a piece of shit. Don't waste your money."

 

[nomisofsiman]

Who cares?

Just very bizarre for someone who basically retired, and why of Tate of all people he'd play for?

 

[1000 Faces]

Reminds me of my favorite Ken listing, for Inner Worlds by Mahavishnu Orchestra:

"With Jean Luc Ponty out and Stu Goldberg replacing Gayle Moran, McLaughlin came up with the weakest lineup and album to carry the Mahavishnu moniker. Universally hated."

Sold! Or not. But I love the honesty.

 

[dspot]

Hilarious review on Amazon

Sad and hilarious at the same time April 23, 2013
By DMR
Format:Audio CD
This record sounds exactly like what it is:

- 6 week rush job to "be first" and release a record before the other guys.

- an album almost entirely pre-written by one of the most bland rock producers/musicians out there (and Tate's personal plastic sex doll).........Jason Slater. He admitted as much on his website taking jabs at those who took issue with Tate "using good songs that were available" to him. Don't take my word for it. Go see for yourself. There you can also see him admit that the album had a six week window from beginning to end. You get what you pay for in life.

- Horribly contrived and forced. Tate has been going on and on about how much he hates metal and how much he will never conform to the fans who want him to play metal. He's gone on and on over the past year about how he will never allow himself to "become a nostalgia act". Funny then, that he farts out this obvious attempt at trying to be heavy (by bringing in guest musicians specializing in that kind of music). He's got the band's biggest hits re-recorded (we'll get to that). And on his current tour he's playing Mindcrime in it's entirety for like the 37th time. And oh yeah, playing an encore full of songs not off this album, but hits from 2 decades ago. So much for that never conforming to nostalgia thing.

- Sound quality. 6 weeks front to back. Again, you get what you pay for. Jason Slater boasted on his website about getting the record done in 6 weeks. He went on and on about how great it sounded and how awesome a job Maor Applebaum (or what ever the eff his name is) did mastering it. DOH!! But wait! Record company said NOPE. Huge fan backlash. So they brought in another guy with supposedly impeccable credentials to mix it since Slater and this Appleseed character effed it up so bad in the first place. And then the replacement guy quit! He knew better than to try and climb the s***-rope. And who knows who finally finished what still sounds like a Garage Band software beginner trying his his hand at mixing for the first time.

- The re-records. Oh, the lamentable re-records. I challenge each of you to prep the originals and play them side by side with these travesties. I promise you'll either laugh or cry.....or possibly drop dead of a heart attack at how bad it sounds on every level. All of the instrumentation on these re-records performed by some guy I never heard of. And he sucks. Some of it sounds flat out digitally created. Tate can't even come close to the source material anymore and it really shows. But hey, just watch the guy try and sing on the current tour and you'll understand why. Wine and smokes ain't so hot for the formerly golden pipes there, Tater.

In summary: if I were to rent a boat and drive it to the Farallon Islands, hang a couple of bloody fish heads from my testicles and drench myself in chum, and then jump into water notorious for large numbers of hungry Great White sharks it would still be a more enjoyable experience than listening to this album and what it represents.

 

[gregstaf]

I am also not impressed with the album. For someone that sang his ass off years ago he has yet to prove he can still sing. Most of the tracks sounds like he's whining and the re-records sound like they recorded the music and grabbed some old recordings of his voice when he could sing. Music compiled by the masses can lose it's emotional connection and singing a song just to sing a song and prove you still have it isn't what it's all about. He sounds like a vocalist that hates to sing. If that's the case, quit.

They say that crap in means crap out and the crap he's putting out is simply that, crap. The last Queensryche album sucked, his solo disc sucked, and now another Queensryche album he's on sucks once again. I think he might have to consider a new career choice such as, oh I don't know, maybe a mime, then at least no one will have to listen to him anymore. Mimeryche coming soon.

 

[spag]

C'mon dude. Mimecrime.

 

[gregstaf]

C'mon dude. Mimecrime.

lol

 

[gregstaf]

Operation: Mimecrime - The InstruMENTAL

Track listing:

1) I Mime Now
2) Anarchy Of A Mime
3) Revolution Failing (Gustures Of A Mime)
4) Operation: Mimecrime
5) Speechless
6) Disease Of The Mime
7) The Mission (Mimescream)
8) Sweet Sinster Mime
9) The Mime Lies
10) Electric Mimeories
11) Breaking The Silence (Mimescream II)
12) I Don't Believe In Singing
13) Waiting On My Voice
14) My Empty Lyrics
15) Lies Of A Mime
16) The Thin Mime (Live) Bonus Track