When you compare each Vicious Rumors disc side by side, you see a noticeable dropoff in songwriting after "The Voice" died.
The 1st 2 discs led up to the Atlantic years. "ST" and "Welcome to the Ball" are both slabs of crushing power metal, and "Word of Mouth" follows in the same vein.
After Carl died, the band became sort of a joke. The disc with Thorpe singing was a travesty. "Cyberchrist" had a few moments, but overall was weak. "Sadistic Symphony" was another dropoff from the Carl era. When Rivera came into the fold, I was excited at the possibilities. "Warball" was much better than recent output, but still did not compare to the classic lineup. At that point Vicious Rumors reached the "Queensryche level of consistency"; they were no longer a blind buy in the hopes that things would change, they became a "no buy".
Its never going to be the same again.
