The New Tate-less Queensryche Song is Pretty Good

Months and months of back-talk between warring Queensryches and speculation amongst fans culminates right now: will new Queensryche music — from the version without Geoff Tate but with four members of the band, none of whom are Chris DeGarmo — be better than anything Geoff Tate has put out on his own?

The answer is a resounding “yes.” “Redemption,” the brand new Queensryche song posted by Metal Insider, smokes anything Geoff Tate has released recently, or ever. Which is to say it’s heavy (by Queensryche standards), catchy, not completely laughable, and most importantly, sounds like fucking Queensryche.

That is not to say that the song is great. What the hell is up will all the pitch-correction on new vocalist Todd La Torre’s voice during the choruses? It’s overbearing, it’s distracting, and I’d think it’s entirely unnecessary; from the impressions I get of the guy he’s an absolute wailer, and live footage would seem to corroborate that. Tate left some huge shoes to fill pipes-wise, but the pitch-correction here is just grating on my ears.

But the song is definitely pretty good. It’s stuck in my head after just one listen and I want to press “play” to hear it again right away. I’m curious to hear more. As-of-yet-Untitled-Album will come out on June 11th via Century Media.