UMUR "Tribe" is the 8th full-length studio album by US heavy metal/hard rock act Queensrÿche. The album was released through Sanctuary Records Group in July 2003, almost 4 years after the release of the predecessor "Q2K (1999)". Since the release of "Q2K (1999)", guitarist Kelly Gray has left, leaving Queensrÿche a four-piece. Although it had been quite a few years between albums, Queensrÿche found themselves short of material before entering the studio to record "Tribe", and therefore opted to contact former Queensrÿche guitarist and composer Chris DeGarmo to hear if he would help contribute material for the album. DeGarmo accepted, but after writing some tracks, co-writing a few others, and playing some guitar parts, he left the sessions. Mike Stone was recruited to complete the recording sessions and ended up being hired permanently.

I´m not sure if it is DeGarmo´s presence or his songwriting contributions, which have done it, but after a couple of lacklustre albums, Queensrÿche have actually produced a pretty good quality heavy metal/hard rock album in "Tribe". Several of the tracks featured on the album are memorable (tracks like "Open", "Blood", and "Desert Dance") and the well sounding production also helps being out the best in the material. There´s a strong conviction behind the performances which is audible too and upon conclusion I´m left with a nice positive impression when the 10 track, 41:41 minutes album is over. Yes it´s not as interesting as the early releases by the band, and this more hard rock infused "mature" sound has a tendency to become a bit tedious, but on "Tribe" I think Queensrÿche have hit a good balance and a generally high quality songwriting level and therefore a 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

siLLy puPPy After the Q2K train wreck, QUEENSRYCHE took a few years off to get their sheeeeet together. They opted to keep the alternative rock sound going for a third album in a row which is kind of a shame since it's my least favorite era from them but I have to admit that third time's a charm and they got the sound right this time, at least for them. After a gazillion other things plaguing the band including Chris DeGarmo exiting stage left, not only did they survive the cataclysm but mended relations with DeGarmo so that he contributed guitar parts to some of the tracks on their eighth studio album TRIBE. Not exactly a full-fledged reunion but enough to prove a very salient point about the band known as QUEENSRYCHE. It is clear to me that DeGarmo was one of the major ingredients that made this band so magical. It is the albums that he is on that I like best and the rest are just missing that extra mojo to make it special.

TRIBE only reinforces this belief because it is the songs that DeGarmo contributes to that I find most appealing. There are exceptions like the title track. Although I find this album to have way too much filler, some of the tracks are actually quite good. I love “Open,” “Losing Myself” “Tribe” and “Desert Dance.” Scott Rockenfield's tribal drumming along with the grungy guitars and interesting bass lines is something hitherto never tried before as far as I know especially in an alternative rock context and Geoff Tate has honed his vocals at the point to fit in with this lower register type of music. Overall a good comeback after my least favorite album from the group but unfortunately nothing on here compares to “Promised Land” and before. Still a reason not to write them off entirely for a glimmer of hope has been sparked and some good tracks to boot. Unfortunately Geoff Tate and Chris DeGarmo butted heads a few times too many and DeGarmo departed for good after this brief reunification.

Kingcrimsonprog Tribe is the eighth full-length studio album by the Seattle based Progressive Metal band Queensrÿche. It was released in 2003 to mixed reviews, and of all of Queensrÿche’s albums to date it is probably the most misunderstood and underrated.

Following on the heels of the unpopular Q2K album, and featuring a credibility-questionable semi-return from former guitarist Chris DeGarmo which some fans accused of being cynical, the album is sometimes unfairly dismissed as being an awful record that fans should avoid.

In my opinion there is still actually quite a lot to like about Tribe and it is by no means the band’s worst outing to date. The band have always been big fans of evolution, and never made two albums in a row that sounded much alike. Tribe has its own sound like all Queensrÿche albums do, even though people sometimes lump it in with the previous two records as being ‘that alternative period.’

Though it uses Alternative Rock influences like Hear In The Now Frontier and Q2K as well as Alternative Metal influences like Operation Mindcrime 2, it uses them in a different way, like all Queensrÿche albums do, only this time it’s a way that almost makes some concessions to their earlier sounds and consequently Tribe feels very much like Queensrÿche even though you wouldn’t really expect it to given the fan reaction it received. I have to admit that after reading about its reputation, and after hearing Q2K, I didn't really expect the album to be one of the band's better efforts, but upon hearing it initially, and indeed after listening to it numerous times, I was surprised by just how much I did end up liking it.

The three heavier numbers, ‘Open’ ‘Tribe’ and ‘Desert Dance’ have that mixture of slow Metal, an eastern flavour and an Alternative feel that the heavier moments on Promised Land like ‘Damaged’ and ‘I Am I’ had. ‘Desert Dance’ incorporates a few controversial touches of Nu Metal and ‘Tribe’ has a mixture of Grunge-gone-Psychedelic guitar and tribal percussion that actually brings to mind Undertow-era Tool.

‘The Art Of Life’ has something of the feel of classic closers like ‘The Lady Wore Black’ and ‘Roads To Madness’ about it, (highlighted on ‘The Art Of Live’s acoustic rendition of Roads To Madness’) although obviously through the filter of Alternative Metal rather than classic Heavy Metal. Not to mention that its main riff is vaguely similar to the vocal pattern from ‘The Killing Words’ off of Rage For Order.

Finally, the ballads ‘Rhythm Of Hope’ ‘Doing Fine’ and album highlight ‘Great Divide’ (which I’d recommend that even if you skip the album, you still check out this one song) all have the feel of the band’s great lineage of ballads like ‘Silent Lucidity,’ ‘Della Brown’ ‘Bridge’ and ‘I Will Remember.’ Admittedly, they aren’t just as good, and they are once again played through an Alternative filter, but that doesn’t diminish their quality all to significantly as long as you don’t just outright dislike anything Alternative sounding.

The only real place where the album feels like a bit of a let down for me is in the second and fourth track as well as, more importantly, in the order of the tracks. ‘Loosing Myself’ has that post-Tate’s discovery of U2 feel that ‘Burning Man’ and ‘Wot Kinda Man’ from Q2K had, and ‘Loosing Myself’ has great lyrics and some great acoustic guitar work but the wrong chorus for a song in that point of the album.

I personally rearranged the album in my music library so that ‘Tribe’ and ‘Blood’ are tracks two and four, and this way the album flows a hell of a lot better (I’d recommend this to people who haven’t heard the album yet incidentally, do it before hand and you’ll get a better first impression.)

Overall; I think that if it had of had a more open minded and accepting fan base, if it had followed up Promised Land, which it spiritually does rather than chronologically does (which would also have made the band’s career trajectory feel more natural), if the situation with Chris had not been unclear or misrepresented in the press and if it had have been two tracks shorter with the tracks placed in a slightly different order, then Tribe would actually be a very good album that a lot of people liked.

This isn’t the case however, and as it stands Tribe is a good but mildly flawed album with a disproportionately bad reputation but a lot of potential. OK, if you only like Prog Metal that still sounds like Power Metal or Thrash Metal you probably mightn’t like it, and if you dislike the Alternative sound it may well just be irredeemable, but equally if you are the kind of fan who isn’t as strict with their tastes as the stereotypical quick-to-cry-foul Metalhead, then there is a hell of a lot to enjoy about Tribe and it can offer a few great new Queensrÿche songs for your collection.