Blog Post
Sweet Oblivion Ft Geoff Tate - 'Relentless'
Iain McArthur • 18 April 2021
Album Review
As befits one of the finest voices in rock history, Geoff Tate gets to work with some exceptional musicians. Initially that was the classic line-up of Queensryche but he’s also currently touring with a crack road-band of his own and they’ll be playing the ‘Empire’ and ‘Rage for Order’ albums in full on a UK tour in August this year, including 3 Scottish dates. He’s also playing at Shock City Productions’ Rockdown event in August so we’ll get plenty chance to see our home-grown guitar hero and ‘Son of a Bunnet’ Keiran ‘Rock Wean’ Robertson in action.
This is the second album under the Frontiers band / project named Sweet Oblivion which pairs Tate with some of the finest contemporary Italian talent. Last time out it was Simone Mularoni of DGM on writing, producing and playing duties but this time the baton has passed to compatriot Aldo Lonabile who excelled on the recent Secret Sphere album.
It’s always great to hear Tate. It felt like we had lost him for a few years but he’s clearly back on form, as evidenced by a great WinterStorm show the other year. He’s comparatively restrained compared to the ceiling-scraping Queensryche days – there’s no jaw-dropping “Take Hold of the Flame” vocal moments – but the tone, timbre and quality are all still there.
There are some good songs here like “Strong Pressure”, “Let it Be”, the ballad “I’ll Be the One” and even a song in Italian (“Aria”). An album worth checking out and don’t miss the live shows.