Oregon Music News' Ruben Mosqueda has issued a new Q&A; with QUEENSRŸCHE frontman Geoff Tate. An excerpt follows:

Q: Dedicated to Chaos raised some eyebrows with critics and hardcore fans. You guys threw a curve ball with this album. Dedicated to Chaos hasn’t been as well received by the some of the fan base as previous efforts that were a departure, like Hear in the Now Frontier, Promised Land and Tribe. What do you think of the feedback that the new album has received by fans and critics?

A: "I think all of our albums have been crucified! (laughs) We’ve always done things different, with the exception of our first album, because you didn’t have anything to compare it to. I remember when Operation: Mindcrime was released it was critically taken apart. These days with the internet being a sounding board of every disgruntled fan worldwide, everyone’s opinion is clocked. In the past only we were privy to fan letters that came to our management’s office. It’s a different kind of thing these days. You can’t judge things on the past; all the rules have changed anyway."

Q: In hearing the album, there’s a lot of diversity in there. I remember reading a review early on that mentioned that the songs sounded like they could have been the follow-up to your solo album. Is that fair to say?

A: "I write all the songs! (laughs) Everything that I do will have a similarity about it. It will sound like something that people have heard before because I’ve written just about every song we’ve ever done, except the stuff that (former guitarist) Chris (Degarmo) wrote on his own when he was in the band years ago. There’s going to be some level of continuity simply because I’m involved in it. I don’t know how to answer any other way!" (laughs)

Read more here.

Tate is featured in a new interview with Seattle's KISW 99.9 FM. which was aired during the station's program The Men's Room. Check it out via the audio player below:

geoff tate

It was announced back in October that IN THIS MOMENT vocalist Maria Brink would take on the role of Sister Mary during Queensrÿche's during their performance of the Operation: Mindcrime classic 'Suite Sister Mary' at ShipRocked 2011. Fan-filmed footage of the November 14th performance on the high seas is available below:

Brink filled in for Pamela Moore, the original Sister Mary who has performed with the band in the past.

ShipRocked 2011, the music and life-style cruise, ran from November 14th - 19th and headed for the tip of Mexico and its popular stretch of gorgeous Caribbean water known for scuba diving, shopping and bars aplenty.

Queensrÿche performed Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety on the cruise.