KNAC.com recently caught up with QUEENSRŸCHE frontman Geoff tate. An excerpt from the discussion is availavke below:

KNAC.com: I think the general consensus of a few fans, is that you guys were considered gods and put out four amazing albums in which they exalt, which has been their benchmark for everything you do, and if it’s not similar, they’re disappointed. One fan was actually quoted as saying that he believed the main reason for any change was that you hate metal and want nothing to do with the term at all.

Tate: (laughing) "Well, you know, metal is not what I use to define myself musically. I prefer to not have any boundaries or any boxes or labels. That’s somebody else’s label that they put on it. It’s like if you drink a glass of wine, you’re going to find different nuances, different flavors in it, different aromas. Everybody’s going to smell and taste something different, and they all put their own label on it. We all label stuff. It’s kind of human nature, and of course our society that we live in, America, we’re very quick to jump to labels and put things a neat little box. We’re very afraid of chaos. We see the word as being a negative and really it’s not. So, you know it’s kind of a cultural thing. I don’t know how to say this without sounding pompous, but I think we define what metal is. We had nearly a thirty-year career of making what some people consider metal music and we define what that is. We define it, we make it, we create it. So, whatever we do, it is Queensryche."

Go to this location for the complete interview.