QUEENS OF THE STONE AGE – In Times New Roman…
July 10, 2023, a year ago
(Matador)
For their first decade together, Queens Of The Stone Age issued albums – to borrow one of their album’s titles – like clockwork. But after 2007’s Era Vulgaris, waits of either four or six years between studio offerings occurred (due largely in part to either long-and-winding tours, or leader Josh Homme’s involvement with such other projects as Them Crooked Vultures and Eagles Of Death Metal, or producing Iggy Pop’s Post Pop Depression LP). And it was the latter duration between their just-released eighth studio LP, In Times New Roman…, and its predecessor (2017’s Villains).
The same team that have been Queens for several years now are back for more – singer/guitarist Homme, guitarist/multi-instrumentalist Troy Van Leeuwen, bassist Michael Schuman, keyboardist/multi-instrumentalist Dean Fertita, and drummer Jon Theodore.
And despite the lengthy layoff (which in QOTSA’s defense, Covid threw a wrench in the work of the entire music biz), Homme and co. pick up exactly where they left off stylistically over their last few releases – especially on such alt-metal-esque standouts as “Paper Machete,” “Time & Place,” and “Emotion Sickness.”
