Repent, for the kingdom of Homme is at hand

No matter what the photographer tried, the childish little guitar kept poking his head into the picture.

I repent of the comments I made concerning the last Queens of the Stone Age album, in the review here.

Some time ago I bought the DVD/Live CD entitled Over The Years and Through The Woods. I've watched it maybe five times, and listened to the CD many more.

I understand now. Bereaved of Oliveri, the former bass player, I abandoned loyalty to the group. I fell into the conservative trap of wanting everything to stay the same, enduring no base imitation of the glory years. I didn't deny the new band was good, but I couldn't accept that it could be as good as the last.

I now see the fault lies with me, and not the band. The 90s have gone, hurtling into the void like a missed subway train. Nothing, absolutely nothing, can you do to retrieve it. The stupid thing is: what a stupid thing to mourn. The new band is better, in many ways. Never what it was, denying who it is, and metamorphasising into something different.

The stupid thing is, QOTSA has always been a fluid lineup of musicians: why then would I be so upset by the departure of one among a flock of transient members?

I guess the answer to that is, because the sound changed, not even the sound, but the dynamic, the resonance. It struck a chord, but it struck empty air, because I had moved beyond it, taking care not to break the urn containing the ashes of the last earthly incarnation of the band.

Am I sounding verbose? Too flowery? Well, fuck you. To me, this shit is personal. I love this music intensely, with the wrong-headed stubborness of a Catholic, Jehovah or Mormon. Those fucks are serious about conversion, and so am I, now.

 I now admit that I was wrong. The new album, Lullabies, is excellent. The new band is incredible. I saw them play with my own eyes and still I did not believe.

The penance of the long-term fan is to suffer the 'development' of a band, to see them go places you don't want to follow. Well, I see the error of my ways. Instead of allowing them to go, I derided the band. Maybe they are 'worse' than before. Maybe, to some, they are 'better'. But the point is to me, they are still Queens of the Stone Age, with an exceptional songwriter and miraculous guitarist, Josh Homme at the helm. The new album is not quite to my fancy, but fuck, what a fool I was to throw a stone at it. Homme is not a band, he is an epoch.

And so, I lead you all in a prayer: that the Baron is a stupid dick, and a deaf ear should be turned to all his preachings.

 Amen.