With an emphasis on melodic progressive metal that is influenced by the eighties, Sweet Oblivion marks a return to the more melodic metal style for Tate. Guitarist and bassist Simone Mularoni, keyboardist Emanuele Casali and drummer Paolo Caridi all create a massive sound for Tate’s powerful vocal style. The ten tracks homage to Queensrÿche’s late-1980s and early-1990s sound and guitar style. Queensrÿche fans will enjoy the guitar work of Mularoni. Casali and Mularoni have fine musical moments of trading-off phrases and playing harmonized lines together. The production also pulls in stylistic devices from the past like the use of panning, and Tate’s background whispers and commentary. “True Colors” highlights searing guitar riffs, big full thumping bass and driving drums. Tate’s singing is spot-on. “My Last Story” has a memorable chorus that the again shows Tate still has the chops to pull-off driving metal/hard rock sounds with confidence and ease. Tate’s singing is more focused on creating subtle texture changes and variations in his vocal timbre, more than ever before and he delivers all the melodies well! Tate always had that cut above metal voice, that was an equal balance of vocal quality and prowess, on Sweet Oblivion all of these qualities create a memorable album. It’s nice to see Tate fore fronting his own recordings again, he certainly has the chops. That’s the short of it!