MUSIC: Queens Of The Stone Age to rock Dublin in November

QUEENS Of The Stone Age have announced their Irish return as part of the Villains World Tour that will touch down at Dublin’s 3Arena on Friday, November 24.

Hundreds of epic shows, memory lapses, unexplained injuries, one year-long detour with Iggy Pop and multiple Grammy nominations later, Queens Of The Stone Age have re-emerged from the desert newly scarred and somehow strangely prettier with lucky seventh album, ‘Villains’, due out in August on Matador Records.

Produced by Mark Ronson and co-produced by Mark Rankin and mixed by Alan Moulder, Villains is the first full album offering from Queens of The Stone Age since 2013’s ‘Like Clockwork’ gave the band its first number one album in the US and across Europe.

Founder/guitarist/vocalist/lyricist Joshua Homme, Troy Van Leeuwen (guitar, keys), Michael Shuman (bass), Dean Fertita (keys, guitar) and Jon Theodore (drums) sound as unmistakable as ever on the new record.

As Homme himself put it: “The most important aspect of making this record was redefining our sound and asking and answering the question ‘what do we sound like now?’

“If you can’t make a great first record, you should just stop—but if you can make a great record but you keep making records and your sound doesn’t evolve, you become a parody of that original sound.”

Ronson added: “Queens are and have always been my favourite rock n’roll band ever since I walked into Tower on Sunset and bought ‘Rated R’ in the summer of 2000.

“So it was incredibly surreal to be welcomed into their secret, pirate clan—or the ‘jacuzzi’ as Josh likes to call it. I also knew that my super fandom alone would not keep me in the jacuzzi.

“There were moments during the making of the album in which I was aware I was watching my musical heroes craft something that was sure to become one of my favourite moments on any Queen’s album.

“And to have some part in that felt like being in a dream – a very heavy, dark, wonderful dream.”

Formed after the dissolution of Homme’s previous band, Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age developed a style of riff-oriented, heavy rock music. Their sound has since evolved to incorporate a variety of different styles and influences, including working with ZZ Top member Billy Gibbons.

Queens Of The Stone Age’s new UK and Ireland arena tour for November will also take in the Manchester Arena and London’s The O2.

It will feature fan favourites ‘After All’, ‘Indie Love Song’ and ‘We Are The Young Men’ and of course, will feature ‘Grand Parade’ played in its entirety.

Their new album Villains is out August 25 and there will be two variations of artwork for fans to chose between.