For sure. Johnny's brother, Neal Schon, and Deen Castronovo are all gone. No disrespect to anybody who has joined since then but...you're not replacing Schon & Castronovo. You're just not.
I think this album is alright but none of the tracks really stand out to me. Pretty much every album before this has had one or more tracks that I thought were killed. Not so much with this one. And I *really* don't get the pre-release hype comparing this to "Double Eclipse". It's not even in the same stratosphere in terms of quality or the sound.
That first single is pretty decent. Nothing spectacular but gives me hope for the rest of the album. Sounds like another song and can't put my finger on which one...
Thank you. The bonus tracks are almost always a complete waste*.
* - exception is the bonus tracks on the Deluxe version of Armaggedonize from Eclipse. Those are great.