They're all so full of crap it's insane. Nothing coming out of any of them is to be believed. Looks at the writing credits of the albums, since DeGarmo went grunge and left Tate's done the majority of the writing, for good or bad. Tate's definately gone more mellow but it also appears the other guys never stepped up and they're blaming flagging sales on Tate alone.
I saw them open for Maiden on the Final frontier tour. Not a huge fan, and didn't hear anything that turned my head.
Coheed and Cambria on this year's tour did pretty well, and was a bit more memorable for a band I don't follow in comparison.
Plus, Maiden rocked as usual.