Queensryche - Empire (1990)

This is Seattle band Queensryche's fourth album, and this is the album that brought them to the mainstream. Mainly because of one song - you probably know it. But we'll get there in a minute. First off - the packaging.

 Here we have the tri-ryche again, this time in pixelated glory, it soars over the word "Empire" designed like a tower. In terms of graphic design, it is very basic and kinda rubbishy. They could have done better. Let's hope the music makes up for it!

The album opens with the melodic progressive chords of "Best I Can". A radio-friendly song with decent rhythm and the occasional triumphant soaring of keyboards. A little anaemic, however, sanitised and sterile.

We blast into "The Thin Line" in which Geoff Tate starts with his lower, (slightly) deeper vocals. Low tenor, perchance? Some nice guitar interludes and a gentle bridge into the rockier chorus.

A distant shadow of "Revolution: Calling" - "Jet City Woman" starts with similar chords, but fades into a somewhat bland, exsanguinated number. Entirely too accessible and rather lacking in passion.

"Della Brown" is another gentle number. The vocals are quite nice, soothing, good rhythm.

Finally, something with a bit of spirit to it. "Another Rainy Night", the second single, starts with a more dramatic flourish. The vocals have a little more emotion, touched with pain and building to a powerful chorus. Bittersweet lyrics:

"...Strange how laughing looks like crying with no sound..."

 Starting with an answerphone message, we have "Empire", one of the strongest and more energetic tracks on the album. Lyrics are political, and more in the "Operation Mindcrime" league. It builds strong, has nicely echoey chorus, and Tate has a bitter knife-edge to his vocals.

"Resistance" is also pleasingly powerful, building to a strong chorus and again installs memories of OMC. Tate sounds rather more passionate when singing politics rather than love.

The glorious lullaby, "Silent Lucidity" remains the 'ryche's most well known - and probably their best - track. Ever. The use of orchaestral elements gives it majesty and power, and Tate's lower tenor is deeply soothing, slightly sexy and laden with emotion. This track, alone, deserves 10/10. The whispered "help me" sends a shiver down my spine.

"Hand on Heart" tries to be a powerful piece, but "Silent" is a hard act to follow. Tate's voice is smooth and flowing, like a creamy hot chocolate. Some passion, still a bit commercial, however.

Another somewhat sterile, but still appealing piece "One and Only".

The mournful "Anybody Listening?" seems a desperate, anguished plea for someone, anyone, to listen, to realise. The music is strong, thick, laden with guilt and social conscience. Tate's voice tempered with dedicaation and desperation. Deliciously low, thick, melancholic. A fine conclusion.

Something of a santised, polished and radio friendly album from Queensryche. It does contain the one song that made their names known - and is pretty much the only Queensryche song I've ever heard on the radio, outside of specialised "metal" shows (when I used to request a different track from them every 2-3 weeks). The album starts weak, builds to its climax, peaking at "Silent Lucidity", although the songs that follow are still more spirited than the opening. The first four almost had me giving this a lousy 5/10, but I now feel more comfortable lifting it to a 7/10.

Queensryche - Rage for Order (1986)

Queensryche are probably the finest band to come from Seattle, Washington. Sure, some would argue that it was Nirvana, or Pearl Jam, or maybe even Nevermore; but for technical prowess and musical competence, Queensryche have stolen my vote.

This is their second ful length studio album, and one of my favourites. It displays a creativity and intricity that was lacking somewhat from their debut album, along with an added dose of intriguing menace.

The cover is pretty plain - the band and the album names written in a ring, surrounding the tri-ryche symbol, overlaid across a fairly crude, lineary map of the world and coloured in what could well be blood red clouds. Inside the lyrics are printed in a bold, san serif font. I found the band photo particularly amusing:

Loving the widow's peak Geoff! The permed hair is particularly entertaining too.

The album starts with the catchy "Walk in the Shadows". Tate's voice is in fine fettle, high and melodic in pitch and power.

The rhythms slow, taking on a dreamlike quality, the guitars plucking gentle melodies as "I Dream in Infrared". Desperation bleeds from the vocals, surging into power and determination.

"The Whisper" is anything but. A solid beat, soaring vocals and a somewhat eerie edge to it. Great chorus, and harsh whispering voices. It has a technical aura to it, making me think of the voice in the computer, calling to the unsuspecting, controlling them.

"Please take my hand, don't be afraid. I am your master, you are my slave..."

Keeping with the creepiness, the eerie openings of "Gonna Get Close to You." The guitars create a dark and gloomy mood, shadows creeping in like fog, hiding all manner of secrets. The lyrics are pure stalkerism:

"I wait by your door til you're asleep at night and when you're alone I know when you turn out the light..."

Another with a menacing edge, "The Killing Words" bring with them a touch of frost, dancing across the drums and guitars. Chorus is filled with desperate anguish.

"Surgical Strike" hits with precision and power. Sharp, determined; Tate's voice is a spear. LYrics related to war.

Echoing, otherwordly, "Neue Regal" brings with it a hint of exotic. Vocals are high, bell-like, looming menace clustering in their shadows. Almost industrial sounds. Towers looming, darking the sky with their acrid smoke.

"Eternal Youth (We Are Rebellion)" strikes me as being a dystopian song, the sort that  makes you think of the general public rising up against the Government, waving banners, shaking fists. Combining shouting, breaking glass and general anarchy with Tate's vocals and a gallopin', rockin' chorus.

Following this is the hauntingly melancholic "London". It sounds like a love song - or to be precise, a loss song. The vocals are melodious, yet tortured, thrumming with loss and loneliness and abandonment.

"Screaming in Digital" is like a soul, trapped inside a computer, technologically imprisoned and crying for help. The vocals have a polished, technical edge to them. The instruments thrumming with pent up emotion.

Another haunting, lost and bittersweet piece, "I Will Remember" is heart-felt and forlorn. Tate's voice feels as fragile as a broken heart, the music playing a slow and solemn counterpoint.

 In a time when pants were tight and hair was permed, and lyrics were all about sex and love (but not necessarily both), Queensryche stomped onto the scene - with the hair and the pants, but they brought with them dark shadows and their own special blend of menace. This would have to be one of their finest albums: 9/10.

Queensryche - The Warning (1984)

This is Queensryche's very first full length album, following on from their "Queen of the Reich" EP. It in inspired by world events of the time and also by the George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.

On a random aside - Geoff Tate was fired from Queensryche in 2012 - but due to legal issues both the line-up he left behind, now with the ex-vocalist  of Crimson Glory, and he with a "new" line-up including another ex-member, are both legally allowed to use the name "Queensryche". If both manage to get an album out in that time, it could make for an interesting aural battle.

But, in 1984 the wide world of progressive rock stood before Queensryche  - this album achieved modest success but never charted in the US of A, although "Take hold of the flame" became popular in Japan. The Japanese are known for having excellent taste in melodic metal (although I have only one Japanese metal band's album in my collection).

The cover is simple but makes a statement. It depicts a card - like a tarot card, inscribed with the words "The Warning" held in a gloved, and frankly rather unhealthy looking, hand, whilst green lasers shoot from the card like eyes or headlights, behind it is Earth. The message is clear - things are going wrong with our planet.

Here in his younger days (he's 24/25), Geoff Tate has a high and clear voice that rings out strong and clear with an almost bell-like clarity. The album opens with "The Warning", a song of simple structure with rhythmic guitar and drums. It is Tate's voice that gives it the power and emotional impact it implores - powerful, with a hint of desperation. He sure can hold his notes well!
"En Force" gets into a somewhat more dramatic start with tolling bells (their voices relatively high and drum-like) and surging into the vocals. Again, Tate's voice is a fine force and it is easy to see why his is considered one of the best in the genre. The higher notes are sweet and pure, but with the occasional harsher, raw edge. There is an innocence in it as well. The lyrics have a definite dystopia/sci fi edge:

"Light tracers follow me farther into the depths of unknown. The blackness surrounding the borders of hope. We're alone"

  The ghostly drumming and spectral and ethereal vocals give the final verse an eerie and unnerving edge. It feels lost, and haunted.

Before we soar into "Deliverance" a rather faster paced and energetic piece, similar to what we consider the classic Queensryche sound.

Ghostly and slow, feeling distant and haunted, "No Sanctuary" follows. This is not precisely a ballad, but definitely a slower, and softer song - again with an edge of desperation.

Following on from this is another dystopia-inspired song, "NM 156", this one possibly more inspired by the book. The vocals start with computer voices, then Tate's desperate high notes soar over them.

"Microchip logic, have we no more thought?
"Is this wrong" I enter, answers sought"

 The future is  before us, and it is not a pleasant place. Decent and somewhat complex guitar solo, soaring vocals compete with faster, harder, rawer and desperate. Tate can certainly wail.

Now, I believe it is time for a Power Ballad. And "Take Hold of the Flame" certainly fits the bill. The vocals are as bright and clear as the fire themselves, flickering into a gloriously high howl. The chorus is delightfully anthemic:

"So take hold of the flame. Don't you see life's a game?"

 I can almost see those lighters held high! (Of course, nowadays everyone uses cellphones instead - far less likely to cause accidents or fire alarms anyway).

The somewhat heavier "Before the Storm" follows this up with its echoed chorus and more involved guitar structures, the whirling guitar solo imitating a grey sky broiling with clouds.

"Child of Fire" is another song of loss and desolation, heavy with desperation as Tate wails:

"Look around. Is this the end you've foreseen?
The pain? The misery in us all?
What was it that you knew?
Will we someday learn it too?"

 Finally we conclude with "Road to Madness" in which Tate drops half an octave, or maybe a wee bit more and forlorn strings echo his words. His words are tinged with hints of loss and desolation. Like the soundtrack to a lost man, walking forlorn along an endless highway. It turns faster and more urgent as it marches towards its conclusion.

A very fine debut album, with hints at what Queensryche will become. The songs are nicely variable, contrasting with one another to take on personalities of their own. Haunting and memorable but possibly a bit dark and serious to earn it much acclaim at the time of its release - a time when Iron Maiden ("Powerslave") and Judas Priest ("Defenders of the Faith") were having their day and glam metal had laid its roots.  It had a lot of steep competition.

I'm going to give it 7.5/10.

(Note: Yes I posted R and Q around the wrong way, I DO know which way the alphabet works, that was just the way I happened to listen to them, okay?)

Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime (1988)

This is probably the most epic and well known of Queensryche's albums - the concept album "Operation Mindcrime". Some have suggested it was inspired by George Orwell's "1984" but the plot summary is quite different. A sequel was released in 2006, but I do not own it and have never heard it.

 The cover neatly portrays the dystopia theme - with a lot f angry looking people - fists raised, above them a woman with her mouth open in a silent scream. Across the middle, a skull superimposed over a heart graph. All in stark black, white, yellow or red, which gives it the look of an old paperback book. Inside, the lyris are all rammed together one song into another, in a nice black against white font that makes them easy to read, even though you do have to squint a little.

The album opens with "I Remember Now" in which our protagonist, whose name is Nikki, in hospital. The nurse gives him a cursory glance-over, berates him for being and declares that "perhaps you need another shot". In the background, the radio mutters something about how the police have a suspect in custody regarding something political.

"Sweet dreams, you bastard."

The nurse mutters, as she leaves him to his memories.

We then rip into the powerful "Revolution Calling".  Disappointed in the state of contemporary society, and all the corruption, riots are brewing.

In the middle of this, Nikki received a phonecall from the mysterious Doctor X:

"...the Man with the cure"

Addicted to drugs, and with nothing more to lose, Nikkie is lured in to joining "Operation: Mindcrime" as an assassin, a combination of mind control and his addiction transforming him into a puppet. This is a catchy and powerful track.

Outside, the riots continue and the people "Speak". A somewhat more progressive number, with a sinister edge.

We are introduced to Mary in "Spreading the Disease" - a prostitute who is saved from the street by a rather corrupt priest named Father William. There is an edge of anger to it.

"... take her every night... on the altar like a sacrifice.."

"The Mission" starts with Nikki seeking forgiveness for his crimes, and finding solace in friendship with Mary. With slow, haunting and maudlin desperation, then becomes fused with anger and determination. However, Dr X sees Mary as a threat to Nikki's continual obenience and thus he lays down a challenge:

"Kill her, that's all you've got to do."
"Kill Mary?"
"She's a risk. And get the priest as well."

Nikki sets out to complete his task in the haunted "Suite Sister Mary" - Beginning with ominous choirs and low, despairing vocals. Nikki does not wish to kill the only friend he has. He kills the priest easily enough, but Mary is another matter entirely. This is a song of desperate choices. It climaxes into a confrontation, a duet of two voices, entangled in a bitter, desperate debate. It is probably the most epic and complex song on the album, with choirs and drama.

Unable to kill her, the two conspire to depart the organisation.

But "The Needle Lies" and there can be no escape for Nikki. When he returns to Dr X, stating his decision, he is mocked and scorned,

"...the Needle keeps calling me back..."

In this fast paced, almost pure speed metal number. Solid riffs, straightforward structure.
Confused, conflicted and in a sense of frustrated rage (as reflected by the music), Nikki storms off to find Mary.

She is dead. He cradles her body in "Electric Requiem". Wonders - did he kill her?

His mind is a turmoil, confusion. He runs through the streets calling her name. "Breaking the Silence" with his screaming.

"...look for your face in the neon light, you never answer me...."

This song has an almost anthemic feel.

Alas, his rather public performance attracts the attention of the police, and he is caught, subdued, a gun discovered on his person. Immediately, blame for the death of Mary (and the priest) falls to him and he is thrust into jail, bemoaning "I Don't Believe in Love":

"...it's never worth the pain that you feel..."

 Another desperate, pleading song. I remember screaming along with this song in the more angst-ridden parts of my youth. The rapid tempo beat adds the frantic feel - like the soul is being ripped apart with your denial.

"Waiting for 22" is a mournful guitar instrument, a song of wanting, longing, and waiting, waiting for your fate to be decided. Waiting for all the blame to be laid upon your head. The guitar not-so-gently weeps.

And then the clock ticking marks the hours. The hours spent waiting in "My Empty Room".

Finally, dragged away and convicted of murder and political insurgence, Nikki is thrown into prison, where

 "...every night my dreams return to haunt me..."

He has lost himself - and now he only sees the "Eyes of a Stranger". A melancholic, but powerful conclusion to this album.

So, who actually did kill Mary?
Well, a search on google revealed the probable answer to me. So, if you feel the urge to find out - you can do that too.

This is probably Queensryche's finest album - it's a rock opera, and one of similar grand style and plot to Savatage's many. Indeed, it may have inspired some of Savatage's (I'm not sure at which point they began doing concept albums, I guess I'll find out with my "research" here). The storyline is interesting, the songs dramatic and varying and overall it is an outstanding album.

So I shall rate it 9/10.