Queensryche ~ The Warning (album review) ... The warning is not to judge an album on a few tracks!

Style: heavy metal, prog rock
Label: EMI
Year: 1984
Home: Washington

Members: Geoff Tate ~ vocals
Chris DeGarmo, Michael Wilton ~ guitar/b. vocals
Eddie Jackson ~ bass/b. vocals
Scott Rockenfield ~ drums


Do not judge an album on the first few tracks! Or, do not judge this particular album on the first few tracks & toss it away away as uninteresting. I did & began to scribble notes for this review with the first song only to find myself walking away from the album with opposite feelings. Queensryche have two sides: a straight rock side with a NWOBHM feel & a very ambitious experimental side. Some fans prefer the rock, which was apparent in their four song indie debut. Others prefer the experimentalism which came forward in their third album Rage For Order & would be fully born with "Silent Lucidity". This album, while not truly their debut it's their first major label release & full length & many call this their debut & the four song EP a demo, but its a matter of interpretation, tries to find a middle ground & does so successfully. Many critics criticize the unfocused nature of what would follow this, Rage For Order, due to the experimental nature of many of the songs that hurt the cohesiveness of that album. They rate this earlier album far better. Listening to the first few songs I had the opposite view. This album opens with some straight ahead rock, akin to their debut/demo EP, that does little for me. No bite or individuality. Too safe after the shocks of Rage For Order. Geoff Tate is the miracle worker with his voice, but the material just isn't that interesting. I could not understand how this gets rated higher. Rage For Order has the rockers but it also has some amazing experimentalism ... so obviously, it just comes down to what the critic wants to hear. I don't want the old rabbit out of the hat trick but the new dragon out of the hat nobody has seen before & can't even imagine. I will agree that Rage For Order has a lack of focus, but entering into this album ... well, it might be called a warning but I didn't see anything to be warned about. How wrong I was. Or, how sweet it is? It's interesting to note that "Silent Lucidity" was not a fluke but was being developed through much trial & error from day one. So many bands have a unique hit song that comes out of nowhere & vanishes to nowhere, a fluke moment of creativity. Queensryche have shown a sustainment of their creativity that makes "Silent Lucidity" only a stop on the timeline not a bump in the road to live up to. Queensryche understood the game. They new they needed a certain sound to get listeners. That's what opens the albums. But, they also had a bigger vision. So, as the album progresses ... or once they've hopefully got your attention ... they start to really play the game & bring out the big hitters. & what hitters they are. It kicks into high gear with some wonderfully crafted songs including the ballad "Child Of Fire". Textures! Great lyrics! Now I know what I'm being warned against. "NM 156" foreshadows what would come next with distorted vocals singing a song about computers, much like "Gonna Get Close to You" on Rage For Order but not as ambitiously experimental. "Take Hold Of The Flame" is undoubtedly the highlight here, though its not really anything but metal with a NWOBHM feel, but it does it so well. "Before The Storm" & "Deliverance" come in second & third place. "Before The Storm" should be given a second chance by all listeners. The nine minute "Road To Madness" is Tate's vocal show-off moment. It holds together incredibly well. A nine minute song like this, at this point in time on the heavy metal timeline, plus on a debut, is a risk. It pays off & it shows the fans that this is not a band that is going to be predictable. When given a bigger budget, a moment to shine, they have a lot up their sleeve. They know their roots & they know where they'd like to go. They're going to give you rock that you know & then take you someplace you don't. When I first began listening to this album, as I said, I couldn't fathom why it rated higher than Rage For Order. I know understand. While that one has the flashy experimentalism it's almost too much. The Warning still plays it safe, the band is getting their footing. Then, they'd start galloping. Or, they'd take the approach of let's do it because we can, why not? Rage For Order shows the conflict between the two sides. Listening to the albums out of historical order was interesting. I heard creativity & got worried when it wasn't immediately apparent. Listening the other way one hears the creativity from day one then on day two get carried away. Thus, Rage For Order now indeed sounds like the transitional album that other music critics label it as. Though, it shows the band willing to take risks & see what pays off. Their future success would show the result & maybe if it wasn't for the gallop they might not have reached "Silent Lucidity" or Empire. Though, certainly, I now I prefer the experimental side of Queensryche over the straight ahead heavy metal side. If that was the only side they'd have I would be digging more & more into their catalog with interest. My appreciation of Queensryche keeps going up a notch.

Queensryche - Rage For Order (album review) ... The killing words have been spoken!

Style: hard rock, prog-rock
Label: Capitol
Year: 1986
Home: Washington

Members: Geoff Tate ~ vocals/keyboards
Chris DeGarmo, Michael Wilton ~ guitar/b. vocals
Eddie Jackson ~ bass/b. vocals
Scott Rockenfield ~ drums

Additional: Neil Kernon ~ keyboards
Bradley Doyle ~ emulator programming

Kerrang! rated this number 88 on the 100 greatest heavy metal albums of all time back in 1989, while allmusic.com calls it a cliched two star rehash of the glam that was on the scene. I think one gives it too much glory, while the other didn't listen to it. This may not be one of the greatest metal albums ever, but I'll proudly declare it a hidden gem in the Queensryche catalog. As for their worst? Even in comparison to their later successes, it's far from their worst. Albeit, I actually don't know what their worst album might be. But, certainly, with the success of "Silent Lucidity" everything they did before & after suddenly was given a new interpretation & without that hit allmusic might be more favorable to this release. As for being cliched ... only if you consider Savatage & Alice Cooper the standard for the sound of hair/glam metal! If Queensryche's early release Rage For Order has a weakness it's that its a transitional album. Even without hindsight its obvious that they're going in new directions. The directions aren't fully developed & that's also obvious, but they're trying hard & willing to make mistakes to see what works & what doesn't. The problem is that the experiments are not the head banging fist pumping thrash songs Queensryche entered the door with on their demo & second album, & fans expecting that are going to be disappointed as with this release as they're seemingly being left behind. But, yet some fist pumping songs are here ... slammed uncomfortably next to the experiments, giving the album a disjointed feeling. The album seems to go after two groups of fans, yet they're not with similar tastes. All the old fans have to hang onto is some Iron Maiden-esque songs that aren't particularly anything glamorous & only survive because they are but filler (for example "Surgical Strike" & "Chemical Youth (We Are Rebellion)") next to the better experimental songs. What is becoming the focus of Queensryche's music is metal for those that like diversity & experimentation & might call themselves Dream Theater fans, for example, or Savatage fans. They want something more than the bump & grind rock. Though, its interesting to note that the band's later music is counted as prog-rock, while this is often labeled as full of theatrics. There's a thin dividing line there. & the only reason I would agree with theatrics, I think of theatrics in terms of Alice Cooper, is because the experiments rely heavily on singer Geoff Tate to bring them to that level not necessarily the music. This is Tate's album for sure, while the later albums would do better with the music than some bland guitar rock. There's actually two types of experiments, both firmly prog-rock & theatrical First there is the theatrics that really are akin to Alice Cooper because Tate pushes his voice in every unexpected way. The highlight "Gonna Get Close To You" is a song from inside an insane asylum, a similar topic to Cooper's From The Inside even, opening with the Alice Cooper-esque line "I like to look at the shadows on the wall". It was originally done by Canadian artist Dalbello in 1984 & I'd love to hear her version. It's the experiment du jour & comes out of nowhere with Tate singing in true shock rock manner. It's a fascinating song that needs to be heard, but headbangers are going to be disappointed I believe. "The Killing Words" stays in a similar mode for the introduction & verses, though the cliché hair metal chorus vocals hurt it. "Neu Regel" follows with synthesized vocals & keyboards & is an undeveloped experiment that shows the weak songwriting that is taking second tier to the experiments. While "Screaming In Digital" could be found on Billy Idol's Cyberpunk & would be so much better without an annoying dominating keyboard line crashing with the bland guitar riffing. Tate is a great singer & is the key to the album & its fun to hear him experiment, but the bland riffing underneath is what hurts the songs, let alone the unwelcomed keyboards. As for the second experiment that appears - it's "Silent Lucidity" in the making. & I don't say that modestly, as there are a few songs that sound like a junior version of "Silent Lucidity", but just not with the heart-ripping emotional quality, something missing from the album on the whole. If someone said "I Will Remember" or "I Dream In Infrared" were combined two albums later & rewritten as "Silent Lucidity" I wouldn't be surprised. If all you know is "Silent Lucidity" then this album will disappoint your image that the song came out of nowhere & just was a freak masterpiece. Nothing is made in a vacuum & Rage For Order is the missing puzzle piece. Again, though, what keeps these two songs from being "Silent Lucidity" is that the experimental parts are too unsettled & too vocally focused, while the songwriting too weak. Even for its faults I only found a couple songs on this album that I wanted to skip over & those were the Iron Maiden-esque typical rock songs. It might not be the masterpiece of the later Operation: Mindcrime or Empire but its far from a throwaway that some reviewers imply. Going back to their four song debut, three of those songs were straight ahead thrash, only to end with the mellow ballad "The Lady Wore Black". Most listeners probably thought that was the token ballad that every hair metal band would come to include. What a surprise, perhaps also to the band itself, that the token would become the norm. If it wasn't obvious in their first full length & first major label release The Warning that this was not going to be just another thrash band it is apparent here. Of course, every band seems to have an acoustic hit, but "Silent Lucidity" isn't a lone wolf. Queensryche is more than a one hit wonder but crafting strong albums that have kept them from falling the way many of their peers had. A lot of development went into creating their most famous song & here it is for Sherlock to pour throw.

Queensryche ~ Queensryche (aka debut) (EP) (album review) ... Her royal highness gives her first speech!

Style: heavy metal
Label: 206 Records
Year: 1982
Home: Seattle

Members: Geoff Tate ~ vocals
Chris DeGarmo, Michael Wilton - guitars
Eddie Jackson ~ bass
Scott Rockenfield ~ drums

Seattle's pre-grunge Queensyrche has become known, if not stereotyped, for their prog-metal 90's efforts based around their break-through 1990 hit "Silent Lucidity" & the earlier success Operation: Mindcrime ... but they didn't start their career sounding like this, in an 80's music scene where grunge & prog-metal were not descriptive terms. In 1983 the two year old band released a four song self-titled debut album, reissued a year later under EMI with an unnecessary bonus track as the band worked on a more formal full-length debut, that was as far from prog-metal or anything that would become prog-metal as one could probably get at the time. Actually, it's seeped in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal to surprising levels. There's Iron Maiden/Judas Priest tribute bands that don't sound this British & hardcore. If one wants to compare Queensryche to America, perhaps early, also pre-prog, Savatage might come to mind with similarities between frontmen's vocal styles, lyrics & even the steady rhythm sections though it's a far from perfect comparison. "Queen Of The Reich" is particularly Savatage in feeling but without the blistering Criss Oliva dominating riffing that characterizes early Savatage. "Nightrider" has a definite Iron Maiden flavor to it while "Blinded" could very well be out of the Dio catalog with its epic lyrics. The closing track "The Lady Wore Black" is the only song that hints of what would follow a decade later with its re-occurring slow sections that allows Geoff Tate to croon in the open spaces. Listening to this early album, even considering the arrangement of "The Lady Wore Black", it's hard to imagine Queensryche becoming the success they did with the musical style they did. Much in the same way it would have been impossible to eventually see Savatage touring Xmas metal songs as the family friendly Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Queensryche's debut was largely ignored by American audiences at the time of its release, though it found audiences in Europe, & even continues to be a highlight for collectors, though it really should be listened to more as there's nothing naive or demo-ish about it & Tate is using his voice as fully as ever. Considering it was this EP that got Queenryche a major label deal there's obviously something special & good about it ... let alone its just intersting to hear where the band came from. Though, thankfully, like Savatage, they chose to go into deeper musical directions as, also like Savatage, a few albums in they soon discovered the limitations of this particular metal template to dire critical results forcing a change. For a bit of interesting history when this debut EP was recorded Queensryche technically didn't exist. The band was known as The Mob with Tate, who was also in the band Myth, primarily involved for recording & a few live gigs. It was only after the release of the album & a great review in Kerrang! magazine that Tate joined full-time & Queensyrche was truly born.

Sin-Atra (album review) ... A good try, but full of sin!

Style: heavy metal
Label: Armoury Records
Year: 2011
Home: n/a

Members: Bob Kulick ~ guitars/b. vocals
Brett Chassen ~ drums/b. vocals
Billy Sheehan ~ bass
Doug Katsaros ~ keyboards

Additional: Andrea Becker ~ b. vocals

Guests: Ritchie Kotzen ~ guitar
Devin Townsend, Glenn Hughes, Geoff Tate, Dee Snider, Tim “Ripper” Owens, Robin Zander, Eric Martin, Joey Belladonna, Franky Perez, dUg Pinnick, Elias Soriano, Jani Lane ~ vocals

Guitarist Bob Kulick, brother of Kiss's Bruce Kulick, has created a second career producing an ongoing series of cover/tribute albums, such as for Metallica & Aerosmith, featuring many of his musical friends in unusual one-time only line-ups. The talent has never been less than top rate though the results have been mixed. In previous efforts Kulick as set up a different band for each song making every song star-studded & unique, but in his newest tribute executive producer duties have been handed over to others, including Ronnie James Dio widow Wendy Dio, allowing him to front a band that is featured on every track with only the vocalist changing on each song. With a single band the sound is much more even from song to song than on past albums, which often ended up feeling like compilations with some line-ups stronger than others, but at the same time having a single band removes some of the unexpected diversity that previous tribute albums offered. Here each song is the same distorted guitar chugging. Even the inclusion of keyboard created horns, however odd at times, doesn't really make much of an impact though it's an interesting inclusion & when songs do stand out for their arrangements its often due to this inclusion. Sadly, the great Billy Sheehan is on bass but there's not much space given over to him to play in the upfront quasi-lead style he's known for, let alone giving the arrangements any breathing room. The songs themselves are untouchable classics, so essentially, the success of Sin-Atra lies wholly with the arrangements & singers. The vocalists, culled from the metal world, are under particular scrutiny as they are all performing in a musical style & with a band that doesn't match their known styles/bands. At times the result almost feels like an audition recording where everyone is straining to let their musical personality shine in the best way. Sadly, it's quickly noticeable who is straining, who has the pipes & who doesn't & who should stay within their usual musical context because their weaknesses become incredibly obvious. Not every voice is suited to every musical context, though one might want to think otherwise to be fair. Highlights include Devin Townsend of Strapping Young Lad (i.e. "New York, New York"), Eric Martin of Mr. Big (i.e. "Lady Is A Tramp"), Tim "Ripper" Owens of Judas Priest/Iced Earth ("Witchcraft") & Glenn Hughes of Deep Purple (i.e. "I’ve Got You Under My Skin"). The lesser known Franky Perez of Scars On Broadway puts in a real highlight with "High Hopes", probably because the album itself is a bit of a joke & Perez is one of the few to not take his rendition too seriously. More of the songs should have been treated with the same attitude & the highlights would have outweighed the lows. The worst songs suffer from over-the-top singing &/or poor arrangements, witnessed in "It Was A Very Good Year" with Dee Snider of Twisted Sister that sounds uncannily like an industrial version of Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir". What might have made this better would be more melodic arrangements offering something behind the singers outside of just a rush of chords & muddy riffs. The album also features "Fly Me To The Moon" with Robin Zander of Cheap Trick, "Love & Marriage" with Elias Soriano of Nonpoint, "Strangers In The Night" with Joey Belladonna of Anthrax, "Summerwind" with Geoff Tate of Queensrÿche, "I’ve Got The World On A String" with dUg Pinnick of King’s X & "That’s Life" with Jani Lane of Warrant & the one outside guitar solo with Ritchie Kotzen of Poison/Mr. Big. Thankfully, no sign of "My Way". If you're a Sinatra fan will you like this? Probably not. Metal fan? You'll love the playing which is good if not always interesting & if your favorite singer is here - probably, though you may also find yourself laughing ... but, kudos to Bob & company for at least trying.