UMUR "Q2K" is the 7th full-length studio album by US heavy metal/hard rock act Queensrÿche. The album was released through Atlantic Records in September 1999. It´s the successor to "Hear In The Now Frontier" from 1997 and there´s been one lineup change since the predecessor as original guitarist (and one of the main composers of the band) Chris DeGarmo has left and has been replaced by Kelly Gray. The latter played with lead vocalist Geoff Tate in his pre-Queensrÿche 80s band Myth. It was the first lineup change in the recording history of Queensrÿche.

The hard rock infused "Hear In The Now Frontier (1997)" was quite the big departure from the preceding more heavy metal oriented releases by Queensrÿche, and "Q2K" continues the hard rock oriented trend of its direct predecessor. It´s slightly sharper sounding than "Hear In The Now Frontier (1997)", but it´s still quite a polished and mainstream oriented hard rock/heavy metal affair. The tracks are vers/chorus structured and there are generally very few surprises during the album´s playing time.

Queensrÿche are as always well playing and professional, and although he is a bit more restrained in his use of high notes here than on the early releases by the band, Tate is still a force to be reckoned with. "Q2K" features a professional, detailed, and well sounding production too, so it´s the songwriting which brings the album down to a less interesting quality level. The material simply lack memorable vocal hooks, catchy hard rocking riffs and rhythms, and variation. Even after several spins I remember very few tracks from the album and that´s seldom a good sign when listening to something as melodic as this album generally is. A 2.5 - 3 star (55%) rating is warranted.

siLLy puPPy After the lackluster sales of the previous album “Hear In The Now Frontier” where QUEENSRYCHE decided to abandon their progressive metal sensibilities and jump into the world of alternative rock when Seattle grunge was ruling the world, they were forced to finance their touring obligations due to EMI America Records going bankrupt and as a result Chris DeGarmo saw the writing on the wall and jumped ship before the great fall which takes place on Q2K. He was replaced with Kelly Gray who only stuck around for this one album. Q2K is really the first time the band stuck to the same formula for two albums in a row and what a terrible decision it turned out to be.

This is one of those albums that I played once and was so disappointed after one listen that I got rid of my CD and totally wrote off this band. Recently I have been relistening to the albums that came after “Promised Land” to see if I was too hasty in my initial reactions. Well, I was surprised that I liked the previous album much better than I remembered but I cannot say the same for this one. Unlike that one this one has really no tracks that I can get into. If you want to experience an album where the musicianship is top notch and the songs are at the zenith mediocre then check out this millennial turkey. The album cover implies some kind of cool futuristic, even electronic metal fusion or something experimental. I was hoping for an album of electronic metal kinda like the song “Disconnected” from “Promised Land,” but this is really no more than a bunch of very well played generic alternative rock tracks. I get a one star enjoyment value out of this one but because this is so well played I will bump it up to 2.

Kingcrimsonprog Q2K was the seventh full-length studio album by the Seattle based Progressive Metal band Queensrÿche. Released in 1999, Q2K was the band’s first album without lead guitarist Chris DeGarmo and it has long been criticized by fans and critics as being a low point in the bands career.

Queensrÿche love evolution, and so as with every album before it, Q2K sees a shift in musical direction. The band no longer write Heavy Metal, Prog-Metal, MTV Commercial Rock, dense Eastern-sounding Prog or jangly, primarily acoustic Alt-Rock material like on any of their previous albums.

The sound of Q2K is still influenced by the Alternative spirit, but in a different way than on this album’s 1997 predecessor Hear In The Now Frontier. There is a touch more distorted low guitar and a greater focus on percussion and texture.

In terms of highlights, most Queensrÿche fans can agree on the opener ‘Falling Down’ as well as ‘Liquid Sky’ and the single ‘Breakdown,’ which all fall in the spectrum of basic polished Rock, but are three good songs nonetheless.

The two semi-ballads ‘Right Side Of My Mind’ and ‘When The Rain Comes’ also both pick up quite a few compliments too, so that’s five out of the album’s eleven tracks that a lot of people seem to enjoy. If the entire album was as good as the highlights, and there was a little diversity in place too, then this would be a pretty great album.

Some of the songs aren’t as good as those highlights though. The rest are OK, but don’t really work well when played together. The problem with the album overall is that it all sounds the same more or less, so once you’ve heard a few tracks nothing can really surprise you all that much.

There are no instrumentals, no real fast songs, no really slow songs, no fully acoustic tracks, no spacey synth-driven tracks, no dynamic ten-minute tracks and not even any quick one-and-a-half minute interludes that deliver a message and then disappear. Rather, almost every song is mid-tempo, mid-heaviness, mid-length and so ultimately just end up provoking only mid-level excitement.

In addition; there aren’t any samples, there aren’t all that many guitar solos and there aren’t many additional instruments such as saxophones to mix things up now and again, so even within each song itself, there isn’t a lot of variety.

Still, even with those flaws, its not as if anything is actually bad. If you take any one song out of context, it won’t actually be bad (and may even be pretty good as in the case of the five aforementioned highlights), and of course Geoff’s vocals are still great the whole way through. Its just unfortunate that for some reason when they’re all sat together in one big row the album can just feel a little too grey, mushy and bland.

I feel that people are wrong just to reject the album out of hand because Chris DeGarmo isn’t playing guitar and people are similarly wrong to reject the album out of hand just because it isn’t very Metal sounding or Progressive in nature. That being said, the album does suffer from the aforementioned lack of variety and energy and so it takes a fair bit of patience to really enjoy. It isn’t as if Q2K is some massively underrated gem, its just that its not as bad as people make it out to be.

Buy it if you have an open mind and want a few more Queensrÿche songs to listen to, but don’t bother if you only wanted something that sounds like the old days or pushes a lot of boundaries.

AtomicCrimsonRush Worst Queensryche album ever!

Nothing on this can be compared to the greatness of "Operation:Mindcrime" 1 or 2 versions or "Empire" or "Tribe" for that matter. It is difficult to know what went wrong but something definitely did as this is some of the most uninspired tripe the band have churned out. The misdirection of the music is astounding coming from the creators of brilliance such as "Mindcrime" but this is a detestable album that should be flushed down the nearest sewer, and even then the stench would hang around for a few days.

Songs?

When the Rain Comes... is dreary and uninspired nonsense. Pretty boys on video type music. Duran Duran did better.

How Could I? well, exactly... how could they write such inane lyrics. I can't stand this type of rubbish from a so-called metal act.

Beside You is another lovey dovey ballad and at this point I am ready to throw the CD out the window.

Breakdown describes how I felt when I heard this.

Wot Kinda Man is the absolute pits and it is even spelt wrogn to be cleaver but instead comes across as idiotic. this is as low as the band can get.

If you don't believe me then ask yourself why has this album been utterly ignored by the band ever since, nothing on it played live? Why do fans pretend this never existed? and why was there no serious promotion for this album?

It sounds like a different band. Take it as you will but this horrible mess will likely become a very expensive, shiny gold coffee coaster.