QUEENSRŸCHE — Queensrÿche (review)

Album · 2013 · Heavy Metal

4/5 · 2013-06-30
Time Signature

Redemption...

Genre: progressive metal

I guess you all know the story now. There are two Queensrÿches out there now: one featuring Geoff Tate and a bunch of hired hands and one featuring original members Michael Wilton, Eddied Jackson and Scott Rockenfield plus Parker Lundgren and Todd La Torre. Tate's Queensrÿche recently released "Frequency Unknown", which - to put it mildly - was a quite underwhelming affair which seemed a mere extension of Queensrÿche's mostly uninteresting output since the release of "Hear in the Now Frontier".

So, what about the La Torre-fronted version of Queensrÿche and their album, which is merely entitled "Queensrÿche"? Is that another load of post-"Hear in the Now Frontier" grunge-tinged alternative commercial rock?

No!

"Queensrÿche" sounds like Queensrÿche. You know, the first time I listened to this album, I felt happy. I felt like I'd met an old friend. Really, the Queensrÿche that I know and love is what you hear on albums like "Rage for Order", "The Warning", "Empire", and, of course, "Operation: Mindcrime", and "Queensrÿche" is a continuation of that classic Queensrÿche-style. It is almost as if the last sixteen years have been erased and "Queensrÿche" were the album released after "Promised Land". What I'm trying to say is that Queensrÿche are back 'en force' and they sound better than they have more than fifteen years.

The twin guitars of the early years are back, as are the heavy riffs and edgy guitars - just check out 'Spore', 'Redemption', 'Vindication' and 'Fallout'. Picking up where they left off on "Empire", the band successfully combine melodic hard rock with traditional heavy metal, wrapping it in a multi-layered texture of sophistication and mild progressivity. Wilton and Lundgren's twin guitar attack is back up by Jackson's rock solid bass, and Scott Rockenfield's drumming really sounds rejuvenated - it has that combination of straightforwardness and challenging quirkiness that characterized his work on "Operation: Mindcrime" and "Empire". La Torre's vocals are extremely versatile and suit the music on the album very well, and his impressive range (especially in terms of the higher notes) is indeed an important part of the sound of Queensrÿche reborn.

Here is another very sympathetic aspect of this album: it really seems like the album is a band effort. It features not only contributions by the the old timers Wilton, Rockenfield, and Jackson, but Lundgren has made contributions to 'Where Dreams Go To Die' (which is perhaps one of the most interesting tracks on the album - I definitely hope that he will be able to pen more music on future Queensrÿche albums), and La Torre has contributed to the majority of songs on the album. I really like this for two reasons: firstly, it has resulted in some of the best music released under the Queensrÿche name for many, many years, and, secondly, it gives the impression that Queensrÿche is a proper band and not just a vehicle for a couple of members' egos.

The production is both compact and big at the same time, and it reminds me of the pre-"Promised Land" classics. The production is thus lean and streamlined and hugely professional. Again, it sounds like Queensrÿche. Some might say that it sounds a bit polished, but with music of this type, with this level of sophistication, a polished production is much preferable to a dirty and fuzzy one.

Needless to say, I think this is a helluva record. This is the sort of output I have hoped for from Queensrÿche for many years. "Mindcrime II" was not bad, "American Soldier" was okay, and "Dedicated to Chaos" was not really the catastrophe that many made it out to be, but those albums only sounded vaguely like Queensrÿche. "Queensrÿche" sounds massively like Queensrÿche. The best thing is that, while it has an undeniably retrospective quality to it, "Queensrÿche" also has a modern edge and an outlook to the future. In fact, it sounds darker than any of their classics (perhaps with the exception of "Promised Land" which also has a nice darkness to it), and that works really well.

An issue that I think must be addressed, given the entire Queensrÿche situation, is how "Queensrÿche" compares to "Frequency Unknown". To me, it is simple. "Frequency Unknown" sounds like a watered down version of Queensrÿche's post-"Hear in the Now Frontier", and that is not the Queensrÿche that I like. "Queensrÿche" sounds like the pre-"Hear in the Now Frontier" putput, which is the Queensrÿche that I prefer. Also, "Frequency Unknown" was marred by a miserable production and mediocre songwriting plus sub par performances and, worst of all, it was marked by having been made in a frantic rush to beat the La Torre-fronted version of Queensrÿche in releasing an album. "Queensrÿche", on the other hand, is characterized by a massive production and quality songwriting plus more than solid performances across the board, and it seems like more time and effort has been invested in making "Queensrÿche" the quality album it deserves to be.

For my money, the La Torre-Wilton-Lundgren-Jackson-Rockenfield constellation is the real Queensrÿche. The other act is just an alternative rock band fronted by Geoff Tate. I really hope that La Torre, Wilton, Lundgren, Jackson, and Rockenfield win the right to keep the Queensrÿche name because it is the music on "Queensrÿche" that I associated with that band name.

Queensrÿche's back, baby!