Queensryche

[JacksoNeal]

When I was a teenager in the 80's my older bro was jamming to Queensryche 24/7. I was more into Maiden/Rush/Megadeth etc and by the time Empire came out I got sick of hearing Jet City Woman every 5 seconds, never got into the older stuff. Anyways, 22 years later, I gave Operation Mindcrime a try over the past few days. Holy fucking shit, look what I was missing. Every track just blows my mind. Are the others before it (The Warning etc) worth a spin? Did they ever play Jacksons? Excuse my ignorance, that band just never found its way to me until now. I was always really into good guitar driven music, maybe it was because the older bro was crazy bout Ryche that turned me away from it, I don't know. But that Opr Mndcrm is incredible.

[AlexL]

All of Queensryche's back catalog before Empire is good. Some will say Rage for Order is an acquired taste. Some people hate it. It is my personal favorite, so there you go.

Their first EP is classic. "The Lady Wore Black" is a stellar tune.

- E.

[diablomozart]

rage for order is also my favorite qr album...not as heavy as mindcrime but wayyy weirder...as for their gear?...they used kramers up until switching to esp guitars...never seen a pic or heard of them playing a jackson...d.m.

btw...the warning sounds very iron maidenish to me...lol

[Endrik]

In my opinion really early Queensryche is nothing special, it's pretty silly as far as I am concerned. Pretty generic heavy metal with just a little touch of that unique QR vibe. And Geoff Tate sounded annoying. But it's still pretty important as the birth of progressive metal came from there. Many metal heads love their early stuff.

With Rage Of Order they really came out with their signature sound. Melodic and many cool prog elements. Also the music, image and lyrics really started to have that Cyberpunk vibe going on. Geoff still sounded kinda annoying.
Operation Mindcrime is just brilliant. Very cool songs and arrangements. And the album sounds great as a whole. Geoff didn't sound annoying anymore but incredible instead.

Empire is my personal favorite as I like the songs, production and arrangements the most on that one. Geoff sounds the best on Empire. His voice really matured and instead of doing annoying vibrato he put emphasis on his deep tone. The thing I really liked is that the album sounds more Pink Floyd-ish and less straight metal. Chris and Mike did their best playing. Eddie and Scott played their coolest grooves. The sounds are also great, love the bass tone and how big the drums are because of the usage of room microphones.

Promised Land is a good prog rock album. It's also a downfall because the songs weren't as strong as on the previous two albums. Some tunes are excellent though. It's the kind of album that grows on you. The playing, arrangements, production are fucking great.
Hear In The New Frontier and Q2K weren't really good. Some ok moments but I think they were really struggling and confused to find out what they really wanted to archive.
Tribe is a good modern progressive/alternative rock album. Very underrated in my opinion. Some tunes are really awesome on it.
The last two albums which are supposed to be "return to the roots" albums are painfully boring. There's no good tunes at all. No excitement, no energy, no passion. Just utter boredom.

[Jayster]

Another vote for Rage, unquestionably my favorite QR album.
Endrik's right Goeff Tate's singing was annoying, but some of the riffs on that are incredible(1st that comes to mind is the intro to "the whisper").

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jfn4njkZmAc&feature=related

[Hellbat]

Another vote for Rage for Order as their best album. Gear wise yeah it was Kramers (the beak type headstocks) until they went to ESP. I guess its a natural progression since ESP was building stuff for Kramer anyways back then. That said one of the best ways to check out their older stuff is to get that video of their Japanese concert for The Warning.

You can find the whole show on youtube if you search for "Queensryche - Live Tokyo 1985" and if you like it try and snag one from amazon or something. That show lets you really see what a beast Scott Rockenfield is live too. The guy is a heavy hitter. Wilton plays a KILLER Kramer star on The Prophecy too.

Mindcrime is great because of how the whole album is like a cyberpunk novel made into a rock opera. I loved Empire at the time it came out but really they started to go downhill after Mindcrime for me. Growing up so close to Seattle I was listening to them when they first released the Queensryche EP, so I kind of followed them from the start. I definitely thought they were just Iron Maiden wanna be's when they released it but after a while you could tell they were a little more prog.

[DonP]

One of my favorite bands.

Older is better IMO. First EP just kicks ass. Warning is great. I'm surprised to find so many Rage fans here. I thought most would find it the disco record like KISS made.

[4koa]

I love everything from Empire back.. Operation Mindcrime is still my favorite, the EP is decent but you you have to remember this is pretty early and before they truly found
their "sound"

[Larz]

Glad you rediscovered them.

Awesome band and Geoff had a killer voice and range.

Mindcrime is one of the best albums ever, but older songs like Take Hold of the Flame, Walk in the Shadows, I Dream in Infrared, Queen of the Reich etc., are bad ass.

[Jack Napalm]

Not sure when it was recorded, I think just before Mindcrime but I have a live album of them in Tokyo. What a great live record. I am a fan of everything from around that time through Empire. Haven't listen to much of their stuff since except American Soldier.

[Spivonious]

Mindcrime is the only album of theirs I like, aside from the singles (Jet City Woman, Silent Lucidity, Queen of the Reich).

Definitely stay away from Mindcrime 2. Horrible album by a washed-up band.

[Grandturk]

I used to listen to Mindcrime over and over and over - and I had the VHS Operation: Livecrime that I watched a lot. I had The Warning EP and Empire. Mindcrime was their best work.

Listening to it recently I'm a little disappointed with the sound of Mindcrime - its very dated in the same way ...And Justice for All is. It sounds thin.

[Endrik]

Listening to it recently I'm a little disappointed with the sound of Mindcrime - its very dated in the same way ...And Justice for All is. It sounds thin.

I was never a fan of the sound of Mindcrime but they wanted to archive that really cold and harsh sound which would match the theme of the album.
Livecrime sounds a lot better though, man during that time they were better live than on the albums.

[toejam]

One of my favorite bands.

Older is better IMO. First EP just kicks ass. Warning is great. I'm surprised to find so many Rage fans here. I thought most would find it the disco record like KISS made.

I also love Rage, especially Screaming In Digital. I just went through the old cassette collection the other day and put that on... sadly, it doesn't sound so good because it's warped. Guess I've gotta get that on CD now!

[DonP]

I used to listen to Mindcrime over and over and over - and I had the VHS Operation: Livecrime that I watched a lot. I had The Warning EP and Empire. Mindcrime was their best work.

Listening to it recently I'm a little disappointed with the sound of Mindcrime - its very dated in the same way ...And Justice for All is. It sounds thin.

That's scary, I have that "collector set?" VHS as well. I still love it.

As far as the guitar tones, not my favorite, but it gets the job done. I like the tones on the EP much better.