I Am Listening To Every Queensryche Album In Chronological Order

[la szum]

Finished up the catalog tonight with Digital Noise Alliance. It's pretty clear to me that
the band just has a better flow and is more cohesive with Todd manning the vocals. I
bet he is just more of a team player and a better collaborator than whatever Geoff turned
into.


It's a really strong album. One I could I listen to again and again. I feel with these last
2 Albums they did with Todd that it is the strongest back to back offerings since Empire
and what came before it. For me.

My only beef is doing a cover of Rebel Yell and putting that as the Album's closer. Why?

 

[la szum]

If this doesn't sound like prime QR I don't what does.



The tones are just

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

RFO is probably my fave? I like really everything up through Empire.

Rage for Order is awesome.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

I’ve often said the same thing about The Warning getting RFO’s production. A part of me would love to hear those albums re-mixed to bring the quality level up to a modern standard without f*cking up anything that was done on it originally, a 5.1 mix of RFO would probably have me in my living room for a week straight without doing anything but pissing in a bucket and eating potato chips.

That is the Queensryche version of KISS' "What if Hotter Than Hell sounded like Dressed to Kill?" topic. It'd completely destroy any character it originally had. Granted, The Warning and Hotter Than Hell might not have "amazing" production, but it has a fitting production for the albums in question.

 

[DrewJD82]

That is the Queensryche version of KISS' "What if Hotter Than Hell sounded like Dressed to Kill?" topic. It'd completely destroy any character it originally had. Granted, The Warning and Hotter Than Hell might not have "amazing" production, but it has a fitting production for the albums in question.

Depends on who does it and their intentions. The recent stuff Floyd has been putting out in remasters/remixes in 5.1 are absolutely stellar and did indeed improve on the original records.

 

[la szum]

Figured I earned the right to make a list. Feel to argue or disagree. Could easily
make one with myself about the top 3. They've all been a No. 1 on someone's list.


Starting with the worst. Yeah, those are all varieties of bad.... but worst has to be


Operation Mindcrime II. The album that should not have been made.

Dedicated To Chaos: Yup. Sounds like it guys. No direction.

Tribe: Let's get our grunge on. Nope. Sorry.

Q2K: You named an album after Y2K and we all know that was overstated, too.

Hear In The Now Frontier: Cute play on words in the title. That's the most memorable thing from this album.

Promised Land: Sorry. Not sorry. Just feels fractured and a bit indulgent in all the wrong ways. To me.

American Soldier: Hits me in the feelz. I am a Vet. Probably a little biased.

Queensryche: The worst of the Toddryche albums, but better than some that featured Tate. A little rushed, but still cool.

Condition Human: How is Toddryche doing this? Top notch album.

Digital Noise Alliance: All the iconic QR guitar tones are here. Really tasty songcraft and playing that I will revisit many times.
Verdict: Best of the Tooodryche albums. Just a full throttle album. Maybe QR's heaviest album overall.


Queen Of The Reich EP: The beginning. That they still have a couple of songs from this 4 song EP that they play live says a lot.

Warning: Speaks for itself.

Empire: Most commercially successful, and arguably best produced QR album. Iconic!

Rage For Order: Walk In The Shadows is one of the best album openers in Metal/Hard Rock history. This Album is Bladerunner!

Operation Mindcrime: It has it all. QR's legendary lineup firing on all cylinders. I'll never tire of it.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Figured I earned the right to make a list. Feel to argue or disagree. Could easily
make one with myself about the top 3. They've all been a No. 1 on someone's list.


Starting with the worst. Yeah, those are all varieties of bad.... but worst has to be


Operation Mindcrime II. The album that should not have been made.

Dedicated To Chaos: Yup. Sounds like it guys. No direction.

Tribe: Let's get our grunge on. Nope. Sorry.

Q2K: You named an album after Y2K and we all know that was overstated, too.

Hear In The Now Frontier: Cute play on words in the title. That's the most memorable thing from this album.

Promised Land: Sorry. Not sorry. Just feels fractured and a bit indulgent in all the wrong ways. To me.

American Soldier: Hits me in the feelz. I am a Vet. Probably a little biased.

Queensryche: The worst of the Toddryche albums, but better than some that featured Tate. A little rushed, but still cool.

Condition Human: How is Toddryche doing this? Top notch album.

Digital Noise Alliance: All the iconic QR guitar tones are here. Really tasty songcraft and playing that I will revisit many times.
Verdict: Best of the Tooodryche albums. Just a full throttle album. Maybe QR's heaviest album overall.


Queen Of The Reich EP: The beginning. That they still have a couple of songs from this 4 song EP that they play live says a lot.

Warning: Speaks for itself.

Empire: Most commercially successful, and arguably best produced QR album. Iconic!

Rage For Order: Walk In The Shadows is one of the best album openers in Metal/Hard Rock history. This Album is Bladerunner!

Operation Mindcrime: It has it all. QR's legendary lineup firing on all cylinders. I'll never tire of it.

I like your takes on these, even though I feel differently about some. I applaud your dedication to chaos in getting through the bad years. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Can we do the discography of Menudo next? A really interesting one would be Iron Maiden, if you have a full year for all the writing that would take haha!

 

[JT]

I like your takes on these, even though I feel differently about some. I applaud your dedication to chaos in getting through the bad years. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Can we do the discography of Menudo next? A really interesting one would be Iron Maiden, if you have a full year for all the writing that would take haha!

Pro-tip: stop after Brave New World

 

[la szum]

I like your takes on these, even though I feel differently about some. I applaud your dedication to chaos in getting through the bad years. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Can we do the discography of Menudo next? A really interesting one would be Iron Maiden, if you have a full year for all the writing that would take haha!

Love, love Maiden. But yeah, not going there.

 

[Spaced Out Ace]

I remember writing a song once that I called (as I named it for the influence) something like Leppard Ryche. Two bands who would have two different guitars going, with a guy who was very necessary to the writing process (DeGarmo, Clark). I'm all honesty, despite how well received the Todd stuff is, I don't think I can give it a fair shot.

 

[State of Epicicity]

I think at a certain point one might consider changing the name of your band if you just become completely different. It's fine to change as a musician, to grow, and some people regress. To me Queensryche became less progressive after Promised Land, and it would've been a good time just to call it something different, even if the lineup didn't change at first.

I mean, Death became Control Denied for similar reasons; it was just time for a change. Not that bands should be static, but I think you can feel the line where a band has changed enough to warrant a clean break from their origin. My two cents.

I think simplicity is not necessarily regression; it's much more nuanced than that, but I think it's about vibe and spirit. Like if a person walks in a room and you can just feel whatever vibe their putting off. If they change entirely, it's like a new person, and that's worth recognizing with a different name.

Not a good business decision if people don't know how to find your new stuff, but to me, a respectful artistic one. And in today's world, you can find any musician's discography with little effort.

But to me these guys were just great weirdos for a while. Awkward outcasts in rock, not quite fitting in anywhere. Which gave them the space to create unbridled epic music on their own terms. You've got the unholy son of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford on vocals, some of the coolest dual guitar work, thoughtfully written, strong bass that actually drives the music in an ideal way, what I would imagine to be a mix engineer's dream, since the guitars and bass don't fight for space, and soulfully thoughtful drumming with an odd but powerful sensibility.

So much greatness, then it just dies almost like they were ashamed of who they were. And with La Torre I think even the way the play the old stuff it's not at all the same band. They're not weird or awkward anymore. It's so straightforward. It's fine, but I would use a different name for it. It's like going to see an upsetting David Lynch movie, but you find out he's now going for the style of Lethal Weapon or something. It's like the weird kid in high school tried so hard to become normal they just lost their spark.

Maybe they're not going to get picked on anymore, but they're also not going to be that unique either. As someone posted earlier, pompadour Tate is the best Tate. To make it even more awkward, it's really a pompadour mullet. Come to think of it, of I were a world class singer, I might have to start a Queensryche cover band called Pompadour Mullet.

Again, two cents.

 

[JT]

I think at a certain point one might consider changing the name of your band if you just become completely different. It's fine to change as a musician, to grow, and some people regress. To me Queensryche became less progressive after Promised Land, and it would've been a good time just to call it something different, even if the lineup didn't change at first.

I mean, Death became Control Denied for similar reasons; it was just time for a change. Not that bands should be static, but I think you can feel the line where a band has changed enough to warrant a clean break from their origin. My two cents.

I think simplicity is not necessarily regression; it's much more nuanced than that, but I think it's about vibe and spirit. Like if a person walks in a room and you can just feel whatever vibe their putting off. If they change entirely, it's like a new person, and that's worth recognizing with a different name.

Not a good business decision if people don't know how to find your new stuff, but to me, a respectful artistic one. And in today's world, you can find any musician's discography with little effort.

But to me these guys were just great weirdos for a while. Awkward outcasts in rock, not quite fitting in anywhere. Which gave them the space to create unbridled epic music on their own terms. You've got the unholy son of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford on vocals, some of the coolest dual guitar work, thoughtfully written, strong bass that actually drives the music in an ideal way, what I would imagine to be a mix engineer's dream, since the guitars and bass don't fight for space, and soulfully thoughtful drumming with an odd but powerful sensibility.

So much greatness, then it just dies almost like they were ashamed of who they were. And with La Torre I think even the way the play the old stuff it's not at all the same band. They're not weird or awkward anymore. It's so straightforward. It's fine, but I would use a different name for it. It's like going to see an upsetting David Lynch movie, but you find out he's now going for the style of Lethal Weapon or something. It's like the weird kid in high school tried so hard to become normal they just lost their spark.

Maybe they're not going to get picked on anymore, but they're also not going to be that unique either. As someone posted earlier, pompadour Tate is the best Tate. To make it even more awkward, it's really a pompadour mullet. Come to think of it, of I were a world class singer, I might have to start a Queensryche cover band called Pompadour Mullet.

Again, two cents.

This is an excellent write-up and definitely reflects how I feel as far as looking back at our heavy metal heroes. I know Toddryche started out as Rising West (or something similar?). It makes sense that they go by the QR name obviously from a business POV.

 

[DrewJD82]

I can’t really blame them for keeping the name in use; starting out now, for any band, you’re just in a sea of other bands. During all the court drama with the band, they had no access to their online presence; website, social media accounts, etc and trying to establish that all over again would have lost them a crazy amount of fans. Tate was hanging onto that stuff until the court forced him to hand it all over.

That said, as much of a fan of I am of the Toddryche era, with only 2 remaining original members, as time has gone on and Todd has put more of himself into the band instead of just being a Tate clone, they sound more like a band that was influenced by Ryche. I’d still give them the same support if they changed the names. I really wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a Ryche reunion at some point with Scott and Geoff coming back and I’d be cool if that version of the band stayed as Ryche and Toddryche being a different band entirely.

 

[JT]

I can’t really blame them for keeping the name in use; starting out now, for any band, you’re just in a sea of other bands. During all the court drama with the band, they had no access to their online presence; website, social media accounts, etc and trying to establish that all over again would have lost them a crazy amount of fans. Tate was hanging onto that stuff until the court forced him to hand it all over.

That said, as much of a fan of I am of the Toddryche era, with only 2 remaining original members, as time has gone on and Todd has put more of himself into the band instead of just being a Tate clone, they sound more like a band that was influenced by Ryche. I’d still give them the same support if they changed the names. I really wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a Ryche reunion at some point with Scott and Geoff coming back and I’d be cool if that version of the band stayed as Ryche and Toddryche being a different band entirely.

Trying to recreate "magic" organically with different people is not easy.

 

[la szum]

I remember writing a song once that I called (as I named it for the influence) something like Leppard Ryche. Two bands who would have two different guitars going, with a guy who was very necessary to the writing process (DeGarmo, Clark). I'm all honesty, despite how well received the Todd stuff is, I don't think I can give it a fair shot.

The last 3 albums with him are all really good. Maybe more of a modern metal tinge to the band.... but still
sounds like QR at its core. To me.

 

[la szum]

I think at a certain point one might consider changing the name of your band if you just become completely different. It's fine to change as a musician, to grow, and some people regress. To me Queensryche became less progressive after Promised Land, and it would've been a good time just to call it something different, even if the lineup didn't change at first.

I mean, Death became Control Denied for similar reasons; it was just time for a change. Not that bands should be static, but I think you can feel the line where a band has changed enough to warrant a clean break from their origin. My two cents.

I think simplicity is not necessarily regression; it's much more nuanced than that, but I think it's about vibe and spirit. Like if a person walks in a room and you can just feel whatever vibe their putting off. If they change entirely, it's like a new person, and that's worth recognizing with a different name.

Not a good business decision if people don't know how to find your new stuff, but to me, a respectful artistic one. And in today's world, you can find any musician's discography with little effort.

But to me these guys were just great weirdos for a while. Awkward outcasts in rock, not quite fitting in anywhere. Which gave them the space to create unbridled epic music on their own terms. You've got the unholy son of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford on vocals, some of the coolest dual guitar work, thoughtfully written, strong bass that actually drives the music in an ideal way, what I would imagine to be a mix engineer's dream, since the guitars and bass don't fight for space, and soulfully thoughtful drumming with an odd but powerful sensibility.

So much greatness, then it just dies almost like they were ashamed of who they were. And with La Torre I think even the way the play the old stuff it's not at all the same band. They're not weird or awkward anymore. It's so straightforward. It's fine, but I would use a different name for it. It's like going to see an upsetting David Lynch movie, but you find out he's now going for the style of Lethal Weapon or something. It's like the weird kid in high school tried so hard to become normal they just lost their spark.

Maybe they're not going to get picked on anymore, but they're also not going to be that unique either. As someone posted earlier, pompadour Tate is the best Tate. To make it even more awkward, it's really a pompadour mullet. Come to think of it, of I were a world class singer, I might have to start a Queensryche cover band called Pompadour Mullet.

Again, two cents.

David Lynch started Transcendental Meditation and lost his artistic ass in the calm waters of Peace and Love.
I agree that artists can become shadows of their former selves, and that entire topic is a great discussion in and
of itself.

I have no quibbles with QR being QR to this day. I think they sound more like QR than a lot of the Tate led QR
music from 2000-2012 when Tate started spitting on his bandmates.

But yeah, I think some name recognizability is important in this day and age, when even with a known name
you can get drowned out in the din and roar of an oversaturated media market.

And didn't they try to become a new band with Todd? Rising West? But then ended up collectively deciding getting
a record deal and selling tickets would be more viable with them as Queensryche?

(Sorry for repeating points already made. I didn't read all the replies before wasting my time typing out this one)

 

[la szum]

Trying to recreate "magic" organically with different people is not easy.

Let's not bring my entire history of sex into this, ok?

 

[State of Epicicity]

David Lynch started Transcendental Meditation and lost his artistic ass in the calm waters of Peace and Love.

I read his meditation book and puked. For me, I lost him with Inland Empire, but Mulholland Drive and the stuff before that I love. My wife thinks I'm a pretentious bastard for loving Lynch and gives me endless shit for it, but c'est la vie, you live by the art house cinema, you die by the art house cinema!

 

[la szum]

Haha! Yup. Me, too. Self-satisfying drivel.

Did you watch that documentary "David Wants To Fly?"

 

[la szum]

I bet your wife would love it. Lynch comes off as a massive prick with little self-awareness, in spite
of his meditation practice.

If you meet the Buddha on the road to enlightenment, kill him.

David Wants to Fly (2010) - IMDb

David Wants to Fly: Directed by David Sieveking. With Judith Bourque, Donovan, Raja Emanuel, Raja Felix. David Sieveking walks on David Lynchs path into the world of transcendental meditation (TM). He comes across the founder of this worldwide movement, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, to whom the Beatles...

www.imdb.com