I Am Listening To Every Queensryche Album In Chronological Order

[State of Epicicity]

So much this.

”Someone Else?” was hitting me like that when I was 13, so it’s of zero surprise how much that album hit me in my late 20’s….and again in my 30’s…..and again as I hit 40. Specifically those two songs.

“Promised Land”, the song itself…..holy sh*t, man. Between Floyd’s “Time” with the “no one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun” and Ryche’s ”standing neck-deep in life, my ring of brass lay rusting on the floor, is this all? Because it’s not what I expected” you really cap both ends of not knowing when you’re entering the rat race and learning that joining the rat race doesn’t always have a reward.

The line “Life’s been like dragging feet through sand and never finding Promised Land”…..that’s it right there for me. So many failed attempts at starting a new career, picking up and moving 1400 miles away to start over, then my divorce where I lost everything I spent years building after firmly believing I was living in the Promised Land, that song will always hold a very, very special spot for me. And fortunately, I learned where to seek Promised Land in other areas that aren’t effected by my surroundings.

The sparseness on that album is perfect. It’s dark, questioning and cavernous which gets highlighted in the lyrical content. I think it also really highlights how that band worked as a unit up until after that album. Every album until HITNF is cohesive and has a feel to it that I can only imagine could only occur by everyone being in the same headspace and sharing the same goal.

I would have loved to have seen the tour for that, even though Tate‘s stage attire consisted of short shorts and a headset mic for most the set it still looked like a really killer show.

I'm still kicking myself, because I bought a $35 ticket to see them on that tour, in Virginia, I think it was Hampton-Rhoads, but I can't remember. I never actually went. I remember I was going to have to go alone because my friends weren't fans. Man, what a dumb move, especially with these videos showing me what I missed.

I also forgot to mention The Bridge, how incredible that song is overall. Again, them pushing their boundaries.

I did get to see them on the Rage for Order / Empire Suite tour, and it was horrible. Tate sauntered out in a three piece suit, and he just had the vibe of a modern abstract art painter or a fashion model or something. Eddie Jackson actually checked his watch while pedaling a low E during Take Hold Of The Flame.

 

[DrewJD82]

I'm still kicking myself, because I bought a $35 ticket to see them on that tour, in Virginia, I think it was Hampton-Rhoads, but I can't remember. I never actually went. I remember I was going to have to go alone because my friends weren't fans. Man, what a dumb move, especially with these videos showing me what I missed.

I also forgot to mention The Bridge, how incredible that song is overall. Again, them pushing their boundaries.

I did get to see them on the Rage for Order / Empire Suite tour, and it was horrible. Tate sauntered out in a three piece suit, and he just had the vibe of a modern abstract art painter or a fashion model or something. Eddie Jackson actually checked his watch while pedaling a low E during Take Hold Of The Flame.

’03 was the last time I saw Tate and it was a less than exciting show. Hahah, I just wrote out a paragraph praising Tate for his more recent live shows and his band as I caught a couple vids recently where he was really putting effort into hitting the higher notes and the band was sounding decent, they had at least learned the songs. But then I went onto YouTube and saw the shitshow that they put on down here recently. Holy sheep sh*t.

Start it anywhere, but be sure to watch the end of “Screaming In Digital” and “Walk In The Shadows” At some point they bring out a 3rd guitar player that seems to know the songs less than the other dude on stage right, who still makes rock faces at the crowd after bombing the solos. The dude on stage left has been with him for a little while and I’ve heard him play better than this before, maybe this was just really an off night for these guys…but damn…killer set list, though! Even doing “Real World”!



This is quite the difference and they’ve only got one more original member than Tate’s band.

 

[State of Epicicity]

@la szum I don't blame you. It's like my feelings about Metallica. I like three albums and worship two of them; they've been different band during their career, but I only like one of them haha. I don't know how many personas Queensryche has had, but I do think who they were through Rage for Order was them at their best. It's the classic thing is bands just changing and leaving behind some of their audience.

For me, I'm used to liking just a little bit of a bands output. Like, Overkill I think is a great band, and they have soooo many studio albums, but I only really listen to Horrorscope and Under The Influence. It's easy to look at thrash bands this way, because they all changed in response to the success of Metallica's Black Album; they all became different bands. And for rock bands, which is loosely where I'd categorize Queensryche, they all changed too after the success of Nevermind. I hated all the change, with the exception of Promised Land. So, I think in this way Promised Land to you is The Black Album to me.

In other words, I don't blame you at all; you can't change that much and keep everyone who loves what you started out to build. I mean even the way they recorded Promised Land was different. They all recorded their parts at home and sent them in to Jimbo Barton to mix. That's like a weird half assed thing to me, even though I love the results. Some of the really extensive wah use Chris DeGarmo said was just him stoned out of his mind at home. That stuff to me is should not make the final cut for an album.

 

[JT]

Like, Overkill I think is a great band, and they have soooo many studio albums, but I only really listen to Horrorscope and Under The Influence.

 

[State of Epicicity]

’03 was the last time I saw Tate and it was a less than exciting show. Hahah, I just wrote out a paragraph praising Tate for his more recent live shows and his band as I caught a couple vids recently where he was really putting effort into hitting the higher notes and the band was sounding decent, they had at least learned the songs. But then I went onto YouTube and saw the shitshow that they put on down here recently. Holy sheep sh*t.

Start it anywhere, but be sure to watch the end of “Screaming In Digital” and “Walk In The Shadows” At some point they bring out a 3rd guitar player that seems to know the songs less than the other dude on stage right, who still makes rock faces at the crowd after bombing the solos. The dude on stage left has been with him for a little while and I’ve heard him play better than this before, maybe this was just really an off night for these guys…but damn…killer set list, though! Even doing “Real World”!



This is quite the difference and they’ve only got one more original member than Tate’s band.

Man, I don't know if I have the heart to watch. I mean, truly it's heartbreaking to me. What happened to bands I love, really the genres I love, and the music industry, sent me into a huge depression I still am not over. My wife always refers to situations like this as Metalocalypse, where they had episodes dealing with a band called "Snakes 'N Barrels," (an amalgamation of several real bands) that was reuniting for a comeback, but every member but one was just washed up.

Like, I'm sure Todd LaTorre probably gives his all during performances, but I already saw the rest of the members sans DeGarmo not care live, and that just stuck in my heart. I kept thinking, "Do they realize there's an audience in front of them?"

As for the Tate band, he kind of reminds me of a lounge act now. I mean, if you watch the Knightrider music video, he's totally doing a Bette Davis impersonation, but on a cartoonish level. Okay, so my favorite singer is acting like he's on an off off Broadway production of a terrible musical. But he had a ton of personality, and was irrepressibly being himself, which I always respect since rock and metal are really based on machismo. Even in that first clip of the live performance of the song Promised Land, he's "acting," like over the top, community theater level, but it's him just being himself, still giving a great vocal performance.

I guess I've always completely loved Geoff Tate at this best but always thought he's a like a terrible musical theater actor at the same time haha! So when I see him do anything with less than that insane amount of self possession, it's just like watching a snake eat the skin it shedded.

 

[State of Epicicity]

Overkill is a different case than others, because they got back to thrash pretty quickly, but only those two albums are the ones that stick with me. I'm like that with most bands though.

 

[JT]

Man, I don't know if I have the heart to watch. I mean, truly it's heartbreaking to me. What happened to bands I love, really the genres I love, and the music industry, sent me into a huge depression I still am not over. My wife always refers to situations like this as Metalocalypse, where they had episodes dealing with a band called "Snakes 'N Barrels," (an amalgamation of several real bands) that was reuniting for a comeback, but every member but one was just washed up.

Like, I'm sure Todd LaTorre probably gives his all during performances, but I already saw the rest of the members sans DeGarmo not care live, and that just stuck in my heart. I kept thinking, "Do they realize there's an audience in front of them?"

As for the Tate band, he kind of reminds me of a lounge act now. I mean, if you watch the Knightrider music video, he's totally doing a Bette Davis impersonation, but on a cartoonish level. Okay, so my favorite singer is acting like he's on an off off Broadway production of a terrible musical. But he had a ton of personality, and was irrepressibly being himself, which I always respect since rock and metal are really based on machismo. Even in that first clip of the live performance of the song Promised Land, he's "acting," like over the top, community theater level, but it's him just being himself, still giving a great vocal performance.

I guess I've always completely loved Geoff Tate at this best but always thought he's a like a terrible musical theater actor at the same time haha! So when I see him do anything with less than that insane amount of self possession, it's just like watching a snake eat the skin it shedded.

One of my favrotie things about heavy metal as a whole is the lasting emotional impact it has on you Heavy metal opinions are the best opinions

 

[JT]

Overkill is a different case than others, because they got back to thrash pretty quickly, but only those two albums are the ones that stick with me. I'm like that with most bands though.

I liked 3 out of the first 4 albums. Then I liked Ironbound; despite the "let's go too modern and sound like a typewriter with a gridlocked guitars and a guy screeching on top" aspect.

 

[State of Epicicity]

One of my favrotie things about heavy metal as a whole is the lasting emotional impact it has on you Heavy metal opinions are the best opinions

I know I take it way too far, to a deeply unhealthy level, so you gotta take it with a grain of salt.

 

[JT]

I know I take it way too far, to a deeply unhealthy level, so you gotta take it with a grain of salt.

No way! Way too far is the way metal is supposed to be!

 

[State of Epicicity]

I liked 3 out of the first 4 albums. Then I liked Ironbound; despite the "let's go too modern and sound like a typewriter with a gridlocked guitars and a guy screeching on top" aspect.

Well (and sorry @la szum about this derail), I do think Bobby Blitz never lost the magic, and I respect the hell out of him. He's always maintained being himself, having personality and energy on stage. I saw Overkill when we lived in Portland, OR, and they were incredible, the whole band, even though it was mediocre turnout at a small club, and they played none of my favorite songs. They to me are some sort of standard for the way to be awesome over a long period of time.

I mean, I just saw Dave White of Heathen, and he was a great frontman. He's pushing 60, playing a small bar with shitty turnout, but he had a great command of the room and turned the whole place into a Bay area club in 1986.

It's also what I've heard from Dee Snider, that he's always there to give his all, so he does. These guys are too rare.

 

[DrewJD82]

Man, I don't know if I have the heart to watch. I mean, truly it's heartbreaking to me. What happened to bands I love, really the genres I love, and the music industry, sent me into a huge depression I still am not over. My wife always refers to situations like this as Metalocalypse, where they had episodes dealing with a band called "Snakes 'N Barrels," (an amalgamation of several real bands) that was reuniting for a comeback, but every member but one was just washed up.

Like, I'm sure Todd LaTorre probably gives his all during performances, but I already saw the rest of the members sans DeGarmo not care live, and that just stuck in my heart. I kept thinking, "Do they realize there's an audience in front of them?"

As for the Tate band, he kind of reminds me of a lounge act now. I mean, if you watch the Knightrider music video, he's totally doing a Bette Davis impersonation, but on a cartoonish level. Okay, so my favorite singer is acting like he's on an off off Broadway production of a terrible musical. But he had a ton of personality, and was irrepressibly being himself, which I always respect since rock and metal are really based on machismo. Even in that first clip of the live performance of the song Promised Land, he's "acting," like over the top, community theater level, but it's him just being himself, still giving a great vocal performance.

I guess I've always completely loved Geoff Tate at this best but always thought he's a like a terrible musical theater actor at the same time haha! So when I see him do anything with less than that insane amount of self possession, it's just like watching a snake eat the skin it shedded.

I totally agree with that. And really, Geoff’s acting is largely what’s made his vocal delivery so great. You can’t sing like that without getting into a character and he’s always been up front about being a huge Peter Gabriel fan, so it makes total sense. What worked in the 80’s and 90’s doesn’t have the same impact in 2023 and a lot of times he’s clearly going through the motions, giving it the lounge act feel. I mean hell, the dude intentionally laid on the lounge act thing with the cabaret tour over a decade ago.

I had a good 15 years where I was bummed out and bitter about how the business went, mostly because I decided in high school I wasn’t going to do anything but music for a living because it was still a conceivable notion in the 90’s that if you got in a van with your band and hustled your ass off, you had a chance at turning it into a living. Then I graduate high school in ‘01 just as the music business was starting to drop, started a band in ‘03 that started getting label attention and had a few dinners paid for by A&R guys and then silence. They all got shitcanned or went to other labels. Some of the guys in the band let it ruin their outlook on it all and we disbanded, by then it was ‘07 and there was nothing left of the music business. It wasn’t until I saw Ozzy with Zakk in 2018 that I started enjoying live shows again.

I’m saving all my Todd thoughts for when la szum gets to the Toddryche era.

 

[shaharbar]

Seeing them tomorrow, but to be honest, more excited about the opener (Marty Fucking Friedman!!!!)

 

[State of Epicicity]

Seeing them tomorrow, but to be honest, more excited about the opener (Marty f*****g Friedman!!!!)

Damn it. I didn't know this was happening. That combination is hard to pass up; I've never seen them with La Torre, and I've never gotten to see Friedman solo. I saw Megadeth on the Risk tour, and I hated the show more than I could possibly describe in words. But this seems like it could be awesome. Problem is, I'm already seeing Death To All in Chicago on March 29. Do I dare spend the extra money to see Queensryche and Friedman in Milwaukee on March 28? Is it going to be something I'll regret not doing, like the first Queensryche show I passed up? Man, decisions, decisions...

 

[DrewJD82]

Damn it. I didn't know this was happening. That combination is hard to pass up; I've never seen them with La Torre, and I've never gotten to see Friedman solo. I saw Megadeth on the Risk tour, and I hated the show more than I could possibly describe in words. But this seems like it could be awesome. Problem is, I'm already seeing Death To All in Chicago on March 29. Do I dare spend the extra money to see Queensryche and Friedman in Milwaukee on March 28? Is it going to be something I'll regret not doing, like the first Queensryche show I passed up? Man, decisions, decisions...

I’ve caught them every tour cycle since he joined except this one because it sold out the first day and I figured I had plenty of time to get a ticket/thought the website was wrong and I’d just grab a ticket at the door, but it was legit sold out. It’s a bit more rocked out than a classic Ryche show. The mix is more modern sounding and Todd has taken a lot more liberty to sound like himself rather than mimicking Tate on all the original stuff, he doesn’t sing everything clean 100% of the time and rocks it out a bit, or like the video above, throws in some straight up death metal growls in there.

John5 opened the last show I saw, I’m totally fine if they want to book tours with monster guitar players!

 

[State of Epicicity]

To help me decide I finally watched the La Torre video from earlier in this thread and checked out what Friedman's doing, and I decided not to go.

I'm not at all into Friedman's solo work after the 80s. I watched a modern music video of his and it was the final nail to me. His latest album I guess is a third volume in his renditions of J pop songs, and I just couldn't care less. I still love his playing, but not his music. I also checked out his recent set lists, and I saw just a couple of old songs. I've got to remember that musically this isn't 1988. That's a problem for me in general.

With Queensryche it was a different deal. I remembered that when I saw them the one time Scott Rockenfield was actually great, just filled with personality and energy and feel, but he was the only one. In that video La Torre was trying, but I just didn't think he sounded good, and Rockenfield's drumming was actually awesome, but otherwise I didn't see any fire there; it just made me not care. That's one out of many songs, but I'm biased already.

I wrote earlier about how Promised Land was recorded remotely, which was what I remember reading in Guitar for The Practicing Musician from back then, but maybe they were just talking about some tracks or just demos, because the live video from that tour autoplayed into a making of for that album, and it shows them writing and tracking at this island north of Seattle. Plus, it showed snippets of an actual official music video for the song Promised Land, which I never knew existed! I could not find the full length video, and I'm wondering if it was never released.

 

[DrewJD82]

To help me decide I finally watched the La Torre video from earlier in this thread and checked out what Friedman's doing, and I decided not to go.

I'm not at all into Friedman's solo work after the 80s. I watched a modern music video of his and it was the final nail to me. His latest album I guess is a third volume in his renditions of J pop songs, and I just couldn't care less. I still love his playing, but not his music. I also checked out his recent set lists, and I saw just a couple of old songs. I've got to remember that musically this isn't 1988. That's a problem for me in general.

With Queensryche it was a different deal. I remembered that when I saw them the one time Scott Rockenfield was actually great, just filled with personality and energy and feel, but he was the only one. In that video La Torre was trying, but I just didn't think he sounded good, and Rockenfield's drumming was actually awesome, but otherwise I didn't see any fire there; it just made me not care. That's one out of many songs, but I'm biased already.

I wrote earlier about how Promised Land was recorded remotely, which was what I remember reading in Guitar for The Practicing Musician from back then, but maybe they were just talking about some tracks or just demos, because the live video from that tour autoplayed into a making of for that album, and it shows them writing and tracking at this island north of Seattle. Plus, it showed snippets of an actual official music video for the song Promised Land, which I never knew existed! I could not find the full length video, and I'm wondering if it was never released.

Technically not wrong about them tracking remotely; they had all that gear brought into those cabins on the island for the recording. I remember reading something about them needing to work without distractions and Geoff had seen the island while sailing around or something. I know for a while he lived in a houseboat. It was just some small vacation/resort island they turned into a studio.

 

[la szum]

’03 was the last time I saw Tate and it was a less than exciting show. Hahah, I just wrote out a paragraph praising Tate for his more recent live shows and his band as I caught a couple vids recently where he was really putting effort into hitting the higher notes and the band was sounding decent, they had at least learned the songs. But then I went onto YouTube and saw the shitshow that they put on down here recently. Holy sheep sh*t.

Start it anywhere, but be sure to watch the end of “Screaming In Digital” and “Walk In The Shadows” At some point they bring out a 3rd guitar player that seems to know the songs less than the other dude on stage right, who still makes rock faces at the crowd after bombing the solos. The dude on stage left has been with him for a little while and I’ve heard him play better than this before, maybe this was just really an off night for these guys…but damn…killer set list, though! Even doing “Real World”!



This is quite the difference and they’ve only got one more original member than Tate’s band.

Is that Tate doing satire?

 

[la szum]

@la szum I don't blame you. It's like my feelings about Metallica. I like three albums and worship two of them; they've been different band during their career, but I only like one of them haha. I don't know how many personas Queensryche has had, but I do think who they were through Rage for Order was them at their best. It's the classic thing is bands just changing and leaving behind some of their audience.

For me, I'm used to liking just a little bit of a bands output. Like, Overkill I think is a great band, and they have soooo many studio albums, but I only really listen to Horrorscope and Under The Influence. It's easy to look at thrash bands this way, because they all changed in response to the success of Metallica's Black Album; they all became different bands. And for rock bands, which is loosely where I'd categorize Queensryche, they all changed too after the success of Nevermind. I hated all the change, with the exception of Promised Land. So, I think in this way Promised Land to you is The Black Album to me.

In other words, I don't blame you at all; you can't change that much and keep everyone who loves what you started out to build. I mean even the way they recorded Promised Land was different. They all recorded their parts at home and sent them in to Jimbo Barton to mix. That's like a weird half assed thing to me, even though I love the results. Some of the really extensive wah use Chris DeGarmo said was just him stoned out of his mind at home. That stuff to me is should not make the final cut for an album.

It's true. Bands evolve. And sometimes devolve.

I am listening to Here In The Now Frontier and it is like the 4th or 5th iteration of QR.

It's like QR at their driest. The production is so Alice In Chains. How can bands NOT be impacted
by what becomes popular (along with label pressures) and feel the cultural zeitgeist in some ways?

I think Tate's voice had to have been a bit thrashed by this point. He sings in his lower register way
more than any previous album.

There are some pretty melodies on HITNF, though. The harmonies are a bit unique and more extended
in some places, too, and I can appreciate that.

 

[la szum]

No one would ever think this is QR. Ever. It's a Jellyfish song, right?



I think it is really cool..... but is it Queensryche? I guess it is, with DeGarmo on lead vocals.