Official Queensryche thread: Kickstart the next album

[alirocker08]

This is Geoff Tate we' re talking about, here.  He has kind of become the MJ of metal/prog/what-ever-post-1997-QR-is-sposed-to-be. 

I'm not going to strain my brain thinking about it. I miss old Queensryche, I loved Silent Lucidity <3

[MasterShakezula]

I'm not going to strain my brain thinking about it. I miss old Queensryche, I loved Silent Lucidity <3

My god, do I love Empire!

I'd rank it up there as one of the best albums of the last 30 years or so, and there's quite a good deal of great post-1980 music.

[King Postwhore]

Growing up and following QR during that time, I remember the outcry when Empire was released to the hardcore QR fans.  I personally loved the album.  It was in the same vein as the Black album for Metallica as a stylistic change.  Bigger and bolder in sound.

[MasterShakezula]

Growing up and following QR during that time, I remember the outcry when Empire was released to the hardcore QR fans.  I personally loved the album.  It was in the same vein as the Black album for Metallica as a stylistic change.  Bigger and bolder in sound.

I guess it's one of those cases like Metallica's fanbase regarding the Black one vs. the first 4.  Though I know some probably more easily identify Q with The Warning or Eyes of a Stranger, when I think Queensryche, I think Best I Can, or Silent Lucidity, or Another Rainy Night.

[Mladen]

I don't really like Empire...

Best I can, The Thin Line, One and only, Hand on heart and title track are OK. As for the rest... I listened to it a whole bunch of time, gave it a couple of months, and still nothing.  

Mindcrime and Rage for order are the real deal for me. 

[Jirpo]

I agree with Mladen. I like Empire but its not on the level of the first three for me.

[Lowdz]

I loved Empire, even having been a fan for several years prior to it. Nowhere near a WTF moment as when I first played Promised Land. Before you start shouting I love it now.
Is There Anybody Listening? is still a great song. Della Brown, Hand On heart and One And Only are the only less than awesome songs on Empire for me. Each one of them is infinitly better than anything on DTC.

[MasterShakezula]

I loved Empire, even having been a fan for several years prior to it.
Is There Anybody Listening? is still a great song. Della Brown, Hand On heart and One And Only are the only less than awesome songs on Empire for me. Each one of them is infinitly better than anything on DTC.

Everything you just said about Empire, I agree with completely.   

[jjrock88]

Empire was a chance for QR to have mainstream success; they took the chance and were very successful.  A lot of the songs on Empire have crossover appeal.  Not as good as the albums before it, but still a great disc. 

[dongringo]

Don't know if this has been brought up before, but on the Queensryche Youtube channel, the video for 'Wot We Do', has has the ratings disabled and they're controlling the comments that get let through.

I saw it last month and there was probably only one positive comment in a sea of negativity. Guessing that they couldn't handle the criticism.

I think they are trying to limit their losses, but it's too late. Funny, given that Geoff believes that album sales aren't important.

[MasterShakezula]

Geoff believes that album sales aren't important.

Of course he doesn't care about sales.  Hence why DTC was true-blue QR and not totally commercial, or anything. 

[wolfking]

Empire is as good as their earlier albums.  Hand on Heart is one of their most underrated songs.

[skydivingninja]

Empire is better than their pre-Mindcrime albums.

[Jirpo]

I much prefer Warning, RFO and O:M to Empire, but they are all good.

[King Postwhore]

I loved OM but when I heard Empire I was blown away.  So many great songs with radio potential without being radio friendly if that's possible.  What I mean is they released a video and got a ton airplay and that was Anybody Listening?.  A 7:41 song of that style and the video had MTV airplay as well as radio airplay?!?!  Unreal.

[dongringo]

Those were the days...

[bosk1]

So, according to Tate, rock is dead, a lot of what comprises rock is "boneheaded," and heavy chord progressions are only what you play when you are first learning how to play guitar.

QUEENSRŸCHE Singer: 'Rock Is Pretty Much Dead' - July 18, 2011
QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate was interviewed for the summer 2011 issue of U.K.'s Classic Rock magazine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Classic Rock: You've called ["Dedicated To Chaos"] a "headphones record."

Geoff: That's the way people listen to music now. People today are plugged in switching between their iPod and phone, back and forth, listening to music all day long. No, I don't miss the days of guys siting around listening to vinyl. I don't miss the past much. I love the age we live in. Every day there's something new to wrap your head around. I want to keep embracing new ideas, technology, work of art, literature, films. If you stop doing that, your brain gets lazy.

Classic Rock: Songs like "Wot We Do" sound like hip-hop. Can rock fans handle that?

Geoff: Well, I think they should. Rock is pretty much dead. If you look at the numbers, it's definitely not the music of the times anymore. If it's gonna keep moving, bands need to embrace new ideas. There's a lot of elements to rock that, mentally speaking, are kinda boneheaded. Like the whole "chunk-chunk-chunk" guitar progression — the stuff you play when you're learning the damn thing. You would hope bands would get beyond that.

Classic Rock: Wikipedia describes QUEENSRŸCHE as "progressive metal." So you agree?

Geoff: Absolutely not. I never want to be in anybody's genre. I don't want anybody to ever tell me what I belong to, where I should go, what I'm part of. That's not anybody's business but my own. Brackets are so over. Honestly, these days, with record companies pretty much gone, all the rules are changing. There's not gonna be any need for genres or categorization, it's all gonna be alphabetical order. The beauty of the Internet is that we can all invent ourselves any way we wish.

"Get Started", the new video from QUEENSRŸCHE, can now be seen below.

"Get Started" comes off QUEENSRŸCHE's new album, "Dedicated To Chaos", which sold 8,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at position No. 70 on The Billboard 200 chart. The band's previous CD, the epic concept album "American Soldier", opened with 21,000 units back in April 2009 to enter the chart at No. 25. This was roughly half the first-week tally registered by QUEENSRŸCHE's "Operation: Mindcrime II" album, which shifted 44,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release back in April 2006 to debut at No. 14 on The Billboard 200 chart.

QUEENSRŸCHE's 2003 effort, "Tribe", sold 20,000 copies in the first week while 1999's "Q2K", opened with sales of 28,000.

QUEENSRŸCHE's top-selling album by far is 1990's "Empire", which was certified triple-platinum in October 1994 for sales in excess of three million copies in the United States. The original "Operation: Mindcrime" release (1988) attained platinum status in August 1991, while 1994's "Promised Land" reached the same plateau in December 1994.

"Dedicated To Chaos" was released on June 28 in North America via Loud & Proud Records, a Roadrunner Records imprint focusing on established artists. The band is currently touring in support of the new opus, which was recorded in the group's hometown and produced by Kelly Gray.

Source:  https://www.roadrunnerrecords.com/blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=160793

[jjrock88]

This blows my mind.  It's like Tate lost a bet with the devil and is being forced to destroy QR.  This makes no sense

[skydivingninja]

Well, to be fair, a lot of modern rock on the radio isn't that exciting and could be called "boneheaded," I suppose.  In the well-put words of Muse's Matt Bellamy: "Rock is one of the most conservative genres of music when it really shouldn't be."  So Geoff is kinda right in that bands should try and push rock in a bit of a different direction or just improve in general.  Too bad Queensryche isn't doing either of those things anymore and Geoff's ego is getting in the way of seeing what a joke Queensryche's become. 

[stryker]

Wow...just wow...

[The Dark Master]

Well, to be fair, a lot of modern rock on the radio isn't that exciting and could be called "boneheaded," I suppose.  

The thing is, you can make that argument about any genre of music, really.  Every genre has it's leaders and it's followers and it is merely human nature that there would be more followers then leaders.  90% of the bands that make up any sub-genre of metal, for example, don't really think too far outside the box because all they want to do is play the same kind of music their idols did.  This is how many genre and sub-genres end up stagnating: when the leading bands stop making music and no one steps up to the plate to continue to develop the style.  That issue really is not unique to metal or rock, though.

[The Dark Master]

Oh, and Geoff Tate, please, just shut up already.  Do yourself a favour, and shut up.  Don't open your mouth again.  Ever.  I was going to say that perhaps you should at least still be allowed to sing, but given your lackluster performance on DTC, as well as the two albums that preceded it, I don't think the modern music consumer will really miss out on much in that regard, either.  But really, anything that has come out of your mouth for the past decade and a half has only served to damage your already fragile reputation.  Just retire from the music world, and stick to your wine.  At least that is something you can do on your own without help from Chris DeGarmo.      

[MasterShakezula]

Deleted for asshattery on my part. 

[Zook]

I first heard Queensryche on the radio in the early 90s. Empire and O:M's singles were getting heavy play, but being a wee lad, it was just another band on the radio to me, but I never forgot those songs. It wasn't until 2004 that I was fully introduced to them. My step-dad took MY BRUTHA and I to see them when they were playing O:M in full. So in preparation, I bought O:M a day before the show (I know, some preparation right?) and we only made it to The Needle Lies, I think it was, before we got to Ruth Eckerd Hall. After that show, I was a Queensryche freak for awhile. I never liked the direction they went after Empire though.

Can someone clarify if The Lady Wore Black was ever a single, because I could swear I heard it on the radio when I was younger.

[The Dark Master]

Can someone clarify if The Lady Wore Black was ever a single, because I could swear I heard it on the radio when I was younger.

Yes, actually both TLWB and Queen of the Reich were released as singles to promote the 83 EP.

[KevShmev]

The beauty of the Internet is that we can all invent ourselves any way we wish.

Yes, Geoff Tate, you can. And you have apparently reinvented your band into being a complete piece of crap.  Congratulations.

[Gadough]

This...this isn't even fun anymore.

[MasterShakezula]

Deleted for asshattery on my part. 

[wolfking]

It's funny how Tate is saying that we should accept songs like Wot We Do.  He just doesn't get it. 

[dongringo]

So...

1. Geoff sounds confused about pretty much everything he is asked about.

2. I guess I better change my musical preferences in order to keep up with the times because Geoff says so.

3. Geoff has completely lost his mind.

[MasterShakezula]

So...

1. Geoff is confused about pretty much everything he is asked about.

2. I guess I better change my musical preferences in order to keep up with the times because Geoff's the clear embodiment of taste and the cutting edge of new, innovative music.  Because he says so.

3. Geoff has completely lost his mind, and will pull any sort of BS out of his ass in a weak attempt to make it look like he hasn't.

[dongringo]

 

[MasterShakezula]

What can you say, he's like a musical Charlie Sheen.  Except bald.  And possibly drug free.  (I don't know anything about whether or not he does drugs) 

[dongringo]

Hard to say what's in that wine. Must be something.

[MasterShakezula]

Must have something to do with that wi-fi wave he picked up on the You Tube.