How does an artist or group follow up an album that has been
\nuniversally declared a masterpiece?<\/p>\n
Queensryche had this exact dilemma in 1990. Their previous
\nrelease,
\nOperation: Mindcrime<\/i>, sent the band into superstar status,
\nwith radio and television quickly discovering this
\npreviously-ignored group. So when it came time for them to record
\ntheir next album, they had two choices: try to re-create their last
\nalbum, or try a different road and see what happens.<\/p>\n
The final result was
\nEmpire<\/i>, an album which was almost as strong as
\nOperation: Mindcrime<\/i>, but thankfully didn’t follow in the
\nconcept album format.<\/p>\n
Perhaps best known now for its ballad “Silent Lucidity,” Geoff
\nTate and crew eschewed the concept album to make a collection of
\ncarefully crafted rock songs. Kicking off with “Best I Can,” the
\ngroove that was created on
\nOperation: Mindcrime<\/i> was continued with a solid rock number
\n(though the keyboards felt a little too heavy here).<\/p>\n
But then the similarities disappear. “The Thin Line” and “Jet
\nCity Woman” both have a rather funky backbeat provided by bassist
\nEddie Jackson and drummer Scott Rockenfield; the guitar duo of
\nChris DeGarmo (who just recently left the band) and Michael Wilton
\nput their six-strings through a solid workout without entering the
\n“I am a guitar God, watch me show off” mode. Also worthy of note
\nare the vocal harmonies, always an intregal part of Queensryche’s
\nsound.<\/p>\n
While “Silent Lucidity” is a pretty song, I have to admit I’m
\namazed that this song became one of 1990’s omnipresent radio hits.
\nIt’s a tad overdramatic, and isn’t the best song on the album.
\nSongs like “Another Rainy Night (Without You),” “Hand On Heart” or
\n“Resistance” could all have been big hits (and EMI did release
\n“Another Rainy Night (Without You)” as a single), but for some
\nreason, the kitsch factor won out.<\/p>\n
The only times where
\nEmpire<\/i> does weaken are on the longer numbers, when less
\neasily could have been more. “Della Brown,” arguably the weakest
\ntrack on the album, could have easily had about three minutes
\nchopped off of it, while “Anybody Listening?” is a rather
\naclimactic ending to the album. Some people might also not like the
\npreachiness of some song bridges (such as on the title track), but
\nI didn’t think they were terribly over the edge.<\/p>\n
If
\nEmpire<\/i> did anything for the band, it gave their fans the
\nimpetus to hang the catch-phrase “progressive rock band” around the
\nband’s necks – remember that prior to
\nOperation: Mindcrime<\/i> Queensryche was pretty much just a
\nheavy metal band. But I don’t think that they were really
\nprogressive rock at this time; if anything, they had become
\nalbum-oriented rock… and this isn’t necessarily bad. (Also
\nremember that 1990 was the peak of acceptance of hard rock and
\nheavy metal on the radio – so the time was just right for
\nQueensryche to step out in a big way.)<\/p>\n
In one sense, though,
\nEmpire<\/i> proved to be Queensryche’s downfall. Their last two
\nstudio albums have both been held up to
\nEmpire<\/i> (much like
\nEmpire<\/i> was fated to be held up to
\nOperation: Mindcrime<\/i>), and have disappointed many people.
\nSome cynics might take this as a sign that Queensryche’s success
\nwas a fluke, and they were destined to be flashes in the pan.<\/p>\n
But in the long run, this has proven to be unfair to Queensryche
\n– and to their fans as well. Inasmuch as I was disappointed by
\nPromised Land<\/i>, we can only imagine what we would have been
\nscreaming had Tate and company chosen to try and redo
\nEmpire<\/i> again. The fact that they tried to distance
\nthemselves from their successes is quite admirable.<\/p>\n
\nEmpire<\/i> is another album that is a “must-own” in anyone’s
\ncollection – and if you can get through the occasional dramatic
\nnoodlings, you’ll consider this yet another masterpiece from
\nQueensryche.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5642],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38663","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-queensryche","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38663"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}