Kingcrimsonprog Q2K was the seventh full-length studio album by the Seattle based Progressive Metal band Queensrÿche. Released in 1999, Q2K was the band’s first album without lead guitarist Chris DeGarmo and it has long been criticized by fans and critics as being a low point in the bands career.

Queensrÿche love evolution, and so as with every album before it, Q2K sees a shift in musical direction. The band no longer write Heavy Metal, Prog-Metal, MTV Commercial Rock, dense Eastern-sounding Prog or jangly, primarily acoustic Alt-Rock material like on any of their previous albums.

The sound of Q2K is still influenced by the Alternative spirit, but in a different way than on this album’s 1997 predecessor Hear In The Now Frontier. There is a touch more distorted low guitar and a greater focus on percussion and texture.

In terms of highlights, most Queensrÿche fans can agree on the opener ‘Falling Down’ as well as ‘Liquid Sky’ and the single ‘Breakdown,’ which all fall in the spectrum of basic polished Rock, but are three good songs nonetheless.

The two semi-ballads ‘Right Side Of My Mind’ and ‘When The Rain Comes’ also both pick up quite a few compliments too, so that’s five out of the album’s eleven tracks that a lot of people seem to enjoy. If the entire album was as good as the highlights, and there was a little diversity in place too, then this would be a pretty great album.

Some of the songs aren’t as good as those highlights though. The rest are OK, but don’t really work well when played together. The problem with the album overall is that it all sounds the same more or less, so once you’ve heard a few tracks nothing can really surprise you all that much.

There are no instrumentals, no real fast songs, no really slow songs, no fully acoustic tracks, no spacey synth-driven tracks, no dynamic ten-minute tracks and not even any quick one-and-a-half minute interludes that deliver a message and then disappear. Rather, almost every song is mid-tempo, mid-heaviness, mid-length and so ultimately just end up provoking only mid-level excitement.

In addition; there aren’t any samples, there aren’t all that many guitar solos and there aren’t many additional instruments such as saxophones to mix things up now and again, so even within each song itself, there isn’t a lot of variety.

Still, even with those flaws, its not as if anything is actually bad. If you take any one song out of context, it won’t actually be bad (and may even be pretty good as in the case of the five aforementioned highlights), and of course Geoff’s vocals are still great the whole way through. Its just unfortunate that for some reason when they’re all sat together in one big row the album can just feel a little too grey, mushy and bland.

I feel that people are wrong just to reject the album out of hand because Chris DeGarmo isn’t playing guitar and people are similarly wrong to reject the album out of hand just because it isn’t very Metal sounding or Progressive in nature. That being said, the album does suffer from the aforementioned lack of variety and energy and so it takes a fair bit of patience to really enjoy. It isn’t as if Q2K is some massively underrated gem, its just that its not as bad as people make it out to be.

Buy it if you have an open mind and want a few more Queensrÿche songs to listen to, but don’t bother if you only wanted something that sounds like the old days or pushes a lot of boundaries.

Kingcrimsonprog Hear In The Now Frontier is the sixth full-length studio album by the Seattle based Progressive Metal Queensrÿche, it was recorded in Stone Gossard’s home studio, produced by Toby Wright and released in 1997. With every passing album from the beginning of their career up until the time when this was released, Queensrÿche had reinvented their sound every time, and Hear In The Now Frontier takes a similarly large change in direction, crossing over into Alternative-Rock territory.

The sound of the album isn’t so much the sound of Prog-Metal in the Dream Theatre, Blind Guardian and Fates Warning sense; but rather a stripped-down Alice In Chains, Pearl Jam and The Beatles inspired 90s-Alt sound with lots of jangly acoustic guitar and occasional down-tuned electric riffs.

Some fans took this to be a sort of betrayal or selling out, but in all honesty looking back from now it isn’t really any different from all of their huge stylistic changes before this album’s release and its just furthering the band’s mission to never make the same record twice.

In my opinion, this album isn’t the monstrous waste of space that it sometimes gets made out to be; tracks like ‘Saved’ ‘Reach’ ‘Spool’ and the single ‘Sign Of The Times’ all have some memorable moments. I actually like at least half of the album and don’t exactly dislike the other half in any legitimate way.

Ultimately, that just isn’t enough however and so this just isn’t all that amazing an album all things considered. There aren’t tonnes and tonnes of memorable riffs, the lyrics aren’t the sort of thing that stick in your head for days, the guitar solos aren’t as impressive as in the past and some of the material is just a little too forgettable. Luckily Geoff Tate’s voice is still very enjoyable, but then again he doesn’t take it to as impressive heights as he once did.

To be fair, even if this had have been the best Alternative album ever made, some people would still hate it just because the band changed to cash-in on the ‘in’ thing of the time. That thing is though, Hear In The Now Frontier isn’t the best alternative album ever made, it is just an average album. Its OK but it isn’t perfect, it isn’t something you’ll want to play in its entirety all that often and it definitely shouldn’t be the first Queensrÿche album that you buy unless you are a massive fan of 1990s Alternative Music and hate Prog or Metal.

Overall; if you hate change then avoid it at all costs, but if you can actually accept that the sound of the album isn’t all that Progressive or all that Metal, Hear In The Now Frontier is an OK addition to your collection that will deliver you a few more good songs to enjoy.

Kingcrimsonprog 1984’s The Warning is the debut studio album by the Seattle Based Progressive Metal band Queensrÿche. It was recorded in London and produced by James Guthrie who is notable for his work with Judas Priest, Pink Floyd and also Pink Floyd members’ solo albums.

Compared to all other Queensrÿche albums, it is the most traditionally Heavy Metal of their works stylistically. It is also arguably the least Progressive of their early albums, although it still shows clear signs of ambitious songwriting and a desire to push the boundaries of the genre. ‘Road To Madness’ for example is an almost ten-minute track with acoustic sections, electric sections, a symphonic sounding back-up and even a few time signature changes towards the end.

Unless you really don’t like the sound of classic Heavy Metal in the vein of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Dio and early Overkill then The Warning will be an instantly enjoyable album. The standard of songwriting is excellent and the tracks are all for the most part catchy and memorable with driving riffs, pleasing guitar solos and fantastic vocals from the impressive Geoff Tate.

Highlight include ‘En Force’ ‘N M 156’ ‘Child Of Fire’ and of course the aforementioned ‘Roads To Madness.

Overall, The Warning is Queensrÿche’s most straightforwardly metal album, and the band excels at delivering that style in a powerful, catchy and intelligent manner. I feel the album is pretty underrated and would happily recommend it to fans from a Metal background. If you like Queensrÿche and aren’t only in it for nothing but the Prog and the Prog alone, then you really should give the album a try.

Kingcrimsonprog Promised Land was the fifth full-length Studio Album from the Seattle Progressive Metal band Queensrÿche, it was released in 1994 following up their multi-platinum selling 1990 album Empire.

The music on the album for the most part is not up-tempo driving metal music like some of their earlier work or shimmering commercial rock like some of their highest charting stuff, but rather a slow and completive progressive style that relies on piano, saxophone and acoustic guitar to do a lot of the work. It is the sort of album that requires a lot of patience to really enjoy, and may take a few listens to really wrap your head around properly.

Despite the slower brooding pace and mostly quieter nature of Promised Land when compared to the band’s earlier material, the strength of the songwriting is still very impressive and when it does finally kick off there are moments of superb lead guitar to enjoy as well. This isn’t necessarily an album to listen to if you want to bang your head, but if you allow the music to just wash over you it will prove to be among the best moments in the band’s career.

Thinking about it, there are two kinds of songs on the album; big powerful tracks that start off as quiet ballads or hypnotic, dense and slow building songs that evolve slowly over time with some metal riffs and a sort of eastern flavor. In addition to the core band there are often a lot of weird percussive rhythms and touches of synth, but the main focus is on the vocals and lyrics.

Geoff Tate’s powerful and dynamic voice caries the listener through a whole range of moods and mindsets, from desolation to practical thinking across a range of topics from parental relationships to coming to terms with your inability to improve the state of the world.

Highlights include the emotional ‘Bridge’ as well as ‘My Global Mind’ and the lyrically superb ‘One More Time.’

Overall, if you are willing to give it the time and patience that it asks of you, Promised Land is a very interesting album that is worth a place in your collection.

Kingcrimsonprog Rage For Order was the second full-length studio album by the Seattle based Progressive Metal band Queensrÿche. It was released 1986 and is quite a curious album that is both hailed by some fans as a masterpiece and condemned by other fans as a forgettable transitional period.

Initially it may take quite a few listens to really familiarize yourself with and grow accustomed to. If you only heard one or two Queensrÿche tracks before buying this it may be pretty confusing, unexpected and hard to absorb at first.

When the album came out a lot of Metal bands were incorporating synths into their sound, and indeed a lot of lighter more pop orientated metal bands were coming out and getting radio success yet this synth filled late eighties metal album doesn't really sound anything like either of the aforementioned styles. Additionally, it also came out just before the real first wave of Prog Metal bands had gained momentum and doesn't share many sonic similarities there either.

The actual music has gotten fairly far away from anything that a conventional Metal band would write at this point, yet isn't glam and isn't stereotypically Prog Metal either, in the sense of long songs with long shredding guitar solos. The album that the band released after this, Operation Mindcrime, actually had songs on it like `Speak' `Spreading The Disease' and `The Needle Lies' that were much closer to the traditional spirit of metal than anything on Rage For Order.

Stylistically, the music on this record is relatively dark, brief and quiet restrained in parts. There are moments of hard metal riffs and blazing guitar solos but they are very few and far between. It incorporates a lot of artificial sounds and synth work but in a completely different way to how the likes of Judas Priest and Iron Maiden did at the time and is more unique in its implementation of the controversial instrument.

Rage For Order delivers its dystopian themed messages of paranoia and societal-breakdown in an atmospheric and for the most part vocal-led way, that almost recalls Marillion and the solo career of Roger Waters in as much as the vocal and lyrical content takes center stage quite often and a lot of import is placed on Geoff Tate's diction and emphasis.

Luckily however, Geoff Tate is a remarkably diverse and talented singer with the skill and range to carry off such an album well. The more you get into the nuances of his performance and the polyrhythmic interplay between him and all the other band members, the more the album opens itself up to you as a listener.

Highlights include `Chemical Youth (We Are The Rebellion)' `Screaming In Digital' and `Surgical Strike.'

In summary, this isn't an album that really fits in neatly into one little box, and in that sense it embodies the true spirit of progressive music. No one had made an album like this before; it was music that literally nothing else sounded like. The evocative, melodic and richly textured music can take a good few listens to really "get," but it sure is worth giving it that chance.

Time Signature I remember now...

Genre: progressive metal

"Operation: Mindcrime" was, and still is, a legendary release in the world of metal, and it was appreciated not only within the sphere of progressive metal, but by fans of all sorts of different types of metal. And listening to the album, one quickly realizes why - it's simply amazing.

"Operation: Mindcrime II" is the sequel to "Operation: Mindcrime", but it was never as successful, and some people don't even like it. Personally, I like "Mindcrime II", although not as much as the original "Mindcrime", for having a more updated sound and not just being a repetition of first one.

Anyway, this live DVD gives you both albums performed live in their entirety at The Moore Theater in the band's hometown Seattle, and whether you like "Mindcrime II" or not, you are in for a treat with the performance of both albums. This show has everything that the thinking man, or person to be non-sexist, of metal should love about Queensrÿche: rock 'n' roll, drama, political messages, social commentary, special effects and artistic visual stage props. This is theatrical heavy metal at its best: accessible yet thought provoking. And it holds up all the way through, so even if you don't "Mindcrime II" as much as the first one, you are certain to be entertained by its performance on this DVD.

The concert itself is great, but considering myself a thinking man pf metal, I like informative bonus material, too, and I think the quality of the bonus material is a bit so-so... with one exception. The bonus material includes a version of "The Chase" which was recorded live in L.A. featuring Ronnie James Dio, performing live as Dr. X; in the light of his recent tragic passing, this particular bit of bonus material becomes additionally valuable, I think. And it's a great performance in itself, too.

Recommended to fans of Queensrÿche, progressive metal and traditional heavy metal and hard rock.

Stooge It’s become a tradition with rock and metal bands that release a concept album to perform it live from beginning to end, and that’s what the video Operation: Livecrime showcases, with Queensryche performing their landmark 1988 release.

As anyone who’s heard the Operation: Mindcrime album, the band can often have as many (or more) pop elements as metal. Seeing their stage show on DVD, this aspect is there to witness, from headset microphones to Chris DeGarmo’s chaps. I can tolerate most of the pop aspects of the band especially considering the time of the video’s initial release (1991), but some of the stage moves I find to be quite humorous and actually take away from the power of some of the songs. Thankfully, much of the prancing about stage dies down past the halfway point of the show. It must be some combination of fatigue and the realization that most of the crowd consists of males.

But seriously, this DVD is actually a pretty good release. The stage show includes effective visual aids that help piece their Mindrcime concept together, and the footage is shot with high quality. There’s a decent amount of bonus footage here as well, which includes a brief interview with singer Geoff Tate regarding the band and various aspects of the Mindcrime album. Two bonus songs are also hidden as easter eggs on the DVD, "The Lady Wore Black" and "Roads To Madness”.

Based on the rating system, this DVD is fitting of a 3 star rating. While certainly an entertaining release, I wouldn’t consider it to be essential. I’m not as drawn to watch this performance as I am to simply listen to the Mindcrime studio album.

AtomicCrimsonRush It must have sounded great on paper - let's make a DVD that is totally in a sepia tone and use amateur and professional footage to create an artistic concert experience.

Unfortunately, this is a washed out experience and dull to the max apart from a couple of excellent tracks.

The set is based on the 'Tribe' album which is not the best QR by any standards. There are only two tracks from 'Operation Mindcrime' - a tragedy as that is their masterpiece.

The pleasant surprise is the special guest appearances of Dream Theater, one of my all time favourite bands. They join QR to play two brilliant versions of 'Comfortably Numb' and 'Won't Get Fooled Again'. The two tracks make this worth watching to the end, but I believe you will be ffwding this DVD to those tracks after one viewing.

Without the colourful lighting and occasional 'Operation Mindcrime' track, the concert is very disappointing. No colour makes a boring experience when watching a band perform. What a waste of talent, time and energy. Get hold of 'Operation: Live-Crime' which is brilliant, and leave this 'Art(less) of Live' on the shelf.