Kingcrimsonprog Digital Noise Alliance is the 16th full-length studio album by the Seattle Prog-Metal pioneers, Queensryche. It is their fourth album with Todd La Torre on vocals, and second without founding drummer Scott Rockenfeild in the band, last time (on 2019’s The Verdict) singer Todd La Torre also played drums, but this time Kamelot’s Casey Grillo is behind the drum kit. There has been much media drama about the band in the last decade, with various spats between current and ex-members, which can distract people from the music at times, but for my money the current four-album Todd-era run is the best continuous run of four albums the band has had since 1994. If you ignore all the distractions and concentrate on the music, you’ll discover some seriously good records.

Queensryche made their name by experimenting, changing constantly and never making the same album twice in the early days, and while this has resulted in a discography where not every album is to everyone’s tastes, the one thing you could also say is that each album sounded different to the last. However, since original singer Geoff Tate left the band, the run of three albums that followed do all sit in a fairly similar direction, and as good as that style is, sitting in one comfort zone isn’t something the band had ever done before.

With Digital Noise Alliance, Queensryche appear to be trying to test the edges of this comfort zone, broaden their horizons a little bit, expand the formula more and generally try a few new things. There’s a Promised Land style semi-acoustic ballad, (the kind they hadn’t been writing for the last few records), there’s a Billy Idol cover song, there’s some occasional new vocal styles Todd hasn’t used on record yet, there’s a different feel to the drumming, there’s a few riffs or chords or melodies you wouldn’t have heard on the last few albums and the guitar solos often take a different direcition to what listeners have been hearing for the last decade. Just enough variety to keep it fresh and not feel like they’ve fallen into a rut. However, the core of the album is the same core formula of the Todd era Queensryche albums, so it isn’t so different that it would scare away anyone who loved the previous ones, or a big enough departure that it would reach a totally new or different fanbase and win over anyone new. It’s the same sound; but broader, more diverse, ever so slightly more progressive, and most importantly fresh. A nice little grower of a record too, there’s an extra layer of depth and complexity here compared to the last few.

Highlights include: “Behind The Walls” “Tormentum” and “Hold On.”

If you like melodic guitar leads, gorgeous clean singing, clear bouncy bass lines and a slight prog edge without being ponderous or pretentious, then you’ll have a good time here. There’s always going to be a segment of the audience who just want the ‘80s sound or line-up, and I’m not even going to bother trying to convince you to try this if that is you, but for anyone who is still into the band nowadays but was just worrying if they might be over-relying on a formula or running out of ideas, I can reassure you this album is just as good as the last few, but not afraid to try new things and cover a bit more creative ground.

SilentScream213 I remember… My first expectations of this album, before having heard anything, were that I wouldn’t love it, or at least, not as much as Rage for Order. The reasoning is simple; I loved Rage for Order because despite being an 80’s Prog Metal album, it was built on incredibly emotive songs centering on the passionate vocals of Geoff Tate. The music was awesome, but the song structures were very straightforward and filled with explosive, anthemic choruses, and so it served the mood and the song rather than showing off technical prowess or wankery.

There are two reasons I was afraid this might change on Operation: Mindcrime. Firstly is the fact that it’s much more readily labeled Progressive Metal, while Rage for Order seems to be considered more (un)traditional Heavy Metal with some prog elements, so I was afraid the songs might leave their simple yet catchy structures behind in favor of showing off how good they are. Secondly, I was fairly certain the album was politically based. I don’t dislike political lyrics, but the problem is, I like music that makes me feel something. Political lyrics don’t make me feel anything (other than frustration, either because the message is sadly true, or because it isn’t true at all). I can appreciate sharp political commentary, but I can’t fall in love with it or feel my chest tighten due to it. I feared Queensryche would abandon their emotive cheese in favor of a more educated and sophisticated lyrical direction.

I was so wrong.

YES this album is centered around politics and social issues, and it nails them unabashedly with an unforgiving edge, taking hits at capitalism, religion, the culture of pay offs and the tyranny of the one percent in America. But the album is not politically driven. It is character driven, and that is why it succeeds in terms of both storytelling and delivering powerful, emotive songs. Without spoiling anything major, the album is a very clear conceptual story of a man who becomes disillusioned with American society (highlighting the political and social issues). He ends up joining an underground revolution, experiencing crime, addiction, love, loss, insanity, and making all these things extremely personal (this is how the album holds you and doesn’t let go). Lyrically, it remains incredibly passionate and evocative, a fantastically emotional tale that takes stabs at the big evils but never lets you forget about the individuals and their important experience.

Musically, they sacrificed absolutely nothing. The songs are still very catchy and hell-bent on creating melodies that will kick your ass, make your heart ache, or at the very least ingrain themselves in your head forever. And once again, Geoff Tate’s vocals steal the show. The amount of harmonizing he does with himself here is insane, with just about every song featuring a chorus that could go down on any all time best vocal lines ever laid down. His voice is crystal clear, he enunciates well so following the story is easy, and his range is killer. The production for everything sounds amazing, especially standing out as an 80’s album that hasn’t aged a bit.

Another thing? There are no flaws. Not every song is perfect, but they are never doing anything wrong. Nothing remotely mediocre on this 15 track epic. Even the segues are cool, providing key story bits and often having some killer music to them, which is usually where concept albums can fall apart. One of the greatest albums of all time.

UMUR "Promised Land" is the 5th full-length studio album by US power/heavy/progressive metal act Queensrÿche. The album was released through EMI Records in October 1994. Queensrÿche had a relatively lengthy recording break after the release of the multi-platinum selling success of "Empire (1990)", but they returned on "Promised Land" with the same lineup and a new ‌inspired concept.

"Empire (1990)" was a fairly accessible and commercial oriented release, which provided Queensrÿche with great success and worldwide recognition. Following up a release like that was always going be a difficult task (just as it was a daunting task following up the artistic achievement of "Operation: Mindcrime (1988)"), but Queensrÿche took the bold and adventurous path, instead of releasing "Empire (1990)" number two. "Promised Land" is generally a much more progressive and experimental release than it´s predecessor, although progressive in this respect shouldn´t be understood as if the band have now have started playing long instrumental sections or that they focus on odd time signatures. It´s an experiment within the confines of their own sound, and overall they succeed pretty well. Stylistically this is still at it´s core heavy metal/rock with only the occasional progressive metal leaning.

"Promised Land" is a bit of a fragmented release though, featuring quite a few different atmospheres and music styles. Tracks like "Damaged" and "disconnected" are both dark and very heavy songs. The former probably features THE most heavy riff ever on a Queensrÿche release and it´s an absolutely brilliant composition. But then there are also tracks like "Out of Mind", "Bridge", "Lady Jane", and "Someone Else?", which are power ballads (in the case of the latter it´s a pure piano and vocal ballad, and probably the weakest and least interesting track on the album. It´s definitely not a good way to close the album), and tracks like "I Am I" and the title track are of a more experimental nature, both featuring middle eastern music influences, and the latter featuring saxophone. "My Global Mind" and "One More Time" are rather forgettable heavy rock tracks, which don´t stand out much. To my ears the album is frontloaded with the best material, and especially the last three tracks on the album leave you with the impression that the quality has dropped markedly since the high quality opening to the album. For all the greatness of tracks like "Damaged", "Out of Mind", and "Lady Jane", "Promised Land" simply features too many tracks which aren´t remarkable enough.

As always the musicianship are on a high level on all posts. The instrumental work is delivered with great skill and with an adventurous spirit, and Geoff Tate also delivers a strong vocal performance. "Promised Land" features a dark and heavy production job, which suits the material perfectly, so it´s in the songwriting department and overall tracklist flow, that the album doesn´t score perfectly in my book. It´s actually a bit hard to rate an album, which maybe features some of the best material written by Queensrÿche, when said material sits among some of the most lacklustre and uninspired material written by the same artist. Despite these issues I still find "Promised Land" highly recommendable, although I almost always skip around 30% of the album, when I give it a listen (including the way too long intro track "9:28 A.M."). A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Empire" is the 4th full-length studio album by US power/heavy/progressive metal act Queensrÿche. The album was released through EMI Records in August 1990. It´s Queensrÿche´s most commercially successful release selling 3 million copies (triple Platinum status in those days) and spawning a top 10 Billboard charts hit in "Silent Lucidity". While "Operation: Mindcrime (1988)" was the band´s big breakthrough on the heavy metal scene, "Empire" was their mainstream breakthrough...

...and listening to the album it´s obvious why that is. "Silent Lucidity" is a Pink Floyd influenced power ballad, which resonated well with hard rock audiences in the early 90s, but the rest of the material on the album are also predominantly mainstream oriented heavy rock/metal tracks, which could easily have been played on the radio. Tracks like "Jet City Woman", "Another Rainy Night (Without You)", and "Hand On Heart", are almost ridiculously catchy and obviously aimed at the most heavy rock loving AOR audience. Queensrÿche flirt a little with progressive ideas on "Best I Can" and on "Anybody Listening?", but it´s only an influence and not a dominant trait on the album. Compared to the slightly more hard edged and dark themed predecessor, "Empire" is generally a more light-hearted release, and the only track on the album with a really dark atmosphere and heavy riffs is the title track. Not that tracks like "The Thin Line" and "Della Brown" doesn´t feature serious lyrical subjects and darker moods, but overall "Empire" is a fairly accessible release with a focus on "regular" vers/chorus structures and quite a few lyrics dealing with love and romance.

It´s a polished release with a pretty sterile and clear sounding production, courtesy of Peter Collins, who also produced "Operation: Mindcrime (1988)". The album could have prospered from just a slight organic touch, but it is still arguably a well produced release. As always the musicianship are on a high level on all posts. A tight playing rhythm section, plenty of great guitar work, and a well singing Geoff Tate in front.

Featuring 11 tracks and a full playing time of 63:23 minutes, "Empire" ends up feeling a bit too long for its own good. Many of the tracks feature similar structures and compositional ideas, and not enough of them stand out as particularly remarkable although there of course are some standout tracks like "Silent Lucidity", the title track, "Della Brown", "Best I Can", and "Jet City Woman" (damn that is one catchy chorus). So upon conclusion af 3.5 star (70%) rating isn´t all wrong.

UMUR "Operation: Mindcrime" is the 3rd full-length studio album by US power/heavy/progressive metal act Queensrÿche. The album was released through EMI Records in May 1988. It´s the successor to "Rage For Order" from 1986 and as something new in the band´s repetoire at the time, it´s a concept album/rock opera, telling the story of the recovering drug addict/political activist turned brainwashed hitman Nikki, who becomes involved in a revolutionary group lead by the mysterious Dr. X. It´s a story of questionable morality, political corruption, abuse of religious authority, exploitation of the weak, love and murder. While Queensrÿche were already relatively successful before "Operation: Mindcrime", this was the album which turned them into a highly commercially successful act too...

...and it´s obvious why that is when listening to the material on the 15 track, 59:14 minutes long album. There´s so much quality in all departments of "Operation: Mindcrime", that had the album, and the band, not achieved the high degree of the success that it did, it would have been a near crime.

Stylistically the music is US power/heavy metal with the occasional progressive leanings. It´s predominantly the 10:41 minutes long and highly impressive "Suite Sister Mary" (featuring female vocal contributions from Pamela Moore, a choir, and orchestration), which can be applied the progressive metal label, but there are other sporadic moments throughout the album, where that label also apply. Mostly this is US power/heavy metal though, featuring hard rocking riffs, melodic lead guitar work, a powerful and tight playing rhythm section, and one of the most powerful and skilled vocalists of the era in front. There are no words big enough to describe Geoff Tate´s vocal contributions on the album. Not only does he possess a powerful and distinct sounding voice, he is also an incredibly pathos filled singer. His delivery is commanding and every word of the lyrics are performed with conviction and great passion. He is also quite the versatile singer in the respect that he can sing both deep and really high notes with a natural ease.

The album is structured so there are short interlude samples, effects, or narrative attached to many of the "regular" length tracks, and there are also a couple of shorter atmospheric interludes/intros, which function as individual tracks. "Operation: Mindcrime" features many great rockers like "Revolution Calling", "Speak", "Spreading The Disease", and "The Needle Lies", epic tracks like "The Mission" and "Suite Sister Mary", but also more melodic and accessible material like "Breaking the Silence" and "I Don´t Believe in Love". The heavy title track also deserves a mention as one of the highlights of the album. So the material is relatively varied, although there is a clear stylistic thread throughout the album.

"Operation: Mindcrime" was produced by Peter Collins who had recently produced the two Rush albums "Power Windows (1985)" and "Hold Your Fire (1987)", and he has put his audible mark on the sound of the album (especially the drums feature a very characteristic sound). The sound production is powerful and detailed, and considering that it was recorded in 1987 and released in 1988, this is a very well sounding heavy metal release.

So upon conclusion this is a perfect release by Queensrÿche (and to my ears the peak of their career). The concept story works, the songwriting and the tracklist order are varied and keep the listener intrigued throughout, the musicianship is outstanding, and the sound production is professional and brings out the best in the material. There´s not a single sub par moment on the album and a 5 star (100%) rating is deserved.

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.