Queensrÿche, By Any Other Name

Have you heard the new Queensrÿche album? The appropriate response (other than "no") would be "which one?" This is not something similar to what Guns n Roses did with Use Your Illusion. This is two different bands with the same name releasing albums within a month (or something like that) of one another.

On one side you have Queensrÿche featuring vocalist Geoff Tate and a bunch of hired guns who have spent time with Dokken, Candlebox, Ozzy, and AC/DC. Their new album is called Frequency Unknown and features 10 new originals plus 4 re-recordings of Queensrÿche classics, their most well known song "Silent Lucidity" included. Geoff had an incredible voice. At their high water mark (early 90s) he was among the best rock vocalists around. He's always seemed to be a bit of an ego-maniac but when you make records like Operation:Mindcrime and Empire and Rage For Order you can use it to positive purpose.

On the other side you also have Queensrÿche. This one features the rest of the band regulars: Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson and Scott Rockenfield. Chris DeGarmo (the other classic-era guy) flies jets now and only dabbles in music. Good for him. This other version features some other guitarist and the guy from Crimson Glory. Their record is called, simply, Queensrÿche.

All the hullabaloo seems to have been caused by the brunt of the band getting sick of Geoff Tate, which isn't that surprising. Evidently Geoff's wife was their manager, whom the band fired without Geoff approving, which caused Geoff to become even more insufferable. Fair enough, I don't really begrudge them that. So now they are fighting over who owns the brand name. I am surprised there hasn't been some sort of injunction or something (I admit I am no law-talking-guy) that prevents one or the other or both from using the name. Yet here they both are. One of them is playing DC in a few weeks. I think it's the Tate version.

I saw Queensrÿche on their 30th anniversary tour a year or so ago. That made me feel very old. I enjoyed the show because they played all the old bests, but I did think Geoff spent way too much time babbling. I also saw them when they toured behind Operation:Mindcrime 2, yes they made a sequel to their album. If you know the story it makes sense. My buddy Doug went with me and he hated the sequel record. I thought it was ok. They played the first record...took a break...then did the second record. All with a couple actors on stage acting bits out. Strange but whatever.

When I was in high school and my first few years of college I loved Queensrÿche. I don't hide that I am a metalhead and prog fan and Queensrÿche skate that line in between. I still like listening to the real Mindcrime record and Empire and the very under-rated Promised Land and the even more under-rated Hear In The Now Frontier. The albums after that have been kind of meh.

The Geoff Tate album is...fine. It's kind of uninteresting. It has the usual Geoff Tate bombast: he talks over bits of songs as if he is speaking to someone next to him in the recording booth. The music is fine...it sounds like Queensrÿche but is missing something. Remember that it's called Frequency Unknown..."F U"...and the cover has a fist wearing rings, one saying "F" and one saying "U." Get it? Great joke, I wonder who he is talking to.

The non Geoff Tate record is, I think, much better. It actually musically sounds like a Queensrÿche album. And the vocalist, Todd La Torre, really sounds like Tate. There were a few times the first time I listened to it where I had to double check which version I was listening to. The songs are all fairly short, which is a good thing I feel. They are to the point, get in get out. Self-titling the record is a nod to re-birth, starting anew. It's interesting that Tate has the "queensryche" DNS, while the other guys have "queensrycheofficial" just to keep things confusing.

What really cripples the Tate version is the re-reecorded versions. They are totally unnecessary, just a jibe at his old band-mates. And they aren't that good...they don't even approach the originals. They make the whole enterprise kind of sad. It's too bad that a great band can't ride off into the sunset, or just do a record and tour every couple years and make their fans happy and re-live their arena filling days. Now it's just pettiness and business and lawsuits and counter-suits.

So if you like the 'rÿche, give the Tate version a listen to satisfy curiosity. And check out the self-titled album. Neither of them are really Queensrÿche but it's closer to it.

Here's the best track off the record I like: "Redemption." It's got a cool soaring chorus and the typical laser-like guitars.