Official Queensryche thread: Kickstart the next album

[jammindude]

Hmm...  Not quite sure what to think.  It didn't grab me right away, but that's not to say I won't like it after giving it more time. 

Pretty much "color by numbers" power metal.   

  I don't hear anything in that song that reminds me of power metal.

I know I'm not alone on this.   The big chanting background vocals, the slightly cheesy anthemic quality, the straight forward power chords.... the ingredients are all there.    Still, it's not bad for a single.   

[bosk1]

Whether you are alone or not, I don't hear anything that sounds like power metal.  The things you describe are not defining features of power metal.  They are fairly common to most forms of metal. 

[Kwyjibo]

OK, I'm excited too, looking forward to it, not absolutely but actually.

But that press release? Seriously? Is this meant to be satirical? Or funny?

[Cruithne]

I know I'm not alone on this.   The big chanting background vocals, the slightly cheesy anthemic quality, the straight forward power chords.... the ingredients are all there. Still, it's not bad for a single.

If I'd never heard La Torre before and you didn't tell me who it was my first guess would be that it was Helloween.

First impressions are that it's alright. It might grow on me though.

[bl5150]

I said I didn't feel like listening to this track again ,but now I am going to have to in order to see if I can hear Helloween style power metal 

[devieira73]

Interesting, I think that Queensr˙che now sounds like a crossover of EP, The Warning and Fates Warning - Perfect Simmetry and to me it's not a bad thing. I don't know, but most of the time I hear more Ray Alder influence in La Torre's voice than Geoff Tate.
The single is good, but as a first single, to me Redemption was a better song. And yes, the production of the new album seems to be a great improvement from last one.

[Lowdz]

I'm actually looking forward to this!

What's the 'actually' crap?  I'm ABSOLUTELY looking forward to this!

Well,

1. I hold the band accountable for their last 15 years. It's not all on Tate.
2. The s/t is NOT the masterpiece that most people around here make it. It's a decent extended EP at best.
3. I'm still skeptical, and trust me, I AM rooting for them. After hearing the new track, I am definitely encouraged.

All fair comments.  On the first point, you're right... Mrs. Tate is owed much of the blame.  My wish is that they fired his ass in the mid 00s, and we had then what we have now.  On point 2, I believe the s/t was written and performed well, just mastered horribly... seeing them live proves they still have 'it'.

My only 2 criticisms of the S/t are the length and the mix. WHat's there is fine, there's just not enough of it and some songs sound like they want to be longer but time and money ran out so they rushed to finish.

And yes, the band allowed the last 15-20 years to happen. They allowed Mr and Mrs Tate to take over.

I don't hear power metal in this song but it's straight forward metal without the proggy overtones that their earlier work had. But then there's a decent QR style solo which made me  .
But its just one song and as I said, a great start. And far better than the Tate samples.

[Mister Gold]

Interesting, I think that Queensr˙che now sounds like a crossover of EP, The Warning and Fates Warning - Perfect Simmetry and to me it's not a bad thing. I don't know, but most of the time I hear more Ray Alder influence in La Torre's voice than Geoff Tate.
The single is good, but as a first single, to me Redemption was a better song. And yes, the production of the new album seems to be a great improvement from last one.

I definitely agree about the Fates Warning influence, and seeing as how they're my favorite prog metal band, that's not a bad sound for Queensryche to aim for. :

[bosk1]

After second listen, I can say I like it.  It doesn't smack me between the eyes like stuff from their last album did, but it's not bad.  Can't wait to hear more.  The riffing from the Kataklysm song that comes up on that link immediately after this song is pretty cool though. 

[Mister Gold]

After second listen, I can say I like it.  It doesn't smack me between the eyes like stuff from their last album did, but it's not bad.  Can't wait to hear more.  The riffing from the Kataklysm song that comes up on that link immediately after this song is pretty cool though. 

Yeah, Arrow of Time is definitely a grower. I'm really curious to see where the band takes the rest of the album.

[jammindude]

I don't hear power metal in this song but it's straight forward metal without the proggy overtones that their earlier work had.

This is probably where I'm simply talking past everyone.   Anything with the bolded description just sounds like most modern bands that classify themselves as "power metal".   Blind Guardian-ish maybe???

[Lowdz]

I don't hear power metal in this song but it's straight forward metal without the proggy overtones that their earlier work had.

This is probably where I'm simply talking past everyone.   Anything with the bolded description just sounds like most modern bands that classify themselves as "power metal".   Blind Guardian-ish maybe???

When I think power metal I hear repetitive fast bass drumming, happy riffs and choruses like you'd hear in church 200 years ago. And dragons. Lots of dragons.

[jingle.boy]

When I think power metal I hear repetitive fast bass drumming, happy riffs and choruses like you'd hear in church 200 years ago. And dragons. Lots of dragons.

Being ridden by Vikings. 

[TAC]

When I think power metal I hear repetitive fast bass drumming, happy riffs and choruses like you'd hear in church 200 years ago. And dragons. Lots of dragons.

Being ridden by Vikings. 

Literally!

[Lowdz]

The singers sound like they're being ridden by Vikings...

[KevShmev]

That new song sounded pretty good.  It's still hilarious how much this new guy sounds like a young Geoff Tate.

[jjrock88]

That new song sounded pretty good.  It's still hilarious how much this new guy sounds like a young Geoff Tate.

And that's a very good thing!!

[Kwyjibo]

When I think power metal I hear repetitive fast bass drumming, happy riffs and choruses like you'd hear in church 200 years ago. And dragons. Lots of dragons.

Our bass player used to talk about "sword-wielder hymns with double bass" when refering to power metal, and I think he wasn't too far off But I don't hear this in the new QR song.

[Calvin6s]

That song sounds very early prime era Queensryche.  That Speak or The Needle Lies feel.  The problem is that those were some of my less favorite QR songs of that great era.  Worse, I'd take Speak or Needle over the new Arrow of Time.  They all have that driving beat.  Arrow even has a nice bridge.  But I think the melodies and overall arrangement was better on the older songs.

They seem to be firing at 85% of prime (which is still better than 5% at the end of the Tate era).  Except Rockenfield.  He seems to be right there playing at prime level on this.

And as much respect that I've lost for Tate, La Torre is doing well with some aspect of the Tate prime era, but it is missing a couple of dimensions.

Taken piece by piece, the song has quite a bit of the QR magic.  Even close to par with the old stuff.  But as a whole, it doesn't really have that trademark part that makes the song an instant classic.  When Speak goes into the chorus, it is a total change up, but it feels so right.  It feels like a classic chorus.

It is closest to The Needle Lies, which might be my least favorite song on Mindcrime.  A very good song, but a notch below the rest of the magic moments on that classic CD.

Quite frankly, I think I like their grand re-opening better so far.

[TAC]

And as much respect that I've lost for Tate, La Torre is doing well with some aspect of the Tate prime era, but it is missing a couple of dimensions.

Interesting. perhaps he doesn't have the depth that Tate once had.

I love Speak! And The Needle Lies.


If Arrow Of Time is my favorite song on the album, I'll be disappointed. But I'm pretty sure it won't be.

[bosk1]

If Arrow Of Time is my favorite song on the album, I'll be disappointed. But I'm pretty sure it won't be.

Yeah, that's kind of how I feel as well. 

Here's my somewhat controversial take and description on the new song.  To me, it kinda reminds me of the better parts of Q2K.  Overall, I don't like Q2K very much.  Other than D2C, it is my least favorite QR album.  But the thing is, the seeds were there for some good stuff.  And they were writing with Kelly (and without Chris) for the first time ever, so where the writing on that album fell flat, I can somewhat overlook it.  The instrumentation to me sounds a lot like where I would have expected them to be by the next album after Q2K had Kelly stayed in the band and gelled with the rest of the band.  Just as the last album to me sounded like something that could have grown out of the best parts of Tribe and been a logical follow up to that album, this one feels that way with Q2K (with perhaps a bit of the Mindcrime songs that Calvin mentioned sprinkled in).  Maybe after a few more listens, I will end up retracting this description and wondering what I was ever thinking.  But that is where my mind went after the first few listens.

[T-ski]

the new song isn't much different then the S/T stuff, kind of a safe sounding, paint by numbers type of song.

I really hope they are able to show some growth with Todd in the band, but I don't get this from this particular song.

[Deathless]

QUEENSRŸCHE will release its new album, "Condition Hüman", on October 2 via Century Media. The CD was recorded in part at at Uberbeatz Studio in Washington with producer Chris "Zeuss" Harris, who has previously worked with ROB ZOMBIE, HATEBREED, SOULFLY and SHADOWS FALL. Pre-Orders are available now at PledgeMusic.com.

"Condition Hüman" track listing:

01. Arrow Of Time
02. Guardian
03. Hellfire
04. Toxic Remedy
05. Selfish Lives
06. Eye9
07. Bulletproof
08. Hourglass
09. Just Us
10. All There Was
11. The Aftermath
12. Condition Hüman

[bosk1]

I like the cover.  Looks like whoever designed it is definitely a fan of Awake. 

Night sky?  Check.
City scape?  Check.
Mirror?  Check.
Mirror reflecting something different that what is actually in the room?  Check.
Spider?  Check.
Spider web?  Check.
Band logo inserted in a clever way?  Check.  (well, okay, this is kind of a given, but still)

[jjrock88]

very cool cover!

[Mister Gold]

I like the cover.  Looks like whoever designed it is definitely a fan of Awake. 

Night sky?  Check.
City scape?  Check.
Mirror?  Check.
Mirror reflecting something different that what is actually in the room?  Check.
Spider?  Check.
Spider web?  Check.
Band logo inserted in a clever way?  Check.  (well, okay, this is kind of a given, but still)

I feel like this was definitely intentional on both the band and the artist's part. Their best bet at regaining any sort of success these days is to win back the fans of the prog metal scene. Looking at bands like Dream Theater and Fates Warning for some amount of influence in developing the new band's look and sound is a good way to do that.

[Mebert78]

I love the cover too! It's very prog -- specifically I&W and Awake.  This could possibly be my favorite artwork of any QR album, aside from Promised Land.  I saw some people rip it on Blabbermouth though, saying it's cheesy and looks like there's an extra space between the words "Condition" and "Human."

[TAC]

I feel like this was definitely intentional on both the band and the artist's part. Their best bet at regaining any sort of success these days is to win back the fans of the prog metal scene. Looking at bands like Dream Theater and Fates Warning for some amount of influence in developing the new band's look and sound is a good way to do that.

You know what? That's a great point.

[King Postwhore]

So I'll hear some of the new songs before they are released in September.  Cool.

[Nel]

Agreed that the cover reminds me of some prog album covers. Very nice. I am so ready!

[Mindflux]

Mirror reflecting something different that what is actually in the room?  Check.

Mirror reflecting something that is outside the frame of the "photo". Check.

In fact you can see the chair on the bottom left in the mirror. The mirror isn't just exposing something that's different like the DT cover.


I don't see the TriRyche logo though. (nevermind, it's just damn hard to see without jacking my brightness up)

[bosk1]

Mirror reflecting something that is outside the frame of the "photo". Check.

In fact you can see the chair on the bottom left in the mirror. The mirror isn't just exposing something that's different like the DT cover.

You could be right, but I don't think so.  I think the fact that the little girl in the mirror has dark hair, whereas the little girl near the window has light hair is supposed to indicate that the dark-haired girl in the mirror is not there.  But, of course, I am somewhat just guessing.

[Train of Naught]

I'm so excited for this album, and the Awake influences are indeed more than obvious.

[Dittomist]

Yeah, this cover is great! The only thing I don't like about it is the text, which is way too large. I wish the "Condition Human" could have just been written on a piece of paper on the floor, reflected in the mirror, or carved into the dresser. I would have also gotten rid of that silly extra umlaut. But I still love the cover and am intrigued by the song titles. 

[bosk1]

I would have also gotten rid of that silly extra umlaut.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU??