I was just doing that. Here's an off-the-cuff report, written as I was listening:
Blood of the Levant – Good drama at the beginning, holding those notes. Rhythms under the verses are simplistic, really highlight La Torre’s voice. Mix seems to feature him a bit more than I remember Condition Human doing. Bridge to the song is classic QR leading into that solo…err…wait, that was the solo? Ok, so they do two bridges, and then a harmonized guitar solo part before kicking back in again. Kinda cool, but neither really goes anywhere. Not a bad lead track, but not really Queensryche-ish.
Man the Machine – this sounds like the guitar overtones of Operation: Mindcrime in the beginning, along with Wilton’s classic Rychean shread style. I like the little lead break after the first verse. Again, classic QR sounding guitar lead by Wilton. The chorus is better than I remember it being the first time I heard it. Not hugely melodic, but that “broken, broken” part has nice drama to it. Not sure who is doing the solo, it sounds like Wilton a little, but could be Parker. La Torre sounds pretty loose too, much more setting his own tone and imprint. That time change at the end, nice little nod to the proggy side of the band. I don’t really like the section, but the shift was cool to close.
Light Years – dramatic intro ala Promised Land, and a great heavy, yet melodic intro. Not a classic QR sounding intro, but once the guitars cut down, I love Ed’s bass. More mid-tempo here. La Torre singing a little deeper here, trying to use his chest voice a bit more. Without remembering the credits, this sounds like a song Ed wrote, particularly in the chorus. I love the moody guitar after the chorus mixed with the bass line. Really cool. Then the solo. Harmonized, but different for QR. Sounds like Parker wrote this one and is doubled by Wilton. Could be wrong, but doesn’t seem like Wilton’s style. Unlike the first two, this one sounds less influenced by classic QR, and more their own thing in a post-Tate and post-DeGarmo world.
Inside Out – What the hell is that intro. Very, very different for the band. I think this is the one some people compared to Hear in the Now Frontier. I don’t hear that, but it does have a more stripped down, slower pace to it to start, and some funky rhythm. The chorus is a little more traditional and ramps up the intensity a bit. Another mid-tempo cut, and the most unique so far. Song never really goes anywhere to me though. The time changes are cool. I dig the bridge, very clean guitars, just serene picking with a slight middle eastern flavor until the solo, which sounds like Wilton to me, ala Another Rainy Night to a degree. Then the song changes again, with some orchestration before kicking back into a mid-tempo but heavier section, then aggressive before just fading out over the last 20 second. Man, this song is different for them. Not sure I like it. Needs more time, but it was cool to hear something different.
Propaganda Fashion – Kicks right off in an aggressive manner. Did La Torre just say “mother fuckers” in a Queensryche song? Wow. This song is all over the place. It is jumpy. The chorus sounds like something Tate did on Dedicated to Chaos, at least tonally. The solo is basically forgettable, and then more ranting in the verses. I really don’t like this one. It has some cool guitar harmonics, but sounds like a cross between Condition Human/Dedicated to Chaos/Hear in the Now Frontier. Weird.
Dark Reverie – I love the intro musically. But this whole power ballad thing is not my thing any longer. I know most people have heard this, and I listened when it came out. But the only spot I really like is about the 1:20 mark with the cool guitar lick that goes over everything that is a bit buzzing. That’s a nice effect. The chorus does nothing for me. The keyboards just stand out as unnecessary. I don’t feel like the song goes anywhere. Sorta the same reaction to the last two songs. Even the bridge/solo section just kind exists, it doesn’t heighten the song for me. Not very impressed. The intro and outro clean guitar is the best part of the tune.
Bent – I love the darker riffing to start this tune. Great lead in the intro too. Different, choppy, love La Torre getting angry. The vocal effects are nice too. A little overdone, but then it kicks into a Vindication-like vibe and nice guitar parts. Killer angry note with some edge by La Torre around the 1 minute mark or so. The verses are choppy, not very melodic, and there’s a lot of vocal effects. I’m a bigger fan of the chorus section at the 2 minute mark, much more melodic. Another time change for the bridge. References to “sacred grounds,” almost spit out my coffee. Thank God its not about a woman’s nether regions again. Solo is a harmonized, slower, melodic one. Then it sounds like Parker does a single solo after the harmonized part. Love the end of it, not so much the beginning. They hook up and harmonize at the end. Nice touch. Coming out of the solo, it just sort of meanders. Man, I get being proggy, but stuff never really goes anywhere. Let me guess, aggressive coming up? Nope…As we all fall down again lyric line. I’m just not finding a lot of good melodies on this album up to this part. Ending of the song is dramatic. Dig the ending. Again, another one where the intro and ending sound best to me.
Inner Unrest – Catchy guitar riffs to start, mid-tempo, nice lead line, by Wilton to really get things started into La Torre. Another mid-tempo song. Drums sound flat here. Love Wilton’s lead work on this song. Typical Michael, nothing really innovative, but you know him when you hear him. The chorus really just doesn’t hook me. That seems to be a recurring observation. Nice moody bridge. Reminds me of an Iced Earth bridge the way the harmonics are. Solo shifts tempo, really moody, some harmonized parts. Yeah, now its getting heavy. Ok, I really like the solo. Then La Torre trying to channel the old style Tate spoken words that are lower in volume so you have to figure it out. Then back to the chorus. Eh. Love the guitars on this one though.
Launder the Conscience – mid-tempo again to start, then more aggressive in the verses. I like the verses quite a bit here. More effects on La Torre’s vocals. Lead guitar add some great drama. That’s also a recurring theme. The lead guitars really giving the songs some extra drama. Not really a fan of the chorus on this one (“find a solution” is sung weird) until the actual title of the song. La Torre delivers that nicely. Solo is harmonized, mid-tempo, usual stuff, but then picks up in intensity, which I dig, without losing the mood. Shred fest on the fretboard leads out to a moody section that has some recorded television or radio report, which is a nice touch, and then a short bridge to the chorus again. Then another bridge with some…PIANO? WTF? Then an evil sounding full band kicks in that sounds nothing like the first part of the tune, and then piano again. Is this Dream Theater? Gets melodic over the last minute. Majestic, even. Pace kicks back up. Damn it, this whole closing section after the second bridge is the coolest thing so far from them on this record, and the song just ends. WTF! Take that somewhere. THAT should have been the seed of the song. Man.
Portrait – Mid-tempo bass line and drums open, with some light guitar work, and then bass and drums drive the first verse with La Torre vocal, with the guitar piping in slightly for some harmonic drama. Not really a fan of this verse, but the chorus is nice, which starts around 1:02. That kind of sounds like Alice in Chains to my ear, but its clean, and harmonized vocals. This song is another VERY different tune. Doesn’t really sound like classic Queensryche at all. Wait, yes it does. I can’t place it, but the verses, musically, and how the guitars play off the vocal, there’s something there. I just can’t remember what old school QR tune. I like it around the 2:20 mark, again, there’s that chorus part again. That’s a killer section. “When you’re lost and lonely and you’re reaching for it…the sky lost in gray” – something like that. That’s really cool. It kind of reminds me of “Chasing Blue Sky.” Then the solo has this Rush vibe. Not sure if it is Wilton or Lundgren, but whoever it is channels Alex Lifeson a little. REALLY dig that chorus. Totally a Chasing Blue Sky vibe. Second solo comes in, again, REALLY cool. La Torre floats over it “when your lost and lonely” “and you’re reaching for me.” Really nicely done. Kind of like Open Road off the self-titled. The outro plays off that, and tries to add the majesty of an “Anybody Listening.” Doesn’t really reach that high point, but that was what they were going for.
Overall, wow, I’m not sure what I think. This was my first listen, from top to bottom. There are some standout moments for sure. They went proggy with some time and tempo changes, and also tried to spread their wings and really depart (I think) from the classic QR sound – as they should. I applaud them for that. I’m just not sure as a whole, the record will have staying power. Maybe it will. There's a lot of interesting stuff going on. But I'm not sure all the cool parts play together nicely.
Let’s get the obvious out of the way – I think while the record has melodic moments all over it, it doesn’t have a lot of MEMORABLE melodic moments, as in big choruses. The choruses aren’t those anthemic ones like you heard on the self-titled. Or the statement like choruses we remember from classic Queensryche. Musically, its really a mixed bag. Generally, I’d say other than the first two songs, they went mostly mid-tempo on this one, and tried to bring a bit of that moodier feel to the band. It works in some parts (as I said, I REALLY love the chorus musically in Portrait, and the closing section in Launder the Conscience. Man, those are good).
Guitar-wise, again, there are moments. One thing that I’ll bring to the table is, Wilton, as much as I love Mike’s solos, they tend to sound the same a bit, particularly the fast ones. He has his signature way of doing solos, and those really are prominent here and he plays them well. But I like his more moody stuff a bit more. And I think he has some good moments here too, but when it goes moody, I tend to wonder who it is, is it Whip, or is it Parker? It’d be nice to know. But the guitars were good on the record.
Bass – Ed is Ed. One of the best in the game, and severely underrated. I’m not sure I like how his bass is mixed though. I felt he was more prominent, thumpier, on other records. And I love me some Ed Bass bass. His performance is good, but I found myself really having to work hard to hear it with everything else going on. I loved his work on Light Years. Really dug it. But that’s the most memorable bass work on the record that I can remember after one listen.
Ok, so the drums. Well, I don’t care what any of the early reviewers (who are cherry-picked by the band) say, you absolutely can tell its not Rockenfield. La Torre does an admirable job, but he’s no Scott Rockenfield, and the drums are very understated in the mix. You can tell parts he tries to emulate Scott, and borrows some fills, but he has a much different groove. Honestly, I think without Scott, they should have just let Casey do the drums. If you're going to go different, just go different. La Torre served the song, but you can tell there is something different. And I’ll get back to that in a moment.
Vocally, the record is fine. I think La Torre is expanding a bit, trying new ways to deliver. He hits a few high notes, but for the most part, he’s trying different things, not as high, more eclectic ways of presenting himself, using vocal effects (like Tate did here and there). I think he sounds more like himself on this record for sure. His imprint is all over it, including the direction they took.
Ok, so that direction. Let’s just say it, other than Wilton’s guitars, the threads connecting this to classic Queensryche are getting thinner and thinner. That’s obvious, given the lineup changes. And with Scott Rockenfield gone, the whole rhythm style of the band is different. It just is, no matter how hard La Torre worked to channel Scott at times. That can be positive or negative. I think of it as a positive for those of the opinion this is a different band anyway. They are becoming La Torre’s band. His touch, both with the vocals and now drums, have really steered Queensryche into a direction very much away from what we all remember. There are moments for sure, like Man the Machine, that call back, but for the most part, the band is forging its identity, and they should be proud of that.
But if you’re evaluating them and saying “Queensryche needs to be in the same styles we heard from 1983-1990), you’re going to be disappointed. That isn’t them any longer, at least not on The Verdict, with some exceptions. The DeGarmo vibe, which I consider to be the big choruses, melodic touch, and majestic playing are really gone. And the feel Rockenfield had. That Rush-inspired groove…very much gone. And while La Torre has some Tate-like moments, they are less and less. So if you’re evaluating this in comparison to Queensryche’s prime, you’re going to be in for a disappointment. However, if you liked the direction they took on Condition Human, say a mix of Eye 9, Hellfire, Just Us, and Guardian, and want them to continue that and go different places from there, you’ll like it quite a bit.
Overall, I think The Verdict is very choppy. They have a lot going on, with a lot of tempo and time changes, and while that is cool, its kind of jarring, at least on first listen. But because there is so much going on, it will require multiple listens. But I can’t shake the feeling that some songs had some great ideas embedded in them that would have been cooler had they been lifted and worked on as their own tunes, instead of trying to slap cool parts together to make a “proggy” album. That's subjective, and obviously based on personal taste, of course.
Anyway, there you have it. Some off-the-cuff reactions to my first listen to the record.
My top tracks, just on one listen: Light Years, Man the Machine. Those two, and Portrait stood out.
p.s. for those that care about this, the album is shorter. 10 songs, 45 minutes. Doesn't bother me, but I know some people have issue with that. I think it is fine.
I will say, on second listen, the album is coming together for me more. I like it better. Again, so much going on (for Queensryche) it takes a bit. I'm digging some songs more than I did. Inner Unrest, Launder the Conscience.
Update - OK, so through listen #3. Yeah, it is growing on me for sure. There are still some strange moments, but I am liking things better on subsequent listens. I think my main gripe for this record is going to be that the shifts in tempo and time signatures don't always feel smooth. Like they were forced. Sometimes its just abrupt. That, and I just don't get that bigger chorus vibe. But I can see what a lot of it would appeal to progressive metal fans. They made it a point to go that route.
I'm not really a fan of the current Queensryche these days, but you have to applaud them by trying something different. Whether it works for you is obviously personal. It works in spurts for me. Congrats to them, and here's hoping people dig it.
Topic: Official Queensryche thread: Kickstart the next album (Read 692501 times)
