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.