Promised Land

Listened to this album the other day, at a friend’s house, the lad a huge fan of the Reichs, including the other, recently instigated branch, Operation: Mindcrime… nah, said branch can fool no one that it’s worth delving into even superficially, but my word today is about the main one… which wasn’t completely deprived of potholes, the first really feeble one being the slab reviewed here.

Although my absolute favourite from the band’s discography will forever remain the debut self-titled EP, this ravishingly brilliant 4-tracker, one of the finest pieces of music to ever come out of the States, I absolutely appreciate, if not downright love to bits, each of their recordings from the 80’s. The sharp confrontational delivery of the EP was toned down considerably for “The Warning”, this opus offering a warn… sorry, warm moderately complex style with rock and metal decorously co-existing for a really fine introspective listen. “Rage for Order” followed the same path, an even more atmospheric, less climactic saga but compelling nonetheless, somewhat paving the way for the arrival of the totally grand “Operation: Mindcrime”. Yep, the guys nailed it on a full-length scale as well, a consummate operation that placed them on the very top of the progressive metal/rock movement.

But it wasn’t only Queensryche that were excelling in the late-80’s; each of the other three acts from the Big Quattro of US progressive metal (Fates Warning, Savatage, Crimson Glory) also crossed the magnum opus off the list by the end of the decade… and each decided on a softening of the course towards more rock-oriented tunes afterwards. Savatage (“Guitar Ballet”) and Fates Warning (“Perfect Symmetry”) ventured into this trend first, surprisingly cool affairs that didn’t sound like very drastic departures from their initially chosen style, obvious but not mitigated alterations which still kept their core fans in the vicinity. The “Empire” that Queensryche built for the latter shortly after those two was too tepid and soft to be heavily populated, but amazingly it attracted large crowds from the more mainstream rock pool and boom… sold even better than its predecessor. Incredible but a fact.

Yep, a paradox that last fact, daubing the critical eyes and ears of the more demanding metal fraternity who saw no glaring reason in following the band throughout the 90’s. Stripped completely off both its metallic clout and its progressive complexities, this effort was more of a commercialized crime operation, the antidote to the band’s previous feats and a possible warning against similar such radio-friendly slabs. And those weren’t very late to arrive, the one reviewed here being the first of this unenviable, ill-measured batch. After “Empire” anything was possible, also considering the mouldy 90’s environment, but how the guys thought that emulating the newly-sprung wave from their hometown was a good idea to prolong their career… yep, the revered veterans have decided to look in their apprentices’ kitchen, and to steal a few ingredients from there… not for an entire album, fortunately, but the first couple of cuts (“I Am I”, “Damaged”) are embarrassingly faithful to the grunge sounds emitted by Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam… well, if there had to be an 80’s practitioner to refresh their fledgling approach with tunes from there, it had got to be someone hailing from the same city, right? Others simply had no ryche... sorry, right to do that.

In other words, problem solved, access to the new wave granted… yes but no; simply cause this grunge therapy doesn’t work at all, not to these ears anyway, the band filling in the space with soothing ballads (“Out Of Mind”, “Lady Jane”) whenever they get tired of grunging, a fairly debatable alternative to the latter regardless of some of those pacifying tracks’ undeniable merits, like the soulful dramatic accumulations on “One More Time”, the operatic lead-driven pathos on “Real World”, and particularly the pensive deep atmospherics of the lengthy but arresting title-track… so yeah, there are lights in this numusic tunnel but since this quiet, not exactly silent, lucid clout covers more than half the album, it’s hard to praise the mentioned compositions sky-high as they invariably merge with the rest, even after repeated listens, the dominant delivery getting disconnected from it again on the lazily… sorry, leisurely executed blasé rockabilia “Disconnected” and the melancholic bluesy filler “My Global Mind”, the downside of the album, partially saved by Jeoff Tate’s customarily outstanding performance behind the mike. But the thing is that his vocal exploits are the only binder to the older output, nostalgic croons that by all means stand to scrutiny but with the “validity” tag only ephemerally attached to the music accompaniment, it takes that long for the listener to stop seeing Tate’s contribution as a solid safety belt.

So who was this “Promised Land”, comfortably constructed in the middle of the 90’s, targeting? Definitely not the old school lovers; and definitely not the metal fandom. The once-kings of progressive metal were looking for shelter in the tunes created by their younger colleagues and townmates, ones who had most likely grown up looking up to them and listening to their repertoire. It’s also seriously debatable how viable it was the decision to base the other side of the album on “Silent Lucidity”, the hit ballad from “Empire”… it’s true that the three mentioned ballads easily surpass it, but again this lethargic skeleton seems like it may start falling apart at any moment cause there’s little gravity and integrity to hold it together. It’s not exactly directionless this album; after all, since 1984 the band haven’t been the most belligerent batch on the circuit… and, if nothing else, this effort is way superior to Crimson Glory’s sinfully shameful “Strange and Beautiful”. Still, it’s literally heart-rending to see the once-mighty kings of progressive metal choosing bits and pieces of the 90’s cuisine, enmeshing it with the serene side of their works, and presenting it to the audience as a promise fulfilled for more radio-friendly niceties. Fair play; only that the 90’s seemed more propitious and more accommodating for their colleagues as both Savatage and Fates Warning carried on dignified without radically changing their approach, rising above line-up changes and tragedy strikes; not to mention the new kids of the block Dream Theater who were defiantly weaving their labyrinthine soundscapes, totally oblivious to the aggro/groovy/grungy world around them.

Total oblivion acknowledged regarding progressive metal in the Queensryche camp as well; in other words, they couldn’t care less about old or new competition in this trend. They settled in their newly-found comfort zone until they nearly lost the plot by the dawn of the new millennium. Under the inglorious circumstances, it kind of made sense that they tried to evoke the spirit of their magnum opus on “Operation: Mindcrime II”, a decidedly better affair than any of their lacklustre 90’s outings, a surprisingly non-sucking collection of songs which was pulled without Chris DeGarmo who had left a few years earlier. Needless to add, this sequel was nowhere near the original quality-wise, but at least it showed the band at least semi-revitalized. But that was it; pretty much. An unsightly covers-only compilation followed suit before the band re-embraced the 90’s alternative grunge rock/pseudo-metal sensibilities for two downright terrible showings. With the very bottom of the pit reached finally, internal frictions didn’t seem so implausible anymore, and Tate was shown the door in 2012.

Both sides are running their own show parallel to each other, flirting with both the Queensryche moniker and repertoire, and if again the Tate-led enterprise offers very little, if at all, to lose your sleep over, the other branch have pulled themselves together for three so far fairly capable if not overtly striking endeavours, with both metal and progressive heard more prominently. Who knows, maybe even DeGarmo himself may feel inspired to re-join them at some stage… but no promises made there; those weren’t fulfilled back in the mid-90’s… the third mindcrime operation has been cancelled… for good. I mean, who wants to keep referencing his/her finest achievement from here to eternity and from eternity to here?