I Remember Now who Queensryche is. They were one of those bands with The Mission of Spreading The Disease of prog rock. I believe they felt they was some kind of Revolution Calling. Maybe the bands will Speak to each other again, but I wouldn't expect them to be Breaking The Silence anytime soon. So in memory of Queensryche I'll hold an Electric Requiem in My Empty Room by listening to Operation: Mindcrime.

Will this be in next month's issue of Metal Edge?

SpikeStrip: but you gotta admit "far behind" rocked.

"Far Behind" rocks, but that wasn't Queensryche, that was Candlebox.

True story: Guy I hang out with sometimes at a bar here in Reno is the father of Geoff Tate's wife lol. I know, CSB.

What Queensryche rocks is "Silent Lucidity", an awesome song.

Sorry, rest of the band. There's no Queensryche without him. See also, Dokken, Queen, Judas Priest....

Bout damn time.....See ya Ego Tate

Not shocked by this. Tate ranks up there, for me, as one of the greatest voices ever but I always figured he was a crank.

Some new talent may do QR some good. Last time I saw them, Geoff's voice was weakening significantly...

I listened to previews of their last album, and aside from Geoff's voice, I found it quite boring. The 'American Soldier' album was a good concept, but not that great in execution.

The 'Take Cover' album of coversongs is pretty good, though I had to let it grow on me a bit.

DisplacedTexan: Not shocked by this. Tate ranks up there, for me, as one of the greatest voices ever but I always figured he was a crank.

Some new talent may do QR some good. Last time I saw them, Geoff's voice was weakening significantly...

And the band should rename themselves and not try to be Queensryche without him, kinda like Gilmour's trying to keep going as Pink Floyd without Waters (different order of magnitude, to be sure).

When asked for comment, Tate responded:

"In fiscal year 2010 to 2011, Queensrÿche management spent a combined total of 250000 dollars on amps. Lead singer expenditures ranked last in absolute dollars and accounted for only 6% of band spending. By way of comparison, the management spent 25 thousand more on hair extensions and 43 times more on pleather pants and drum sticks than on vocalist wages."

Somehow, they've limped along for the last 20 years, survived the departure of their best songwriter, muddled through eight largely uninspired post Empire albums. Now, they're losing one of the finest vocalists in the history of rock music (and the only thing besides nostalgia that kept me interested in the band).

I think they'll last two albums before fading away completely.

Tate's replacement is a generic high pitched power metal vocalist (see Helloween, Angra, Blind Guardian etc.

/I guess it's fiting since Tate's one of the primary influences of that style.

Id enjoy Queensrÿche songs better if it wasnt Queensrÿche singing them. Seriously, watch "I Dont Believe In Love". How can you screw up a vid about brainwashing, being falsely accused, and hot hooker nuns? By spinkicks and the worst ponytail in history, thats how.

The Live show they did of Mindcrime blew "the Wall" off the stage.

I was at the Madison show....that was one of the three they recorded the video of the show at...they also recorded at Milwaukee and LaCrosse. Best live show I've ever been to.

Metallica in the early 90s was damn good too, but not as good as Queensryche. They never should have let DeGarmo walk...he was the real talent that held the bunch together and did the lions share of the good writing.

MmmmBacon: Talondel: I Remember Now who Queensryche is. They were one of those bands with The Mission of Spreading The Disease of prog rock. I believe they felt they was some kind of Revolution Calling. Maybe the bands will Speak to each other again, but I wouldn't expect them to be Breaking The Silence anytime soon. So in memory of Queensryche I'll hold an Electric Requiem in My Empty Room by listening to Operation: Mindcrime.

Well played.

I have seen a couple of QR shows, and enjoyed the first one - while they were on the "Building Empires" tour, and they played Operation: Mindcrime in its entirety - a great deal. Most recently, I saw them at Rocklahoma (on TV, but still Live), and the show was okay, but rather uninspired. To be honest, Tate just didn't seem to want to be there, and it was Wilton and Rockenfeld who did the after-show interview backstage. You could tell there was a problem with the band, which is unfortunate, since I've been a fan from the first time I saw the video for "Queen of the Reich" on MTV back in '82.

I hope the guys all do well in their future pursuits, and salute them on 30 (mostly) great years of music. That said, they were still stupid to let Chris DeGarmo walk away, he was the best songwriter of the bunch.

CSB-
I bought the ep cassette of 'Queen of the Reich' at a Disc Records store in 1983 for $15 after seeing the video. I liked is because the cassette had the same 4 songs on both sides and it was on an endless loop in my first car. I had to mow two lawns to afford that one but it was worth it. I'm sure it would sound cheesy now, damn I loved that tape!

/Off my lawn, please... and clean up after your dog!

mhd: When asked for comment, Tate responded:

"In fiscal year 2010 to 2011, Queensrÿche management spent a combined total of 250000 dollars on amps. Lead singer expenditures ranked last in absolute dollars and accounted for only 6% of band spending. By way of comparison, the management spent 25 thousand more on hair extensions and 43 times more on pleather pants and drum sticks than on vocalist wages."

Ha.

hubiestubert: farkingismybusiness: It was the first year I came home with the wife to be, so 1990. It was just a sad show. They were just trying too damn hard to relate to an audience that just wasn't their crowd.

The next year we caught Anthrax and Public Enemy at The Orpheum, and that was an odd show. Primus got added onto the lineup to open, and we rolled out, and they opened with a cover of Thieves and my roomie and the rest of the fellas all leaped up cheering...and realized we were the only people in the entire theater who knew what the Hells Les was playing. One side of the theater had the metal kids, the other the rap kids. None of them were terribly excited about the opening, but WE had a great time. Up until the Young Black Teenagers showed up, and literally Chuck D came out and had security roust them off the stage. Anthrax played their asses off, PE tore it up. Finished off the show, and wound up in a fern bar off Harvard Square, and got some looks from the doormen, but we had some drinks and made the suit guys a wee bit nervous...

OHMIGOD THAT WAS A GREAT FARKING TOUR_{(Young Black Teenagers excluded... when I saw them they opened with a 15 min set)}! Infact, it was my first! I was all of ,14? 15? And afterwards cashed out my meager passbook savings account and bought a bass guitar.

mekkab: OHMIGOD THAT WAS A GREAT FARKING TOUR

Word.

Saw it at Hara Arena. Great venue, great show.

WOW! I thought that after 1995, I would never have to hear about Queensryche again. Apparently, I was wrong.

/DNRTFA

Saw Queensryche several times back in the heyday (late 80s, early 90s) when I was a fanboi. As much as I loved the concerts, to this day I'm still unsure if some/all of the vocals weren't lip-synched. It was too precise and perfect. But, man, could Tate belt the vocals.

Haven't listend to them since "Hear in the Now Frontier"

What, didn't you see it coming?

Been a fan since they started but the last time I saw them live was about 10 years ago. They really should have hung it up then. It's just not the same anymore and the writing has really fallen off.

I saw them on Empire and saw them for the Promised Land tour. That was also quite a good show. Watching them play Mindcrime all the way through was a huge treat.

You watch, no matter how good Todd proves to be, fans will biatch and whine about how Queensryche isn't what they used to be

Cloudchaser Sakonige the Red Wolf: fans will biatch and whine about how Queensryche isn't what they used to be

So - no change at all?

I'm not surprised. Guess they got tired of Tates shiat. I remember the whole big to do when Mindcrime 2 came out. Christ was that such a farking let down. I stopped paying attention to anything new that they did and gave up. Didn't help that the lead single was "I'm an American". The post 9-11 "'Murika 'Murika 'Murika" bullshiat was annoying. Didn't help that Tate went on crying and biatching about piracy this and that. You lose points, and money, from me when you start biatching about piracy.

The Muthaship: Sorry, rest of the band. There's no Queensryche without him. See also, Dokken, Queen, Judas Priest....

It started going downhill when Chris took the lyric writing talent with him (Q2K was abysmal).

I've seen them a couple of times, most recently about 4 years ago in a small, Atlanta venue; they still rocked.

Albums I enjoy:
Rage for Order
Operation: Mindcrime
Empire
Promised Land
Hear in the Now Frontier

This kinda makes me sad, if only because I had always secretly hoped that somehow, somewhere in secret, they might have been working on their next really great album, perhaps a last gasp, trend-breaking release that would make for the ultimate swan song, like R.E.M.'s "Automatic For The People" (the album they should have quit at,) and yet nothing... just @ 17 years of suck. It's always sad when a powerful, young, energetic group slowly dies on the vine as their creativity dries up or hits the brick wall; it's that whole problem of incredible artists who put out their best work when they're young, and then have to rest on their laurels for the rest of their miserable farking lives because they were a brilliant light bulb that burned out fast, like Metallica, R.E.M., Smashing Pumpkins (anyone sample Mr. Corgan's latest steaming pile?), et cetera; so many talented artists that now can only disappoint, because they got used up too soon.

Snapper Carr: muddled through eight largely uninspired post Empire albums

No way... I had only heard of one, that "Hear in the Now Frontier" crap, and that was it, I was done. Eight, really? Geez, what a sad end, not unlike the afore-mentioned R.E.M., et alia.

SoxSweepAgain: "Far Behind" rocks, but that wasn't Queensryche, that was Candlebox.

I think your sarcasm detector gave a false reading on that one. Just sayin'.

xaks: They never should have let DeGarmo walk...he was the real talent that held the bunch together and did the lions share of the good writing.

All good things, man. So many great groups that were just awesome together, but suck when parted; Simon & Garfunkel, Genesis without Peter Gabriel, Paul McCartney without John Lenon, I'm sure a list longer than a roll of toilet paper could easily be written about what happens when creative minds part. Sometimes, there's just something about those less-than-productive members tempering the most creative member, and tweaking their output, that makes the rest of the group greater than the sum of its parts. Sure, Don Henley was great as a solo artist, but the Eagles music I play twice as often as "End of the Innocence". Stevie Nicks and Lindsay Buckingham are okay solo, but were better as a duet or band (yes, I have *two* copies of the Buckingham/Nicks LP.)
It's just one of those things.

My Queensrÿche stories:
Once, almost a quarter of a century ago, I had a co-worker who was obsessed with the band before they really hit big, right when "Mindcrime" was released. All he ever did was rant and rave about them, and he loaned me a tape; I didn't get it, and I didn't warm up to them at first. At that same time, they had a small tour and came to town, and were doing the usual PR tour stuff like signing albums & CDs at the local Turtle's Records & Tapes store, and he went and got all his shiat signed. I drove by and saw them outside, thought "meh", and kept going. My bad.

Four years later, I had a close friend come up to me at work and brag about how he had somehow managed to score four front-row tickets to see them live in Atlanta at the height of their popularity; he wanted me to leave right then and there on the spot, and just go. God knows I wanted to, I really did, but as much as I hated that shiatty, dead-end job, I needed it, and in a down economy in a small Southern town, I couldn't afford to be unemployed, so I declined, much to my chagrin. He had an awesome time, had the pictures to prove it, and rubbed my nose in that fact every chance he got. He still does. I must admit, walking away from that job for a once in a lifetime opportunity would have been awesome, but it put me through college and made my life what it is now, and if I had lost that shiat job over a single concert, things might have turned out quite badly. Sometimes the price of irresponsibility is hard to calculate; I met my wonderful wife in college, and don't know how things would be if I had let that job go, and my profit sharing plan that paid for college with it.... I'd just assume not know. I'd hate to have turned out to be some kind of single loser who spent all his time bragging about that one highlight of my life, front-row seats at a concert full of has-beens.

FriarReb98: Changing your lead singer after 20+ years into your existence with him or her will never work. Even if you get the best imitation of him ever (i.e., Arnel Pineda), fans will still spend half their time wishing the first guy was back.

Sincerely,
Reality.

*Ahem*! AC/DC. Fleetwood Mac x3. Genesis (for a little while anyway). Rage Against the Machine. Queen (JUST KIDDING!!) God help me, but even Van Haagar.

Bands can most definitely survive a new lead singer; the real question is, can the band come up with a new sound and direction to match? Van Halen without Diamond Dave was a very different band, but also very successful for quite a while... it can be done, but it has to be done right. Yes, the fans will biatch and moan and whine and complain, and sure, the new stuff won't sound like the old stuff-- and most of the time, that's exactly what the band needed! Fresh start, fresh direction. God only knows, if U2 hadn't been as good at changing their sound every album, they should have ditched Bono years ago, but fortunately they were flexible enough to where that wasn't required. Other bands sadly weren't as good at adapting, and some just should have hung it up when it was clearly over (Lynrd Skynnrd? really??), but still, it can be done.

So is this Crimson Glory singer the same guy ("Midnight") from their early releases not hiding behind a pseudonym anymore? Or is he a replacement, too?

Get Miljenko Matijevic

Slow To Return: So is this Crimson Glory singer the same guy ("Midnight") from their early releases not hiding behind a pseudonym anymore? Or is he a replacement, too?

Whoops ... looks like it's not Midnight!

xaks: The Live show they did of Mindcrime blew "the Wall" off the stage.

I was at the Madison show....that was one of the three they recorded the video of the show at...they also recorded at Milwaukee and LaCrosse. Best live show I've ever been to.

Metallica in the early 90s was damn good too, but not as good as Queensryche. They never should have let DeGarmo walk...he was the real talent that held the bunch together and did the lions share of the good writing.

I saw Livecrime too, and it was damn fine.

Queensryche was in town a couple months ago, and I interviewed Geoff Tate for my radio show. He seemed like kind of a douche, which I thought was uncharacteristic. I guess he hated the rest of the band by that point, and was having a bad day. They put on a good show, though.

/csb

HumanSnatcher: I remember the whole big to do when Mindcrime 2 came out. Christ was that such a farking let down.

Yeah. So much potential awesome with the idea, but it fell flat. The only song on that album that did anything for me on that album was the duet with Dio...but Dio made almost anything more awesome.

And behold, a sudden daydream of Tate walking into a Dream Theater rehearsal, throwing LaBrie out a 2nd story window, turning to the band and saying "Look. I'm your new vocalist. The rest of you will stop writing to impress other musicians, and actually start writing for the benefit of the music itself. Now, lets do something worthwhile, something neither of us have done in well over a decade"

And I grinned.