Album of the Week

Queensrÿche - The Verdict

There aren’t many bands who have had as many ups and downs as Queensrÿche have had over the past 8 years or so. The extremely well documented divorce of former vocalist Geoff Tate from the band, the ensuing court case, the multiple versions of the band existing at the same time, the accusations, the insinuations, the rights to play certain albums all the way through... It's been a car crash of a break up played out in front of us all. 

Those of us who are fans of the band have become disassociated with them and their music somewhat, this actually started to happen prior to the start of the drama as the bands output had moved further and further away from the classic sound of the early albums. Its wasn’t that the sound evolved which many people had an issue with, this is natural progression for many bands, but it was because as the sound changed, the quality of the music degraded with it. Queensrÿche has produced some incredible music, few bands ever hit the heights of ‘Operation: Mindcrime’ but some of the subsequent albums, especially in the 2000’s (with the exception of the excellent ‘Operation: Mindcrime 2’) not only didn’t represent the bands quality of early output, it didn’t sound like the same band all all. Then, the drama happened and Queensrÿche became a once great band who we simply now missed.

Then in 2012, after the drama, Todd La Torre joined the band, there were talks that the band was moving back to the sound of the earlier albums, interest grew, and then eponymous album ‘Queensrÿche’ hit in 2013, and it was good, really good, really very good indeed! And just like that, those of us who had grown somewhat disillusioned were captivated by a band reborn. La Torre’s voice was perfect for the devolution of the band’s sound back to the earlier albums and the quality was high. In 2015 we got another great album in ‘Condition Hüman’ and we’ve been waiting ever since.

Now in 2019, we get the fifteenth album from them, ‘The Verdict’ (completely ignoring the album from ‘Geoff Tate's Queensrÿche’, let’s pretend that didn’t happen) and the third with La Torre, and its arrival on the back of two excellent albums has a weight of expectation on it, thankfully it doesn’t disappoint one jot. ‘The Verdict’ is another great album. Earlier albums have had coherent links and concepts binding the songs together, however that appears to have been jettisoned in favour of some foot to the floor, balls out metal! Immediately starting with fast riffs and some lead guitar on opener ‘Blood of the Levant’, the band keep the tempo up and heads banging through ‘Man the Machine’ sounding like it’s been lifted off an early album and re mixed for the modern generation, ‘Light-years’ and ‘Inside Out’ and both more mid-tempo stompers, showcasing that the band still has prog elements flexing throughout some songs. ‘Propaganda Fashion’ sounds like a 90s Stone Temple Pilots rocker and leads the band into the eerie and emotional ‘Dark Reverie’, probably my favourite song on the album as I can imagine this being truly great live, the band totally hit this semi-ballad into the stratosphere, breaking out the keyboards and epic hook lines for the chorus, finishing like every epic song deserves with a blistering solo over the sound of a million heads banging, THIS is Queensrÿche!

The band keeps things brooding with ‘bent’, another semi-ballad which gets the fists in the air before some of the best guitar playing and melody lines flow through another proggy stomp of authority with ‘Inner Unrest’. ‘Launder the Conscience’ keeps the band playing along the early days of faster riffs and catchy melody style, Michael Wilsons solo is affirmation that they have really found themselves as a band again and are no longer lost in that 2000’s dark place or mediocracy, the synths and keyboards throwing the music around your head and inserting itself permanently in your conscious. Album closer 'Portrait' is  a full ballad to close off the album, it’s a good song but might have worked more in the middle of the album with the semi-ballads and fist in the air sections flowing, you end up wishing you were finishing on one of the head banging faster songs, but this is a minor complaint.

The album has kept the same style of the previous two with La Torre, but expanded to start to include some of the prog elements the band had flowing at the best in their heyday, it feels like what they have been trying to achieve over the past 8 years has finally come together. This may not be as perfect as '...Mindcrime', and it may not influence a generation of songwriters, but this is a band, 35 years since their first album came out, almost a decade since a court case which would have destroyed many bands, writing original, exciting and heavy music, sounding as fresh and vital as they ever have. The three albums with La Torre are all recommended listening, but this is the best of the three. Operation: Awesome.

KC

8/10

Top Tracks - 'Dark Reverie',  'Blood of the Levant’