The band’s third album took all before them, and built on the following they had already gathered and then drastically increased it with the release of “Operation: Mindcrime”. That concept album, the initial brainchild of lead vocalist Geoff Tate and eventually also championed by guitarist Chris de Garmo, proved to be the true catalyst to the band’s surging career. As a true concept album, incorporating the characters to have spoken pieces between songs, and drawing to its final conclusion, this caught the imagination of the music listening public, and was the album that brought them to the world wide attention that any band would be seeking.
How then do you follow such an album? Indeed, given the uniqueness of the concept of the album, what kind of a mindset do you go into the creation of the next album with? I mean, you can’t go out and make ‘Operation: Mindcrime 2’ can you? - well, not for 15 years anyway. The combination of heavy and melodic and acoustic tracks on the “Operation: Mindcrime” album had almost set a precedent. In order to retain the fan base that had come on board with that album, the band needed to find a way to produce an album with this same sort of mixture of creative ideas without necessarily having a story to intertwine them together. To be able to create a mass of songs with such a change and different point of genre without disturbing the centric pull of the album, holding the musical theme together such that it didn’t have different fans losing interest at any point of the album’s length, is an incredibly difficult thing to achieve. With “Empire”, Queensryche perhaps went as close as any band could to achieving that.
“Empire” as an album is not immediately as bombastic as their previous album had. That was something that was completely out of the box, the way it came at you from the outset. This has a far more subtle introduction, not that it isn’t still powerful musically, but it isn’t the out and out heavy in your face beginning that Mindcrime has. “Best I Can” has the keyboard tinkling as Geoff monotones through the opening, before the opening crash of guitar riff and drums kicks the song and album into gear. The lyrics on this song are powerful and uplifting, focusing on beating a perceived handicap and becoming the ‘best man that I can, and are fantastic to sing along to and use as a motivation along the way. Backed by the superb guitaring from Chris de Garmo and Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson’s thuddingly rumbling bass guitar and Scott Rockenfield’s superb drumming, this is a terrific opening track, a great start to the album. Geoff Tate’s melodic vocals, that move from the lowest of low registers into that high pitch that still amazes, top off this brilliant track. This segues nicely into “The Thin Line” that mixes barking synth and keyboards with Jackson's underlying bass tones and the acoustic guitar through the opening passages before the burst of electricity and energy into the back half of the song. There is a subtle build through the song that can be unnoticed, from the quiet and almost baritone vocal line from Tate early into the middle of the track, where it is charged slowly and deliberately. And then the song concludes with almost a continuing jam to play it out until it is cut off cleanly. And then the jump straight into the opening bass riff from Jackson that kicks off one of the band’s best ever, “Jet City Woman”. The guitar solo from de Garmo over the top and the building drum hi-hat beat increases into the bursting opening of the song. The moody in and out of the track comes in waves, the lull back into sublimity as Tate begins his vocals that slowly builds back to the bridge and the chorus, exploding with the many voices of the band joining in to offer their assistance. The harmony backing bring the power to the chorus, highlighted as always by Tate’s amazing voice. The guitar solo in the middle from de Garmo is outstanding, building to an amazing finish. An incredible song that rounds out a terrific trio of tracks to open the album.
“Della Brown” is one I’ve always had a bit of a problem with. It's bit too jazzy for me, from the opening bass and hi-hat drum procession. Even Geoff’s vocals, if they were in his lower register, would sound like a jazz club. All of the energy of the opening songs feels drawn back into itself here. It is certainly less vibrant in the bombastic sense, and it drags out like a wet winter afternoon. If I am going to skip a song on this album, this would be the one. Stretching out to seven minutes, even if it wasn’t as morbidly slow as it is, is a long stretch when there is very little interesting about the track itself. On the other hand, it precedes one of the band’s greatest ever, “Another Lonely Night (Without You)”, that opening melodic guitar riff that breaks that monotonous spell from the previous track and brings us back to reality. A song with two of the best lines ever written in the second verse, those being: “Strange how laughter looks like crying with no sound, Raindrops taste like tears without the pain”. Wonderfully descriptive, perfectly executed. The chorus is beautifully performed on each occasion with the backing vocals helping to take on the load. De Garmo’s solo again is sublime, reaching the crescendo of the track through that middle drive out of the emotive vocals from Tate that rise into the start of the solo, and then build again at its conclusion. It’s a super track, bringing the power and heart back to the album.
This then, after the answering machine message at the start, crashes into the Mindcrime-like drama and energy of the title track “Empire”. Lyrically it warns of the oncoming storm of drug trafficking within the United States and its related crimes, and the resulting breakdown of society. Musically, it carries that weight, driven by the remarkable drumming of Scott Rockenfield who excels once again on this song, adjusting the mood of the track by his simple time and groove changes, and carrying the heavier tone of the guitars as a result. Geoff Tate spits his lyrics with venom, and the changing tempo of the song highlights the powerful positioning of those vocals throughout. As I alluded to, this is the most Mindcrime-like track of this album, and it ties to fit nicely.
The back half of the album has its mood swings through each of the remaining tracks, ones that amazingly fit together nicely. Not quite like a puzzle, but still in their own way, fluid. “Resistance” has a very contemporary guitar riff about it, a guitar sound in general, and fitted with the song is not only very tied to the time but unsurprisingly is still relevant even today. This is followed by the requisite ballad, the non-negotiable item on most bands of a progressive nature as well. There is one big difference with this particular ballad. It is one of the best ever written and performed. Utilising orchestration conducted by Michael Kamen, this song jumps out of the speakers at you through the sheer magnificence of its conception. Chris de Garmo, who composed the song and pays the unadulterated brilliant solo in the middle of the track, said about the song: "We created a very real dreamlike landscape for this song. Everything from the vocal delivery to the orchestration, to the melody, the instruments, it’s all trying to create this very lush landscape. It’s a huge-sounding track”. While originally this was only to be played by de Garmo and Tate, the band added the instrumentation during the last week of working on the album. The album's producer Peter Collins was adamant that the song should not be included on the record, but the band members pushed for its inclusion. It’s fair to say the band was right. It is stillan amazing song, and still being used in TV show and soundtracks to this day.
“Hand on Heart” channels the glad tidings feelings of “Jet City Woman” and “Another Rainy Night”, the multi-layered chorused vocals behind Geoff Tate’s lead vocal and beautifully melodic guitars piles on the joy of the track. The arrangement of the track gives it its balance. “One and Only” is the closest straight out rock song on the album, though perhaps more accurately progressive rock track. It’s the only song on the album written solely by the two guitarists, so perhaps that is why it has this particular guitar combination that has this brand about it. And then into the album closer, another classic epic closing track from the band, “Anybody Listening”. Combining the emotional substance of both “Jet City Woman” and “Another Rainy Night”, “Anybody Listening” is that epic track that you look for in order to rally the surge of feelings within the music of the album, and look to draw that within, to the point that it encourages the listener to turn that album back over and start it all again. Part power ballad, part progressive metal, part stage musical closing number, this song combines all of the strengths of the band and slowly drip feeds them into the mix until reaching de Garmo’s solo break, where the full energy of the production comes into existence. As the final piece of the “Empire” puzzle, this song more than does its job, finalising and completing the album on the band’s terms.
It may surprise you – or, perhaps it won’t - that when I first bought this album and played it in my downstairs bedroom on my stereo in my childhood home... I disliked it. Well, perhaps dislike is the wrong word. But let me paint the picture. I had come off almost two years of playing “Operation: Mindcrime” over and over and over, on an endless repeat of utter awesomeness. An album I had become over obsessed with, and one that had changed the way I felt about music. So when “Empire” was released, and I managed to get around to buying it, I was obviously ramped up to hear “Operation: MIndcrime Part 2” and pretty much have the same sort of songs and story coming out of the speakers at me. It should also be noted that I was also drowning in a sea of joy at that time contained Anthrax’s “Persistence of Time”, Judas Priest’s “Painkiller” and Megadeth’s “Rust in Peace”, so there was also a certain... thrash element to the music I was currently mass exporting into my veins. So the drastically different subtle tones of the music on “Empire” was not only not what I was expecting, it was also not what I wanted. Still, fast forward a couple of months down the track. Those other albums are still on auto repeat with me, but I get home one night after the odd schooner of 12 at the local leagues club, and I want to listen to some music before I drift off to sleep. I see my “Empire” CD on the stereo and think “what the hell, lets give it another go”. I put it on, turn off the light and lay on my bedroom floor while the opening strains of “Best I Can” come through the speakers. And an hour later... I’m hooked. I’ve absorbed (through the alcohol) exactly what this album has to offer, and for whatever reason I had now begun to find the pieces that worked for me. And while those pieces would not be unfamiliar - “Best I Can”, “Jet City Woman”, “Another Rainy Night (Without You)”, “Empire” - it was my ‘In’ to the album. And from there, everything clicked into place.
Well, almost everything. “Della Brown” is still a sticking point. And the bits of the jazz and those other styles that creep into sections of songs here do point to where the band heads in the future which is something I’d rather not contemplate. But over those coming months “Empire” became far closer to the album I had hoped it would be before I bought it.
Indeed, as with many of these albums over the last little stretch, this one has been a little longer in the CD player over recent weeks. And the main reason behind that is – I just didn’t know how to start the review of this album for this podcast. And I didn’t know how to end it. I love this album, don’t get me wrong. I could spend far longer talking here in earnest about my love of the songs than I could about what might annoy me about them. But that, in some deep dark part of my stomach, sort of exists as well. So it took a long time for me to find a starting point to begin this review, and then I would get on a roll, but when I was interrupted, it was difficult to get starting again. Why is that? In essence it is because, although I know how much I love this album, I have a lot of problems with what happened AFTER this album, and I didn’t know if I needed to explore that here, because when I listen to this album I can absolutely hear the beginnings of what became “Promised Land” and “Hear in the Now Frontier”, and that is concerning. Because for me, this was the end of Queensryche’s great era. They headed in a massively different direction after the tour and success following this album, and a lot of that I have major issues with.
So I guess I really wanted to be able to express why I enjoy this album as much as I do, despite the rocky start we had together, and that as “Anybody Listening” fades out, it feels as though I am saying goodbye to my love of the band. Hopefully, I’ve achieved that here. As to what comes next... buckle up little campers, it’s going to be a very rough ride indeed from here on out.
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