Anyway, this is the direction they went in. That's fine. Nothing wrong with having a theme or story running through an album. More important of course is that the creative process is in place, and that the lyrics are sustainable, and that the music itself is enjoyable to the fans. In pretty much every one of these facets, this album falls apart, and badly. There is nothing particularly wrong with the concept, that being focused on the events of war in general, but American Soldier is a flawed concept in all areas of song writing. The songs all struggle their way through at a melancholy, even funereal pace. Lyrically it just seems to repeat itself over and over. Songs are permeated with the interviews of actual soldiers, which is fine if you want to listen to actual soldiers giving their own stories. Honestly, in a song-listening mood, they are just a hinderance. Or in most cases this would be true, but when you have the unimaginative instrumental creations that you have here it doesn't really detract that much. Why would you create such boring, banal music which creates no enthusiasm for the listener? As I said, it is all and fine to set out a story within the framework of an album, but if the music does not inspire or enthuse or ROCK the listener, then how can you possibly hope to retain your fan base?!
The music here is definitely leaning towards a grunge element. In many places it sounds like Soundgarden or Nirvana or Alice in Chains - but without their killer hooks and sponteneity. This just plods along from song to song, barely discernable from one to the next, and not really giving you any real motivation to even try and make the effort to find out. Where are the brilliant duelling guitars that punctuated Queensryche's earlier work? Where is the scintillating drumwork that drove the songs, not just kept a solemn beat in the background? They may as well have had a drum machine in the background for all the use they get out of Scott Rockenfield. Why is this happening? What has caused this enormous change in focus direction with this band's music? There is simply nothing here to get enthused about musically or lyrically.
I revisited this because of the recent break-up within the Queensryche band, and the rhetoric that is going back and forth as to whom was responisble for the direction of the music in the band and who was writing what. No matter what the outcome, it is obvious that this album at least was driven forward by Geoff Tate and his co-writers, who are not a part of the band.
In the long run, this album is just a major disappointment and completely out of synch with the best music that this band has written and performed at its peak. There is no doubt that Tate's voice is still just wonderful, and that the msuicianship is crisp and clear. The songwriting is just of such a boring and uninspiring standard that it is difficult to believe this is the product of the Queensryche brand. Something needs to change if they are to rediscover their mojo, or they will be left to wallow in mediocrity forever.
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