807. Queensrÿche / The Warning. 1984. 3.5/5

The beginnings of the line-up who eventually became the band Queensrÿche had its roots in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s, and like all bands saw an initial grouping of like-minded musicians come together with a like-minded agenda. Guitarists Michael Wilton and Chris DeGarmo originally met when they were in the band Joker in 1979. After this, Wilton met drummer Scott Rockenfield, and together formed a cover band called Crossfire, covering songs by artists such as Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. DeGarmo also soon joined this band, along with bass guitarist Eddie Jackson. The foursome changed the name of the band to The Mob, and then began a search for a lead singer. They found their man in a band called Babylon, Geoff Tate, who performed a few shows with the band, before leaving as he had no interest in being in a covers band.
The band eventually found the money to record a demo in 1981, which Tate agreed to sing on despite being in another band at the time. After a year of being rejected by every label they took the demo to, they picked up a management company, who did three things. Firstly, they had the band change their name (as The Mob was being used by another band), and they chose to use a mashing of the name of the first song on their demo, “Queen of the Reich”, and forming the band name Queensrÿche. Secondly, Kim Harris sent the demo and a photo of the band to friend who wrote for Kerrang! Magazine, who reviewed it positively in that magazine. Thirdly, they then decided to release the demo as an EP on their own independent label in 1983. This resulted in airplay for the band, and finally enticed Tate to leave his other band and join Queensrÿche on a permanent basis. After convincing a representative from EMI to see the band live, they were signed up by the major label, which led to their EP being re-released, and Queensrÿche was underway. They then toured as support act to bands such as Quiet Riot on their tour to support the “Metal Health” album, Twisted Sister on their tour supporting “Stay Hungry”, and Dio on their “Holy Diver” tour. During this time the band continued to write material for a new album, and in mid-1984 they re-located to London with producer James Guthrie (who was best known for working with Pink Floyd) to record their full debut studio album, which became “The Warning”.

“The Warning” signalled the first full album release from Queensrÿche, following the release of their EP the previous year. That EP had been full of the kind of material that heavy metal fans look for, and its short sharp burst had fans keyed up to see what would come from the band on their fledgling debut opus.
It is obvious early on that while the EP had been packed full of the kinds of riffs and solos that set the mouth-watering, “The Warning” does not go down that same metal path, though my thoughts do tend to be different from many of the so-called experts. To me this is a much more progressive kind of album than straight out heavy metal, and yet many out there think exactly the opposite. And yet I believe there is a greater variety of tunes here, with the band not afraid to put in parts that are much softer and quieter than a traditional metal band would do. And while there are some great riffs and solos here, they don't really match that initial fury of what was produced on that four-track starter. Now that is not to suggest this album therefore doesn't cut it. In fact, there are some great songs here, but some come here looking for more songs that could be directly attributed to those first songs than what we find here on this album.
"No Sanctuary" would be a good example of this kind of conflict on “The Warning”. It is very much in a progressive, almost power ballad category, where Geoff Tate's vocals dominate a song as he and his backup singers croon over clear guitars and orchestral infused music, which slow down to almost a stop within the middle of the song itself and rendering the drums almost superfluous. It isn't a bad song as such, but it does not drive from the kind of heavy song you might expect. It was indicative of a movement in a slightly different direction from what had been promised by their EP release.
There are plenty of harder and faster songs on "The Warning”, and the remainder of the first half of the album fit well enough into this category. Kicking off with "Warning" which opens the album with a strong vocal style from Geoff Tate and squealing guitars from Wilton and DeGarmo, and into "En Force" which the characterisation of straight up heavy metal is a reasonable assessment, drawing on the influence of the early NWoBHM work of bands such as Angel Witch and Praying Mantis. "Deliverance" is a good, sharp, short jolt, bringing the best out of an excellent riff underlying the song. "NM 156" closes out the first side of the album, and combined the experimental aspect that the band was using along with a more traditional twin guitar and drums sound that utilises those instruments to their full advantage. This was initially going to be the opening track on the album, until the record company had the change made without informing the band of their decision.
"Take Hold of the Flame" is offset by Tate's excellent vocals but take the time to listen to Scott's drumming underneath this throughout the song. He's got all of the tricks happening, and it is a master class for any aspiring drummers. Most of it would get lost by the average listeners, but the way he incorporates everything on his kit into this track really makes the song special. "Before the Storm" and "Child of Fire" are twin tracks, segueing from one to the other, with “Before the Storm” using a hard rock theme throughout which flows into “Child of Fire”, which then ends on an upbeat note. "Roads to Madness" is the lengthy progressive metal song that has a little bit of everything, from the power ballad like beginning into the faster heavy pounding that kicks in at the halfway mark and take the track to another level, all of which showcases the amazing range of Geoff Tate’s vocals. He may have astounded people with “Queen of the Reich”, but this showcases every part of his vocal range, and it is just terrific. It is the most progressive song on the album, running through the gamut of emotions for its almost ten minutes in length, using both the clear and slow with the fast and electric. The album then closes out with the excellent “Prophecy” which again showcases everything that is the best that this band can offer.

My introduction to Queensrÿche came from that oft-quoted two-night spectacular of heavy metal music videos on the Channel Ten weekend show called... Music Video, when they played the video for “Queen of the Reich”, the memory of which then led a couple of years later to purchasing the “Operation: Mindcrime” album on a whim at Kiama Sight and Sound, and I was away! After a couple of years listening to that non-stop, I was browsing in Wollongong at Redback Records, and came across a copy of this album on CD, and having just recently bought a stereo with a CD player, I grabbed it with glee. If memory serves, at the time I thought it was a new album from the band, but of course it was in fact their first album.
So, I took it home, put it on... and was, to say the least, mildly unimpressed. This was completely NOT what I was expecting to hear. I am pretty sure I was just expecting Operation Mindcrime 2, an album exactly like that first one with all of its genius and awesomeness, and this just wasn’t that at all. Indeed, it was so different, that after a couple of listens I put it back on my shelves, unsure as to whether I would ever put it on again. And it wasn’t for quite some time that I did revisit it, and that was basically once the band had reached its alt-metal grunge phase through to the end of the 1990’s, when I had begun to ask myself if they would ever produce another album that I even half enjoyed. And at that time, I found more that I enjoyed than I had when I first bought it, with my ears scrubbed clean of expecting something that this album isn’t.
So where do I stand on it today? It’s still a love/hate relationship. Overall, I like the album a lot, though there are a couple of tracks that I listen to still and think ‘I would really like this to be something completely different from what it is’. Essentially, I want more of DeGarmo and Wilton really driving their guitars like they do on the following three albums, and more of Rockenfield and Jackson crushing the rhythm underneath. I’m looking from more grunt from a band that isn’t massive on that stuff, but because I came into the band on that amazing album, I’m always looking for that level of excellence, and that is almost impossible to reproduce. See almost every Queensrÿche album AFTER that album as a reference point.
So yes, this is a far more enjoyable album for me today than when I was 20 years old, because I love what they have done here, whereas back when I got it, I wanted a particular narrow point of view. Wake up past Bill! Enjoy it for what this is, because “The Warning” is a very good album, with mostly very good songs, by an amazing band who was just discovering how good they could end up being.