Album Review: Queensrÿche – American Soldier
American Soldier, the new album by Queensrÿche, tells the story of war from the point-of-view of the men and women who have served our country. No stranger to the concept album, Geoff Tate and co veered away from their imaginative arcs from years past to deliver an album steeped in reality. As for whether they are successful in this endeavor is sadly another story.
Discounting the cover-album, Take Cover, this marks the first studio album by Queensrÿche since 2006’s disappointing Operation: Mindcrime II. That album concluded the story that began in 1988’s Operation: Mindcrime, one about drug addicts, corrupt priests, assassins, and love. Despite a lack of quality work since then (my apologies to fans of the popular, Empire), the band has always been a step above their ’80s hair-metal contemporaries. Better than Poison and Ratt, not quite as good as Guns N’ Roses and Metallica, though by the end of the day, you can’t accuse the band of phoning it in.
Their latest album is better than Mindcrime II, but as American Soldier moves along, musically it’s hard to separate one song from the other. With the opener “Sliver”, the commands (“On your feet!”) leads us through the mind of the early days of the soldier, broken down only to be built up anew. It suffers due to Tate’s tough guy attempt that sounds more Shifty Shellshock than Sgt. Hartman (“I’m gonna tell ya’ one time! Now listen up!”, “What’s up, what’s up?”). The second track off the album, and arguably the best, is “Unafraid”, a song whose verses consist of quotes directly from soldiers who fought in Kosovo and Vietnam. The simple chorus of “I’m unafraid/I fear nothing” works here, not trying to distract the listener from the words of the veterans. The song sticks in your head long after you hear it, but the same can’t be said for most of this album.
“At 30,000 Ft” tells us of the disciplined mind of the fighter pilot (“Flying high above the city walls/As the insurgents run/Can’t stand their ground against the hell/That I’ll make”). “The Killer” (which along with “Middle of Hell” features horns courtesy of Tate) asks “Who will be the killer?/Who will be the winner?” The song “If I Were King” opens with a soldier telling of losing a friend on the battlefield, and the horrors of war truly sinking in (“If I were King of all I imagine/I would trade what I have/To have you back at my side”). These are all commendable tracks, if solely for paying tribute to our troops.
This may be misconstrued as a somewhat positive review, but unfortunately the music is very generic. Despite tackling themes still relevant today, musically the band is stuck in 1989. There has been no progress in that regard, and hurts the band’s current credibility. It’s miles better than the song “Citizen Soldier” by Three Doors Down, but is that saying much?
American Soldier is another miss by Queensrÿche, but not for lack of trying. The album aims high, but ultimately falls short of success.
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I was a huge fan of Queensryche back in 80’s and 90’s. They are one of the bands who motivated me to get in to the music and have a band of my own. Here in Serbia they had a solid fan base together with bands such as Metallica, Dream Theater, Iron Maiden and other important hard rock and heavy metal acts. My firist contact with Queensryche was Operation:Mindcrime, and it was a complete shock for my perception of music. Suite Sister Mary was echoing in my head for days. Tate’s voice, guitars, rythm section, lyrics…uhh, it was awesome. I discovered Queensryche EP, Warning, Rage For Order…later came Empire and Promised Land…and Queensryche became my prophets and my religion. They were speaking for me!!! Then came my first huge disappointment - Here In The Now Frontier, pale shadow of it’s predecessors, with the lack of ideas and energy. O.k. I thought, creative people have their crisis. I was longing for another album and there was another disappointment-Q2K, and another - Tribe, and another Operation: Mindcrime II, and another-Take Cover (they’re so out of ideas that they can’t cover Pink Floyd properly!) and now this one - American Soldier. If you think that Quensryche fans worldwide want to hear stories about american soldiers, you’re wrong. And for your information, there was no war on Kosovo, there were no fights. What happened ther was mere bullying of of people by droping bobmbs from 30.000ft. And there’s nothing heroic about it and nothing to talk or sing about. In my opinion Queensryche should stop dragging their name through dirt. They should either change the name of the band or stop publishing such meaningless and weak albums.
Speak The Word!!!
I liked the majority of the songs on the album. The variety of sounds reaches the entire spectrum of the Ryche catalog from Q2K/Hear in the Now Frontier to Promised Land. The stronger songs on the album (At 30,000 Feet, A Dead Man’s Words) were co-written with Producer Jason Slater and Geoff Tate. 4 of the 12 tracks we’re written by engineer Kelly Gray, Tate, drummer Scott Rockenfield and Slave to the System guitarist Damon Johnson. At least 2 of the Gray penned tracks (100 Mile Stare and Man Down!) are good while the other 2 songs (Middle of Hell, Home Again) which are also incidently unreleased Slave to the System songs re-worked for Queensryche; aren’t all that great. Remember Me is also pretty weak. 9 of the 12 songs on the album are good.
My history teacher loves these guys, he’s a ex marine
Oh, and can I add I recommend people try this. Not everyone will like it but approach with an open mind and give it 5 or 6 listens and you’ll find it opens up or leaves you cold. I think more than any release from QR since the Empire period this album can appeal to more people, even (maybe especially) those who didn’t dig the releases since Promised Land. Please try it as it’s one of those albums that requires such.
I disagree in many respects and think it’s a great album but opinions vary. However, I can’t see how anyone could say this, or any other QR album, is stuck in the past. The criticism often levelled at the band is that they DON’T sound like they used to. American Soldier is a very progressive album, as close to say Nine Inch Nails in terms of playing with convention as a prog metal band are likely to get. I accept people will dislike it, but I feel it’s due to what it tries, not what it sticks to.
May 20th, 2009 at 10:12 am
[...] album. For this tour, only songs from 1986’s Rage for Order, 1990’s Empire, and this year’s American Soldier are being played. The audience is left with a showcase displaying the band before they broke [...]