Track Listing
Disc 1: 1. NM 156 2. Walk in the shadows 3. Roads to madness 4. The lady wore black 5. Take hold of the flame 8. Screaming in digital 9. I remember now 6. Queen of the reich 7. London 10. Revolution calling 11. Spreading the disease 12. Requiem 13. Spreading the sisease (Part 2) 14. The mission 15. Suite sister Mary 16. I don't believe in love 17. Empty room 18. Eyes of a stranger Disc 2: 1. I am I 2. Damaged 3. Empire 4. Silent lucidity 5. Another rainy night 6. Jet city woman 7. Liquid sky 8. Sacred ground 9. Falling down 10. Hit the black 11. Breakdown 12. The right side of my mind Year: 2001 Label: Sanctuary - Official Site |
Queensr�che - 'Live evolution' - By J. Korkiam�ki
When I first heard about this album, I was like �Yeah. Queensr�che�s making a double live. So?� When you think about all the crap Queensr�che has been putting out lately, you�re feeling nauseated just thinking about two CD�s; hmmm, could it be that the first one is completely dedicated to the material of Hear In The Now Frontier, and that the other to Q2K? Then comes the sigh of relief. Live Evolution is in a matter of fact a very thoughtful compilation from the band�s whole career, they have even named each and every �episode� of the album. It�s best, if I go through the whole album and tell a little about each episode. The album naturally opens up with EP/Warning/Rage Suite. At first you could be having the time of your life bouncing around, when you�re browsing through the track list, there are classics like �Queen Of The Reich� and �Roads To Madness�, and also not-so-classic, but missed songs like �NM 156�, �London�, �Screaming In Digital� and the awesome �Walk In The Shadows�. Even �The Lady Wore Black� surprises me, the chorus is edited a bit and it sounds great. Well, you aren�t so excited anymore when you hear some of the songs that made people recognize Geoff Tate�s voice anywhere. He is over the golden age of 40, and smokes nowadays, and you know what age and cigarettes can do to a voice like that. Therein, the songs are vocally either weird mumblings, or at times they sound really ridiculous. Let�s take a few examples. You can�t really understand the lyrics of �NM 156�, because of the mentioned mumblings. It sounds like it was sung with a freshly baked potato filling Tate's mouth. �Roads To Madness'� chorus almost sticks, before Geoff saves it just in time cutting his long scream in half. The famous intro from �Take Hold Of The Flame�, you know, �taaaaaaake hooooold of the flaaaaaaaaa....� has been reduced to �taaaaaake hooooold of the FLAU!!!� and so on. That�s a bit weird. The vocals aren�t the only thing that have suffered during the past few years, meaning that the grunge crap that the band plays nowadays, has also influenced the now bald headed Scott Rockenfield�s drumming; �Queen Of The Reich� doesn�t have the same thundering drum work as the original, the drumming is much more poppy. Well, it doesn�t matter, actually it fits in nicely. Next we have the nine song epic, dedicated to the cult classic Operation: Mindcrime, Mindcrime Suite. A very fine package for fans of the album, but criticism follows as I browse through the track listing again. Why have �The Needle Lies� and �Speak� been left off, and replaced with �I Remember Now� and �My Empty Room�, which don�t have much musical value except when fitting them into the theme itself? Not only that, the songs could have spawned much better versions than these. �Revolution Calling� goes straight to hell without breaks. The ending is terrible and the main riff is totally messed up, it sounds like a poor AC/DC song. �Spreading The Disease�, divided into two parts, is quite cool, although Geoff�s Glenn Danzig monologue in the end sounds a bit ridiculous. �Suite Sister Mary� goes deservedly well, but the choir is too distant compared to the brightness of Geoff�s voice. �The Mission� is boring, but it doesn�t quite ruin the song. The most wanted live musts, �I Don�t Believe In Love� and �Eyes Of A Stranger� have been done very well. It�s good that the �new kid� Gray can concentrate even a little to these old songs - the new tracks don�t need anything else than a guitar with a couple of strings and a speaker, not so much skill, if at all. CD number two begins with Empire/Promised Land Suite. The Promised Land�s awesome, heavy tracks �I Am I� and �Damaged� begin the suite. �Damaged� strikes straight between the eyes, an incredible version! It�s a pity that they didn�t bring anything else in from that album, though, for example �One More Time Around� is fantastic live, according to an older live recording I�ve got. Empire�s songs fill in the rest of the suite, the first two being �Empire� and �Silent Lucidity�. �Empire� goes surprisingly well, while �Silent Lucidity� can�t reach the same atmosphere and beauty as the original song, probably because of the electric sounds used instead of the acoustic ones. �Another Rainy Night (Without You)� was also a surprise, the biggest surprise being it was included in the recording. A good version, but the winner is the breath taking, heavy version of �Jet City Woman�. The rest of the album...well, you know...the rest of the album is dedicated to the latest albums. HITNF/Q2K Suite is terrible, the only lights at the end of the tunnel being �Sacred Ground� and surprisingly, �Hit The Black� from HITNF. They didn�t even put �Sign Of The Times� in, that�s stupid. It�s stupid enough to put this kind of crap on an album with this much classical value, although it might be �fresh and creative�, according to some. Live Evolution isn�t a flawless album, but a treasure chest maybe with more worth than The Greatest Hits, for those who used to like Queensr�che. There are many things missing, of course. Geoff�s metallic vocals, the metallic attitude and, well, Scott Rockenfield�s hair. There are very bad interpretations of some songs, but the originals are fantastic, what cannot be said of the last songs, of course. I don�t regret that I bought this very expensive album at all. This is after all the first live album from the Seattle guys after a recording career of 18 long years, and could be a classic in a couple of years. I might miss the old studio albums listening to Live Evolution, but this is a good substitute when you don�t have the money or the time to get those albums. Metal Obsessive Grade: 92% |