Artist: Queensryche
Label: EMI/Virgin
Release Date: 6/27/00
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Title: Greatest Hits Artist: Queensryche Label: EMI/Virgin Release Date: 6/27/00 |
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Abyss's Review:
Are you a Queensryche fan? Well if you are, the only reason for you to pick this up is if you like the artwork because you probably have all their albums anyway. This is the biggest reason I hate the whole concept of Greatest Hits collections. They are basically made for people who have only a passing interest in the band. To its credit though, it is cool to have a good deal of their best songs on one disc, even if the songs picked are the ones we’ve already heard a million times (why the Hell isn’t "Spreading the Disease" on it, I ask you).
"I did like going down memory lane while listening to the old classics, and it served as a warm reminder as to how good a band they were" I did like going down memory lane while listening to the old classics, and it served as a warm reminder as to how good a band they were (I kinda lost interest after Empire). There are two songs, "Chasing Blue Sky", and "Someone Else" that were bonus tracks, but they didn’t really blow me away, and I can’t believe anyone would consider buying this whole album just for them.
So that’s about it. A whole bunch of quality songs that you most likely already own that serves more as a testament to the quality of this band’s career, but isn’t a must have by any stretch of the imagination.
Rating Revised for Metal Judgment Anniversary
Death's Review:
This one's been out for a few weeks now, but with Queensryche on the Maiden tour and interest in the band on the rise again throughout the metal community, we thought it would be fun to take a look back at why this band was, and perhaps could again be, great. Black metallers, euro-death metallers, and German power metalers gather 'round: Queensryche were making deep, dramatic, theatrical and atmospheric music as early as 1983. And their best stuff? Most of it is yet to be topped.
Once you get past the very dubious concept of any metal band releasing a Greatest Hits collection (can you say label switch?), you have to look at its validity primarily as a function of two factors: (1) the song selection; and (2) the extras.
"Queensryche were making deep, dramatic, theatrical and atmospheric music as early as 1983. And their best stuff? Most of it is yet to be topped." Queensryche's attempt gives us two songs from every album, except: (a) three from Empire; (b) only one from Hear in the Now Frontier; and (c) none from Q2K (released on the band's new label, Atlantic Records). You also get two bonus tracks: "Chasing Blue Sky" and the full-band version of "Someone Else?", one of the standout tracks from 1994's criminally underrated Promised Land (perhaps the band's best record... well, maybe only behind the EP, Warning and Rage).
"Chasing Blue Sky" is kinda mellow and not all that inspiring. It is the new Queensryche ("from the Hear in the Now Frontier sessions) for sure (the band that does extended U2 covers in concert and then plays nothing from The Warning), although the horn is mildly evocative of the aforementioned Promise Land vibe.
"Someone Else?" is alone worth the price of the CD. Mind you, I loved the original vocal/piano only version. But this somehow seems like the way the song should have been, and the songwriting is emphasized by such an expansive arrangement still retaining the soul of the original. That's the hallmark of great songwriting, pure and simple. I wonder which version is closer to the original intention when it was first written. In any event, it's all here on this track: twin guitar leads, progression, dynamics, and all in service of a fantastic song that probably should have been a huge hit but never was. While the tune is still extraordinarily mellow (black metallers, if you're still with us, I cringe at your reaction to this wonderfully heartfelt ballad should you ever hear it) this is almost perfection. Nice lyrical variation as well.
" 'Someone Else?' is alone worth the price of the CD." So what about the balance of the track selection? From the EP, "Queen of the Reich" and "The Lady Wore Black" are no-brainers, the only two the band ever plays live anymore. "Nightrider" might have been a nice surprise but unreasonable to expect.
The fantastic Warning album is, of course, represented by the mighty "Take Hold of the Flame", but I was surprised to see the anthemic title track as the second choice. So now we are four tracks into Queensryche's Greatest Hits. So far so good, right?
"Walk in the Shadows," also still in the set these days, is the obvious choice from Rage, but "I Dream in Infared" joins it, and that is realy cool ("Screaming in Digital" would have been my choice, but this will do). Mindcrime contributes the mediocre "I Don't Believe in Love" (OK, track seven is a bit shaky), but the classic closer "Eyes of a Stranger" chimes in at the eight slot. Wow. Eight songs in and not a song I don't like.
Track nine takes us to Empire. "Jet City Woman" sucks, and just killed my buzz. I'm not that into the song. I would have rather had "Anybody Listening?" Then we have "Empire," OK, at ten, with the horribly overplayed and currently nauseating "Silent Lucidity" at eleven. One of Queensryche's best tracks, "I am I" pops up at twelve and redeems the record quite nicely, followed up by the commercial, but cool, "Bridge." I have to admit, "Sign of the Times" sounds good as slotted here, a nice attempt at a single that has some stand-alone merit. The bonus tracks that follow I discussed above.
"Not all the best and most interesting album cuts, but a good, solid record." So there you have it. Actually, coming from a long-time fan, this is a decent representation. Not all the best and most interesting album cuts, but a good, solid record that someone with no Queensryche background, or who never converted their worn out cassettes from the eighties to digital format, can walk out of the Maiden show, into the CD store, pick up and be right in the game.
Hel's Review:
There is no question that greatest hits collections are for two types of people. Hardcore fans that must have everything released and pseudo-fans who never bought any of the other albums because they just like "a couple" of songs. So what is the true value of a greatest hits collection?
The way I see it, a greatest hits compilation is a fantastic time to take stock and evaluate the career of the band thus far. And it is also like a summarization of their catalog in some ways. The songs contained on a greatest hits disc are the ones that someone decided best represent the highlights of the band's career.
"I hope they realize their own value as a metal band in this day and age, and abandon the crap forever." One of the fun things about a greatest hits, from the hardcore fan perspective, is seeing which songs made it on and debating which of the songs left out should have been on it instead, versus which of the songs on it should have been left off. Oftentimes, the song that the hardcore fan wishes was NOT on the album is the band's biggest commercial hit of all; in this case that track is "Silent Lucidity", hands down.
There are obviously many songs that should have been on it that weren't. All of these songs are from the less represented segment of their back catalog - the early years. These were, as we've said time and again, unquestionably their best. When they were metal, and had not had that adult contempo success that ruined them, so to speak.
Personally, what I would love to see this collection ultimately accomplish ties into their current tour. I would love for the band to take a look around, realize they are at a natural point in which to take stock of their career, and do just that. Moreover, I hope they realize their own value as a metal band in this day and age, and abandon the crap forever.
"So where does this album stack up in the end? As far as greatest hits go, it's fine." Scoring a greatest hits effort is tricky. Clearly, it can't get a high rating unless there is a new offering which makes it exceptional. In this case, we have two bonus tracks, "Chasing Blue Sky" which is a total doze, and "Someone Else? with full band" which really is nothing new, just enhanced, and will only excite the most hardcore of the hardcore set.
Additionally, there is the pitfall of not actually rating the greatest hits collection itself, but instead using the excuse of the album to rate the band's entire career. This is a temptation which arises when listening to the entire album in one sitting. In this case, one cannot help but notice what I like to call the "snooze slope" - the progressive decline of thrashy songs to more and more mellow ones. We know this is what happened, there is little utility in harping on it.
So where does this album stack up in the end? As far as greatest hits go, it's fine. Nothing spectacular, but the tracks were not horribly selected for the most part. It does serve as the ultimate tool for illustrating what happened to this fantastic band. All in all, it's very average for what it is, and therefore I give it my rating for things that are average.
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