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New To Us | Queensrÿche - 5 Songs To Introduce Us To Queensrÿche
28 Plays1 year ago
In another New To Us video, we take 5 songs by the mighty Queensrÿche - chosen by YOU to introduce us to the American Prog Metal Titans!
We analysis, discuss and react to:
- Queen Of The Reich
- Take Hold Of The Flame
- Silent Lucidity
- I Am I
- Open
You can also watch us on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7mfJVCp_TzbPNZNMMemJuw
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Transcript
Introduction to Minds of Metal
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to Minds of Metal. It's been a while. It's been a while, you guys. So if you guys have seen us for the first time, we're Minds of Metal, where Daria and Liz, her husband and wife team, we talk all things have metal on so many platforms now, right? So currently we're streaming on YouTube. Yeah, Facebook and Instagram.
00:00:29
Speaker
There you go.
Discovering Queensrÿche: New to Us Segment
00:00:30
Speaker
So, yeah, today we're talking about Queen's Wreck.
00:00:33
Speaker
Yeah, so this is what we do. This is one of our little types of videos called New to Us, where we get our viewers to tell us five songs from a band that are new to us. We did it a few months ago with a band called Testament, and we had a great time with it. And now it's turn of prog legends, Queensrock, who we've heard about. I've heard of them so many times, you know, a lot of people have said things to me, and I've heard the odd song on the radio. But in terms of checking them out and getting to know them a little bit, I haven't. Yeah, no. So I think it was
00:01:02
Speaker
It's more than a year ago now.
00:01:04
Speaker
Do you remember we did a reaction to them? Together we did didn't we yeah and we're actually talking about that song today. Yeah we will be talking about that song today so yeah so what we're going to do is we've got five songs as picked by you guys that we're going to go through and just talk about you know what we liked what we didn't like what we think about the song the styles the instruments and all that stuff in between you know we've done some research and we're going to talk about the band just some very sort of basic information about the band in between these songs so should we get
Exploring 'Queen of the Reich' and Classic Queensrÿche
00:01:32
Speaker
going yeah
00:01:32
Speaker
Yeah, so Queen's Reich, an American progressive metal band formed in 1980. They've had a few different lineups, but the classic one, the one that the fans love most, consists of Jeff Tate on vocals, Michael Wilton on guitar, Chris DiGamo on guitar and keyboards, Eddie Jackson on bass, and Scott Rockenfield on drums. And in their debut album from 1983, this is where the first song we're going to talk about comes in. And this song is Queen of the Reich. So do you want to get going on that one?
00:02:02
Speaker
Yeah, so from what I remember, it's from the 1983 self-titled EP. So this was their first sort of statement to the world of metal. It's a cool statement, you know. It's a cool statement. I really enjoyed that song. It reminded me a lot of Maiden. Yeah. There's a lot of galloping going on. There's a lot of belting from Jeff Tait. There's a lot of harmonizing guitars. I just thought, yeah, that's very maiden-y.
00:02:28
Speaker
Yeah, see, this sits in terms of years. This is very nicely in between the new wave of British heavy metal and ground metal, because what happened is I'll try and keep this quick.
00:02:38
Speaker
In Britain, we have New Wave of British Heavy Metal with bands like Iron Maiden, Angel Witch, Saxon, doing this sort of new punk metal hybrid. Then bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden took that over to America to tour it. And you've got a little glimpse of New Wave of British Heavy Metal in America through the likes of this song, because this to me, as you said, screams Maiden, screams Judas Priest. My God, his voice to me sounds so similar to Rob Halford in this one. But also, you're on the edge of glam.
00:03:07
Speaker
Motley Crue was sort of kicking things off in 1983 when this song came out. And you can almost hear the glammy production on it. And I think his voice is quite glammy as well. Yeah. Would you think with the... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I'm sure we'll talk about his voice today. Oh, plenty of times, yeah. As you said, yeah, there's the Maiden Gallop and bass, but already we're hearing some progressive elements from it because you've got quite a complex song structure.
Progressive Metal Elements and Influences
00:03:35
Speaker
Okay. We've got some tempo changes as well.
00:03:38
Speaker
Well, can you expand on that actually? Let's unpack this, on the proginess of it in that particular song. Is there anything you would... For me, the prog elements come later on in another song we're going to do, but just in terms of, you know, you've got to think...
00:03:55
Speaker
In the 60s, pop kind of solidified song structures for us. You had an intro, which was normally the chorus, verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, then outro. So that kind of creeped its way into rock as well when you had bands like The Beatles, The Kinks, The Who, The Stones, Zeppelin kind of adopting these structures. And then in the mid 70s, in terms of heavy metal, when you had bands like Rainbow coming in and adding those progressive elements,
00:04:20
Speaker
they start to veer off of those normal structures you start to incorporate longer solo sections extended bridges maybe maybe not playing chorus until after the solo you know you kind of change things around and this is what we start seeing here with queen's right is that they it's just complex song structures just not so simple going back and forth time signature changes tempo changes etc
Live Performances and Musicianship of Queensrÿche
00:04:42
Speaker
yeah i can see guys hi hi hi facebook hi watching from manila philippines hello hi nice to see you all here and i see that shawn saying hi everyone on youtube as well hi shawn we know you shawn hi hi uh hello guys hope you're having a nice evening and if you just joined us we're talking about queen's racket today that's right are we done with queen of the right
00:05:05
Speaker
No, you know what I want to tell you? I watched their Queen of the Reich performance from 1984 live in Tokyo. Good. Oh my gosh. It was mind-blowing. I thought, and you know what? That is actually that gig, live in Tokyo gig from 1984. Seems like it's a very famous gig. Yeah.
00:05:27
Speaker
Lots of people love it. I read some very interesting comments read between fans and yeah, it's very much love. Isn't that kind of odd that they're only a year old? Actually that's not true, it's a year after their first album. But still, early days. And yet this year, apparently, yeah, but I mean how many bands have a live album after one year of their new album? I'm saying it's really good, you know, if that's a special gig to Queenslike fans, good on them because on their debut album one year after and they've produced like this performance that everyone's getting mad about.
00:05:57
Speaker
And another thing about that performance that I thought was really well now you made the point about them being quite
00:06:04
Speaker
Well, not new, but it is still early days. Yeah, for them as well. They formed in 1980. There we are in 1983. Still early days, I think. So what I've really, really loved is the fact that they sound so professional at that gig. Seriously, there's amazing performers, brilliant musicianship. I mean, vocals, yeah, we all know Jeff Tate is a Mindblowing singer. And BB is harmonious. Everything's just on point. And you think, wow, these guys are like,
00:06:33
Speaker
25 years old at that point. That's really great. Yeah. So yeah, if you want to. Right. So the next song is Take Hold of the Flame from 1984, which we actually, this is the one we did the reaction to about a year ago now, isn't it? This song, I think, is really, really good and really interesting because it takes you on such a journey. I found his vocal performance really, really reminded me of Ian Gillan from Deep Purple.
00:07:00
Speaker
now he just kind of has this way of singing softly in some moments but then when he needs to just take it to the next level belting out a note you know so from listening to Take Hold of the Flame go and listen to any deep purple version of Child in Time with Ian Gillan doing vocals and you'll hear the similarities that's a great shout that's a great shout okay hi guys Mexico City hi US hi
00:07:27
Speaker
And the Philippines again. We've got people from all over the world, welcome. Brilliant, welcome everyone. I wish I knew welcome in your languages but unfortunately I just speak English. More on take hold of the flame is again we're seeing more progressive elements in terms of the dynamic and tempo changes. You've got some really soft parts of the song and then it builds up and it's really powerful and loud. You've got you know like I said the tempo changes
00:07:50
Speaker
The instrumentation and tones I also found very progressive as well because you've got the acoustic guitars creeping in. They're not just falling and settling on an electric guitar, a bass and a drum kit. They're using other stuff, they're using keyboards, they're using acoustic guitars and I thought that was really interesting. Yeah, no, I really enjoyed that song and I think I've take hold of it. That's actually the one song on YouTube that's just, it's just exploded YouTube.
00:08:17
Speaker
like that. It exploded YouTube. I see why. Yeah. I see why. And I think at the time as well, you have to think, 84, right? It's yeah, it is mind blowing. I really enjoyed that one as well. And I thought,
00:08:32
Speaker
Shall we talk about his vocals just later, like separately? Yeah, we'll do a whole thing on his vocals, I've got a lot to say. Yeah, we've got a lot to say about the vocals. Just a few more points on this song. I feel that with heavy metal, now you guys have got to remember that with heavy metal, if you boil heavy metal down to just one sentence to describe it, for me it would be this, music based around a single guitar riff.
00:08:55
Speaker
Now I know that might sound a bit simplistic for it, but when you really take it down to its roots, you know, think of the first ever heavy metal riff, potentially the Kinks, you really got me. That could, that arguably that riff started metal. And if you base a genre of music around one principle in pop, it would be the lead vocals. In metal, it might be a guitar riff.
00:09:17
Speaker
in other music you know in jazz it might be they base it around the melody in jazz you write the melody and then you take the instruments around it with metal as i said i feel often you base the music around a riff or around music or around a progression
00:09:32
Speaker
And I felt it was so interesting here that the vocals are leading the performance. The whole song is based around his vocals. And I think you can hear that, which is fantastic because his vocals lead the way and the instruments play around the vocals. If he's going softer, the instruments go softer.
00:09:50
Speaker
When he comes louder, the instruments get louder. It's just a really great performance, this one. And I think it's, yeah, a very, very good song. And I love the instrumental section. The solo was brilliant as well. No, you were right. Yeah, absolutely right. Yeah, I have nothing to add really about that. But Mark's saying, educational for us, metalheads. Well, we're really glad. Glad, yeah, glad to hear that. Happy with that one? Yeah, yeah. So after 1984,
Impact of 'Operation: Mindcrime' and Breakthroughs
00:10:18
Speaker
four years after they had the album called Operation Mind Crime. Now, interestingly, we don't have any songs that were recommended to us off this album.
00:10:27
Speaker
But this is supposedly their breakthrough album. This is the one that whenever you talk to, oh, give me a Queen's Wrike album to listen to, Operation Mind Crime, everyone says it, and it's the one they're most famous for. I think Operation Mind Crime might be a number eight in Martin Popov's top metal albums of all time. Should we say who Martin Popov is? Martin Popov is a Canadian heavy metal journalist who's written some fantastic books. You've got to get some if you want to know about the history of heavy metal and all that kind of stuff.
00:10:56
Speaker
But anyway, Operation Mind Crime is a very highly regarded album. And I found it quite funny that there was no songs from that on this list. But anyway, yeah. Two years after that, sorry, an Operation Mind Crime broke them through and it propelled them into a heavy metal star. And this is when their name started becoming known in the world of heavy metal.
00:11:17
Speaker
Following this two years later you have the album Empire which further propelled them into metal stardom and the next song we're doing comes from that and it's called Silent Lucidity which is actually supposedly their most famous song.
Ballad and Orchestration in 'Silent Lucidity'
00:11:31
Speaker
Number one spotify. Yeah do you want to talk about that one? Well that was quite a change from
00:11:38
Speaker
take hold of the flame and from queen of the rike that was very different it was very calming it was a ballad-y type song but um and i found his vocal was completely different so different but that just shows how versatile he is and i think that he's sort of
00:11:57
Speaker
really lower tone acted well not acted it just it just worked really well you know and I really loved the acoustic guitars I love the strings oh yeah the orchestration it's so easy to just
00:12:19
Speaker
sound good, but to consider what notes you're playing, to consider how much. You don't just want to stick a string section in and just say, play what you want. It's got to be considered. You can't just stick it in and say, I'll play over this. You've got to take your time with it. You've got to make sure that there's enough. You're not overtaking the vocals. You're not under-delivering on that as well. See, I thought that was lovely. I've heard it really beautifully done because I felt like I was taken on a journey. I felt pretty sort of
00:12:49
Speaker
taken care of as a listener. It's like they really cared about my experience. And you know what? I don't usually like songs like this. It's not really my kind of thing, but I really enjoyed this one. I really did. And I think it's just all the elements of that puzzle, you know, that musical puzzle, it just really worked. All of it together really worked. So George saying they were the first wave of Frog Metal, in my opinion. Yeah. You've got Rainbow.
00:13:18
Speaker
Rainbow in the mid-70s were doing prog. They were using the Middle Eastern scales, they were bringing the neoclassicalism into metal. So go and listen to the album Rising by Rainbow and that's for me is where you hear the first elements of prog. Because you've got to remember in the very early 70s you've got bands like Genesis, Yes, Emerson, Lake and Palmer essentially just bringing classical music into metal. When metal started with Black Sabbath in 1970, although we
00:13:48
Speaker
Martin Popov has a quote which I really like which is heavy metal is upon us when you remove the blues out of hard rock. So when you take the blues out you've got heavy metal and that I agree with that but you still in the early days of metal you can still hear some blues in there.
00:14:05
Speaker
What Prague does is it removes the blues element and brings in the classical element. So you have bands in the mid-70s like Rainbow, because Richie Blackwall from Deep Purple and Rainbow loved classical music. So when he started bringing in the classical elements and the Middle Eastern elements and expanding songs and making them longer, and eight-minute songs with three minutes of eight-guitar solo, that for me is where the progressiveness was first introduced to metal.
00:14:34
Speaker
Undoubtedly, Queen's Rike, it seems, have established progressiveness in metal, whilst Rainbow and Richie Blackpool might have been hinting at it and playing with it. I can't disagree with George, and they probably were one of the first established pop metal bands. And actually talking about Rainbow Rising, we did do a review on it, didn't we? Yeah, go and check it out on the YouTube channel. We did do a review on YouTube. Go check it out on our Minds and Metal YouTube channel.
00:14:58
Speaker
In terms of silent lucidity, it's funny we're talking that prog because one song comes to mind when I hear this and that is Mother by Pink Floyd. It's got a very similar feel to it, the mother do you think they'll drop the bomb and it just kind of sits and it flows very nicely but again the dynamics, where the song takes you, the journey, it comes from the vocals, it comes from the journey that Jeff takes vocals
00:15:23
Speaker
take you on and I really enjoyed that. Now in terms of what this song did for them, this is 1990 isn't it? Yeah.
00:15:32
Speaker
When the 1990s hit, Heavy Metal became accessible. We had bands like Metallica doing Enter Sandman, which was a heavy metal song that mainstream audiences could sing along to and could sort of chant along with the chorus. You also got Metallica doing songs like Nothing Else Matters. And that does come after this song, but you get my point. It's accessible music that can be enjoyed by the masses. So yeah, at the start of the 1990s, they found a way to make it accessible.
00:16:00
Speaker
And it just shows that, I think it was metal bands showing that we can do, we can be popular as well. So that's why I like to have this song. If it's being picky, I didn't like the bridge vocals, I didn't like that spoken part where you've got that man's voice, I think there's a woman's voice as well, talking, it's like a dialogue over it.
00:16:20
Speaker
It just took me out of it a little bit. And there could be something behind this. It could be a concept album that could be a script that told a part of a story of when Silent Lucidity sits in the album and maybe that story is being told and those, I don't want to say vocals, that spoken word part, maybe it's important. I'm being picky. I reckon that's the case. Maybe. I think we just don't know.
00:16:42
Speaker
everything you know about it. But go and check out Pink Floyd Mother and I think you'll hear the comparison between this. So seven years after Silent Lucidity, an empire came out, D'Gamo left the band and that is when, according to a lot of people, Queen's Rice music changed and they departed from this sound that they had established. Maybe he was a key influence in that, maybe that was part, you know, he played a big part in that.
00:17:10
Speaker
So, oh, that's actually my bad. I've put that wrong because that should be after the next song we're doing. A bit late. Yes, that's my bad. So the next song we're doing is I Am I from 1994. Do you want to kick this one off? Yeah, very interesting track. I did enjoy it. Yeah. I really did enjoy it. I enjoyed the proggy elements of it. That's why I found it very proggy. Lots of kind of Middle Eastern vibes. I did like it. I thought
00:17:40
Speaker
Again, it's not really my kind of cup of tea, but I can listen to Proxer. I'm not a prunky kind of girl anyway, but I did enjoy it. I thought it was really good musicianship and songwriting. I quite enjoyed that song.
Theatricality in 'I Am I' Live Performance
00:17:55
Speaker
I thought straight off the bat it was very progressive. It had that chord progression, the contrast between the bass line and the guitar lines.
00:18:03
Speaker
it didn't entirely match up. I think with metal, with traditional metal, you might have the bass and the guitar playing the same rhythm or at least playing the same notes, maybe different rhythms, but here it kind of divided up a little bit, which I thought was interesting. This one I also found to be quite theatrical. From the twinkly notes at the start to the way he expresses his vocals, it's almost like he's performing for us.
00:18:25
Speaker
And even the music in this as well. Yeah, do you agree? I feel like it could be a stage production. You know, Queen's Rite, the musical. It's great that you mention this because it's on my notes. And he is actually, I watched the live performance of it. He performs in a very theatrical way.
00:18:42
Speaker
I think you can tell I think you can tell even just from hearing a studio recording it's like you know and from his phrasing I feel like he's in character almost yeah yeah very possible um yeah progressive dissonant the minor verses followed by the consonant chorus is always keeping the list on the toes
00:18:58
Speaker
For those who don't know what dissonant and consonant is, dissonant means two notes played together that make you go, oh, no, thank you. The first two notes of Black Sabbath's first song, Black Sabbath. Consonant is the opposite. Consonant is notes that are lovely to go. It makes you go, ah, that's a nice pairing right there. So the contrast between that, like I just said, keeps the list on their toes. You're going, okay, well, this sounds really awkward and not nice, but actually it's followed by my exception. Where am I going? Where are you taking me, Queens, right?
00:19:26
Speaker
I love the chorus, really doomy and dissonant, quite unusual, followed by a lovely consonant section before the solo. As you said, Middle Eastern vibe towards the end. Now, two people or two artists I want to just talk about in terms of what I heard in this song. Number one, Led Zeppelin, the song Friends from Led Zeppelin 3. Check that out because it's kind of the same vibe. It has this awkward, dissonant, unusual feeling to it. Yet you can't help but enjoy it.
00:19:54
Speaker
And in terms of vocals, I tell you who I heard here. I heard his, for me, his vocals sounded very similar to the Billy Talent singer. I don't know if you guys know Billy Talent, but I can't even explain it. The timbre, the tone of his voice just really reminded me of it. I'm just really trying to remember. Yeah. The Billy Talent track. Yeah, well, that was just very similar to a Billy Talent song and you might hear what I'm saying. It's cool. Now here's where I get to fix my mistake.
00:20:23
Speaker
Then, three years after this, in 1997, guitarist Chris DeGarno left the band and apparently their sound changed. Maybe they didn't notice. All fixed, all fixed. Anything, any stuff we can react to? Any comments here? No, everyone's just saying hello. Hello. Hi guys, hi. And
00:20:49
Speaker
oh yeah look so we've got a viewer on instagram i wear glasses so i can't see yeah i am the reader uh born to be wild was the first home metal song with a chug okay
00:21:02
Speaker
Yeah, with a chug. Yeah, you can argue the first heavy metal song was The Beatles' Helter Skelter, which really brought in a hard rock heavy riff with screaming vocals in. I think that was 67. But yeah, the first use of the phrase heavy metal in music was Steppenwolf's Born to Be Wild and the chug as well.
00:21:22
Speaker
I mean, we did a video on the first ever heavy metal song, which was, I can't remember, Johnny Burnett Trio, Train Keeps a Coming or Days Keep a Rolling. Something like that. Anyway, you can hear the rhythms of chugging in that, which was really interesting. I think it was 1956. So although you've got Steppenwolf doing a chug like...
00:21:45
Speaker
Go back to the 56. Watch the video we did about the Johnny Burnett trio. And you'll hear chugging in that. The rhythm guitar from 1956, playing a heavy metal rhythm behind a rock and roll song. Fascinating. And just tiny little fragments of metal that you can hear from the 50s and 60s. It is fascinating stuff. Yeah, Step in the Wall was born to be wild. It was undoubtedly a key factor in bringing metal to a
00:22:12
Speaker
Yeah, just expanding on what Hard Rock could be and opening up into new avenues. Cool. Next song?
'Open' and the Shift to Grunge Influences
00:22:19
Speaker
Yeah, let's talk about a new song. So the next song is open from 2003. Yeah. Can you talk about it? Okay, yes, I do. I love the song, you guys. It's me. It's my kind of thing. Do you know why?
00:22:34
Speaker
Why? Because I can hear just so much grunge in it and I absolutely love grunge. I'm a grunge girl and I really enjoy it. It's got that heaviness, it's slower. I like that too. I can definitely see like Chris Cornell singing or something. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. It's got its prog elements as well. You know, we didn't go away from
00:23:00
Speaker
prog really but i really i really enjoyed the grunge vibe and again that's not what i expected to hear no you neither at all at all i feel like they've got so much actually in store things right
00:23:15
Speaker
music league there's a lot to unpack and i really like that i like when people you know try different avenues and yeah no i really enjoyed that track yeah i really liked it i felt it was the least progressive out of all of them we heard but as you said there is still proggy elements there yeah
00:23:33
Speaker
I felt a massive grunge slash new metal fall out here because it was simple. They stuck to a simple structure to the song. The riffs were simple. It didn't veer off and take you on different sections. Kind of just, you know, there was less things going on, no jewel guitars, no solos. It kind of just felt a little more simplistic compared to the previous stuff we heard.
00:23:57
Speaker
One thing I want to point your attention to is the bass line because it was very, very unusual and dissonant throughout. In metal and rock, when we go for dissonance, you tend to hear dissonance in places like jazz or some avant-garde classical music where the composer or the writer wants you to be disturbed. The whole premise of jazz, if you boil it down, is tension and release. You build up tension by playing, in jazz, a famous quote, the wrong notes.
00:24:27
Speaker
You play the wrong notes over the chords and then you resolve those notes to give you a lovely sort of, it's tension, it's building up the tension and then you relief, release rather, tension and release. With metal and rock and pop, you want there to be less tension. You can create dissonance like Black Sabbath did by having the whole band playing tension music or dissonant notes, but to have the guitars playing
00:24:55
Speaker
let's say normally, and then having just one instrument, the bass, playing dissonant, playing out of key, playing something that doesn't quite fit right, I thought was really interesting. And I heard that throughout, but mainly it was in the chorus, which I found really fascinating. One band I want to compare it to who I thought, I heard this and I thought, my God, this could be like that, Alter Bridge and Miles Kennedy.
00:25:22
Speaker
I'm surprised. Are you? I thought that could be an Altarbridge song. Especially that little in the bridge, that bass section where it just boils down. Can you speed it up a little bit? Altarbridge have some really heavy, slower songs as well. But his vocals I felt... We'll get to the vocals later, but yeah, Altarbridge is something I heard within it. Did you not? You didn't hear it? I'm just trying to imagine. Because you're a big Altarbridge fan. I am. I like... I think I'm a Miles Kennedy fan anymore. But yeah, I guess I can see him singing it.
00:25:51
Speaker
I can see Chris Connell singing it. Well, I have to tell you honestly, but yeah. There we go. All right. Are you done with that one? Yeah.
Ranking Queensrÿche Songs
00:25:59
Speaker
Yeah. So that's it. Those are the five songs that we chose for Queensripe to do a New to Us video. So I want to know what your favourites are. Go from five to one. Tell us why. Definitely agreed. Great. Wait, hold on. Who are you agreeing with? I'm joking. I'm joking. Go on. Yeah. Five to one. Five to one.
00:26:20
Speaker
So, five is Silent Lucidity for me, just because I'm not a ballad-y type. Fourth is IMI. Third is Take Hold of the Flame. Second is Queen of the Right. And first is Grand Herople, of course. Of course. Nice, nice. Did you expect that from me? Did you think that Open would be my favourite track? Yes, because for me, all I heard is Alterbridge. So I thought straight away, I thought that would be your favourite. OK. Cool, cool, cool.
00:26:52
Speaker
So my fifth favourite was I Am I. I thought it was okay, it just didn't grab me and it didn't take me. When you have progressive bands, when you think of bands like Opeth and Dream Theater and even earlier progressive stuff like Rainbow, you know the song Stargazer is a great tune, they take you on a journey and even when it is unusual in Middle Eastern and weird and odd and everything,
00:27:14
Speaker
I can accept it, but I want you to do something with it for me. And I am, I just didn't do that for me, unfortunately. Number four was Silent Recidity. I thought it was a really cool song, nice ballad, but not much different to, you know, I don't think it was better than Nothing Else Matters. I don't think it was the best metal ballad I've ever heard. I think it was a bit different. For them, for them. And at the time, because this is their most famous song. And you've got to remember, this is one year before Nothing Else Matters.
00:27:42
Speaker
And for me, having not heard of this song before, I'm quite surprised. So I would have thought I should have heard this before. Number three, Queen of the Rye. I just loved it. For me, it was just like a Judas Priest Iron Maiden hybrid. I thought that's fantastic. Number two, Open.
00:27:59
Speaker
I know I've been talking about the Altar Bridge, but that opening riff, it could be something from Slayer's God Hates Us All album, just that slow, heavy riff that kind of has sort of slow, thrashy elements to it. Yeah, actually, George just said, I was commenting on your Altar Bridge view.
00:28:18
Speaker
And my favorite song was Take Hold of the Flame and it's not like there's riffs in that that I preferred to Queen of the Right or Open, I just felt you're telling me this is a prog band so with prog music I want to be taken on a journey, I want you to do something for me when I'm listening to the song and Take Hold of the Flame, I have to give massive credit, that song
00:28:41
Speaker
The dynamic changes, the tempo changes, the way he uses his voice to tell this story and go on the journey, I thought was phenomenal and I really enjoyed that one. So to finish off in terms of the timeline of the band of our very basic research, Open was released in 2003.
History of Queensrÿche and Changes Over Time
00:29:02
Speaker
And then just under 10 years later, Jeff Tate leaves the band, which is quite a significant marker because he was the voice behind this band. And there essentially became two Queensways. Jeff, do you want to talk about that? Yeah, so let's talk about it in a minute because we've got a couple of comments I'd like to reply on you guys. So guys, just so you know, we're looking at some, I'm looking at three different screens.
00:29:23
Speaker
you can't I'm focusing on the green light on the laptop so I'm checking you know whether we need to reply to any so we've got a comment on Instagram without want to be wild um there would be no do you mean tenacious d
00:29:39
Speaker
And then the next comment is, what do you think of the days? I think, yeah. Tenacious Deep. That's odd. I did not expect the conversation to go this way, but I love Tenacious Deep. I've seen them live. Your lucky thing. Yeah, I know. Very good band. I think The Metal is probably my favorite song. I know everyone loves Tribute and Kickapoo's Funny as well, but they've got a really good way of mixing
00:30:02
Speaker
comedy and heavy metal music, which you don't often get. You've got comedy artists, you know, Frank Zappa, Chili Peppers in their own way, had a little bit of humor every now and then. Then you've got the, you know, the very comedy people like weird out Yankovic who take samples from Backstreet Boys and pop music. So to mix the comedy in with the metal, I find like a very good thing to do. Yeah.
00:30:26
Speaker
And I love Jack Black. He's probably my favorite celebrity, my favorite musician and his love for metal is Untouchable. Yeah, right. Sean is asking, have you seen Brittany Slays carry a conversion of Queen of the Rope? No, we haven't yet. Well, I haven't yet. No, no, we haven't. But they did a covers album, though.
00:30:45
Speaker
Didn't they? And that's on that one, I believe. So yeah, but we are going to do some, well, I'm going to do some Queen's Rhapsody, because I enjoy this. I really want to go and dig into Operation Mind Crime, because I'm very curious, having heard and enjoyed the first two songs from 83 and 84, I just try to imagine where they were at 88 when they were at their supposed peak. So I'm definitely going to go and check out Operation Mind Crime. Brilliant. Okay, let's move on. Any others?
00:31:08
Speaker
No, I'm good. Let's move on. So, yeah, Jeff Taint leaves the band 2012. Can you talk about that? Yeah. So, okay, so I did some reading of that. Very interesting, you guys. Let us know if you, like, know anything about it, okay? Because I'm not sure how true this is, but there we go. We know that basically, 2012, Jeff Tate left the band and he carried on.
00:31:33
Speaker
singing Queensright songs but with another without musicians. And what did he call the band? Queensright.
00:31:43
Speaker
no no no i thought they had no they were disputing on the name i think they had like a court thing oh right yeah they had little legal this i just thought it'd be really funny just queen's ride playing in two cities in one night you know maybe that was the case at some point i don't know but i think what was that album the famous one the famous one operation that's it that's what he said yes yes yeah that's it operation line crime and uh
00:32:10
Speaker
but then the other guys from queens right they they carried on with toad yeah toad something yeah i think if i'm pronouncing this right uh but yeah so they got a new singer and they're carrying on as queens right so the name yeah so toad la tour
00:32:29
Speaker
Lead vocals from 2012 to present. So today we were talking about Jeff Tate's era. Well, I think some people would argue that Queen's Wipe is Jeff Tate. Yeah. So, you know. So this is what I read, you know, and I mentioned those comment threads I read on YouTube.
00:32:47
Speaker
Yeah, there's just lots of talk about that. And then Queen's Rike stopped being Queen's Rike. 2012, yeah. It's just all, yeah, there's lots of stuff like that. There's lots of moments where this happened in metal. You know, you've got Sepultura without Max Tabolera. Is it still Sepultura? It happens, it happens. I like to leave banned politics out of it. I just think let's enjoy the music. But to finish off our little bio of Queen's Rike, they are still playing and touring
Queensrÿche Today and Recent Releases
00:33:12
Speaker
today. And they actually released an album last year. So yeah, that's it.
00:33:16
Speaker
We're going to do some overall thoughts on what we have taken from listening to these five songs. And thank you guys for giving us those five songs because these were all chosen by you.
00:33:26
Speaker
So every time we're gonna do a new To Ask video, we're gonna ask your opinion on tell us the best songs and then we'll pick five of them and we'll just do another video like you did, like you've had today. Yeah, can you guys let us know if you've enjoyed this full man? Because I've really, I'm really enjoying this. And hit your likes and subscribes, everything, you know. Yeah, please. We're doing this live video. Who said thank you for the Mac Metal lesson? Someone on Instagram, Facebook.
00:33:51
Speaker
on Facebook. Yeah, so you're welcome for the metal lesson, but hit like, that's what we want. Hit like, support us and subscribe to us on all platforms that will really help sort of drive the project forward and stuff. But yeah, let's go back to overall thoughts. You know, I want to overall thoughts, but then I just want to pick your brain on something as well, if you don't mind. You're nervous, you're nervous. I love it. You actually respond. Of course we respond.
00:34:22
Speaker
we respond to you guys so um i really enjoyed what i heard today okay is this you picking my braids were you no okay i'll tell you what i'm gonna pick your braids um um so i really really enjoyed it i am a singer myself so hearing this kind of mind-blowing vocals i just love
00:34:48
Speaker
I absolutely love it and I have huge respect for Jeff Tae because absolute on form and still is actually, still sounds great. Does it? Yeah, from what I heard. I heard like a couple of performances from 2021, I think. Is it crazy though, these bands, like we saw Iron Maiden a month ago and my God, Bruce Dickens' vocals. And I was of the opinion five years ago when I saw them, I thought, you know what, it's still Bruce, it's still Maiden, but he's kind of losing it.
00:35:17
Speaker
With age, he's gotten better. It's just mind-blowing. Sorry, please, please, Karen. So, no. Jeff Teh, that's a fantastic singer. And I think I loved the variety, actually. This is what I really enjoy. Because we had so many different songs today. They're all very different songs. Yes. And I enjoy that because this is how you learn about the band, about what they're about and stuff. So, yeah, will I go back and listen to more? Yes, I actually will.
00:35:46
Speaker
I think I will. I think I will, but I'll probably start with the famous one. The famous stuff and then I'll just make my way through. Yeah. I already said I want to go straight for Operation Mind Crime. So I like, I'm not like a massive Prog Metal fan. I love O.B.E.F. Dream Theater. I enjoy them as well. Tool. Tool, yes, I love Tool. But yeah, to hear that this is a definitive Prog Metal album, I'm going straight for Operation Mind Crime.
00:36:16
Speaker
Um, yeah. Sorry, I was just talking about one of the devices. Oh, good. Um, right. So overall thoughts. Yeah. Do you have any more? No, I think it's great. I think I'll pick your brains later. Okay. So I want to talk about his vocals because we've gone through these songs and I made notes as you know, as you see me reading my notes.
00:36:37
Speaker
And each of the songs, I wrote a different vocalist he reminded me of. Just going to recap that for you. Love it. First vocalist, Rob Halford from Judas Priest. Second vocalist, Ian Gillan from Deep Purple. Third vocalist, essentially Roger Waters from Pink Floyd. Fourth vocalist, Billy Talent singer. Fifth vocalist, Miles Kennedy. Interesting. Interesting. I'm shocked, impressed,
00:37:04
Speaker
and bemused that I've listened to five different songs from five different eras and I've compared them to five different rock slash metal singers. That is talent beyond belief.
00:37:21
Speaker
that one man can adjust his voice or tailor his voice to suit the needs of the song to such an extent that I can hear five different vocalists in my head for five different songs. Yeah. And although the music is fantastic
00:37:40
Speaker
And I never, with metal bands as well, because so much is considered with metal bands. It's not like pop music where I'm not doing any disservice to pop music, but you can play three chords on a bass. You can just play two notes, you know, and the vocalist needs it. The vocalist is the point of the pop music. They're the name on the banner of the gig. With metal, it's much more. It's about how a band works together. It's about how a band works on their timing, works on their songwriting together. So I don't want to take anything away from the band, but
00:38:11
Speaker
Jeff Tate. Wow. That's all I have to say about Jeff Tate. Wow. I was super, super, super impressed with him on this. And you know, this is when, well, I could do vocal notes, but I don't think there is a
00:38:26
Speaker
like a need really you've said everything and I think you guys know everything don't you like what I don't really need to break it down we all know he's great we all know he's a great performer as well as well as a singer and that's a big deal you know to sustain this kind of technique whilst fully performing jumping around the stage engaging with the audience it's it's a huge skill and I think he's very operatic in places he's got really great technique
00:38:52
Speaker
There's theatricals of that. So yeah, brilliant stuff. They're just my final thoughts musically. Lots of stylistic variety. You know, we've used words here like, Altarbridge, Slayer, Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Glam Metal.
00:39:07
Speaker
I think you're hearing all of it within all these five songs, and I'm really impressed with that. Progressive tendencies throughout, be it classical influences, Middle Eastern vibes, instrumentation, song complexity, but they never settle on one form of progressiveness. With Iron Maiden in the 80s, especially the album 7th Son or the 7th Son, 1986, I believe, no, that was Palestine. Anyway, whatever, yeah, I think that was 88.
00:39:33
Speaker
you had the addition of the keyboard, and that was Iron Maiden doing prog. We'll keep our music the same, we'll keep the galloping, we'll keep long songs, we're gonna add a keyboard. And that was Maiden doing prog. Queen's Rock have done prog differently. They've done keyboards, they've done song structures, they've done Middle Eastern-ness, they've done classical stuff. And I loved that they took these different forms of progressiveness and didn't settle on one of it. And because of this, it leads me to my final point, but they really, really remind me of Led Zeppelin.
00:40:03
Speaker
A cemented style, so that Zeppelin had their blues and rock if you like, but always pushing the boundaries and trying to add other interesting elements. So you mean as a concept? As a concept, not the, I don't think they sound like that. Then I mean that Zeppelin had their blues and rock style and then they started adding things like the Middle Eastern in the soul cashmere.
00:40:26
Speaker
like you know like things like that and Queens Rock have done the same they've taken their heavy metal as their base heavy metal slash hard rock and then they've gone and they've added that middle east and they've added the classical stuff in silent lucidity they've added the vocal effects and the instrumentation um i just have to say i'm very impressed i really really enjoyed it i'm gonna pick your brain in a minute
00:40:48
Speaker
comments we've got a couple of comments let's have a look so i recently found your channel and went down the rabbit hole watched a bunch of videos must say killer content thank you thank you
00:40:58
Speaker
Thank you very much. That means a lot to us. Really just the very good analysis on the vocals. I do feel the chemistry of between Jeff and the band is what brought out those lightning in a bottle moments. That's a great point because without having a band behind him that he feels comfortable enough to let loose, you know, we didn't say at the start, we're both pro musicians.
00:41:23
Speaker
We would play music professionally. And there are, as the girl or boy, man or woman said on there, there are moments where
00:41:32
Speaker
The band is just, you know, you're playing a song, you're on tour, you know, you're doing a sixth night in the row, and you think it's going to be the same as the previous five nights, but something different. There's just something in the air where you look at each other and you go, yes, tonight, this is the one. And you play better. You add that 10%. You go from 100% to 110%.
00:41:55
Speaker
And then I feel like when the band are at that level, that's when the vocalist who doesn't need to worry necessarily so much about song structures, keeping time, making sure that the keyboard track is going to be played on time, when the vocalist doesn't need to worry about that and the band behind them is on fire,
00:42:17
Speaker
Then people like Jeff Tate, Bruce Dickinson, Rob Halford, they can all do their thing and let them know. You just have this confidence. Yeah. You know, I haven't seen them know that. It's like, you just have this huge support behind you. You just feel it with your back. You're like, oh yeah, we're on fire today. You know, we can do it. It's, yeah, it's that support, you know. Yeah, absolutely.
00:42:40
Speaker
look let's let me pick your brain a bit okay so we just sort of really well obviously we really praise jeff tay i think personally that he's very underrated as a singer why do you think that can be so like you said Rob Halford i don't think he's underrated Bruce Dickinson definitely not underrated um
00:43:05
Speaker
Miles Kennedy, not underrated, but I feel like Jifte is a bit. Well, I think that a singer's reputation only really goes as far as the band they're playing in.
00:43:23
Speaker
And it feels to me having, again, this minimal amount of research, it feels to me that Queen's Right are not a famous band. They are. I mean, I think that's fair to say. They're not Iron Maiden. They're not at the levels of Metallica. Maybe they were famous back in the day. Because we went around, you know? We don't know, really. You guys tell us how big were they, how big are we talking if you were around? But when you're talking now, even talking now about metal in the 80s,
00:43:53
Speaker
and 90s, I still feel you've got bands like Metallica and Maiden who are always mentioned. And for me, Queensright aren't mentioned. And that's not saying I wouldn't mention them. No, it's just that's the way, you know. That's saying I've never heard of them. So just to clarify, it's not saying I've never heard of them. I'm saying that when you talk about this, when you talk about the biggest metal bands in the world, you say Maiden, Metallica, when you go Modern, you talk Slipknot. These are the mainstream bands that people talk about. And I feel that maybe Queensright weren't in the mainstream.
00:44:23
Speaker
And because of that, I think the personnel in the band suffer. Yeah. And that doesn't mean that they're not talented enough or something because we've seen that that's not the case. That's not the case here at all. He is underrated because I think if you can belt like Ian Gillan, keep a clean, distinctive tone like Miles Kennedy and the Billy Talent singer,
00:44:50
Speaker
when you can sing softly in a ballad like Roger Waters. My God, what else can't you do, you know? It's a perfect package really. He is the perfect package. He's got that for Christmas, which I think is very important. And when you think, you know, you said operatic, the song Queen of the Rye, that for me that's Rob Halford and Ian Gillan. And when you can belt and deliver a note like that,
00:45:14
Speaker
in metal in the early 80s my god the sky's the limit and for this band it seems the sky wasn't the limit because they've gone on to become a very successful band I feel like it's a shame that they're not mentioned more it is and this is my other point you know like it's interesting just it's just we can only wonder can't we but it's interesting how bands with not the same characteristics but with similar characteristics like maiden like priest
00:45:42
Speaker
Yeah, go on. So I was just going to add another thing as to why we're talking about why the band might not be considered as big as the others is the progressiveness. People like easy music and I'm not talking us on here. You know, we love the metal. I'm talking about the people who listen to the radio, the casual fan. They loved it when Enter Sandman came out because it was four and a half minutes long. It had a chorus you could sing along to.
00:46:08
Speaker
They loved it when Nothing Else Matters came out because it was a soft ballad that they could play at weddings. They loved it when Can I Play With Madness came out because it was three minutes long and it had a catchy chorus. They loved it when New Metal came along because suddenly metal was a bit simpler. No solos, short songs.
00:46:24
Speaker
when you're pushing the boundaries. It's the same reason that Dream Theater and OPEF are played on the radio. It's harder, isn't it? It's harder. Longer songs, progressive elements. A DJ is not going to listen to a Queensripe song and say, yeah, our listeners can do that.
00:46:39
Speaker
That's a very good point. The way that Maiden and Metallica had certain songs that you could do that with, as I said, Madness and The Sound Man, nothing else matters. Queen's Riker didn't seem to have that accessibility. I think that's the key word, accessibility. Whilst all of us on here can appreciate and understand what Queen's Riker done for metal, I think the wider world probably wouldn't get it. Yeah, I think it's quite, it's music for
00:47:04
Speaker
musicians and people who can really sort of dig into, you know, music. Well, I think a lot of metalheads aren't musicians, but they appreciate the music behind it. Yeah, the appreciation. But I think just understanding what goes into writing a song as complex and as good as a Queen's Rite song really shows how good they are. Yeah, that's it.
00:47:25
Speaker
I picked your brain and found out. This was my point because I was listening. I was like, this is so good. Yeah. I thought, yeah. Yeah. Really good. Yeah. No, very, very good. Cool. Yeah. Are we done?
00:47:38
Speaker
I think I've said everything I wanted to say. I suppose we could quickly ask anyone any questions about anything whilst we're here. Please guys, let us know if you have any questions. So without comment. Go on. Fuck yeah, I'm a professional musician as well. Can you swear? Can you swear life? Can we just do that? Okay, do it again. Do it official. Fuck yeah, I'm a professional musician as well. I live for those moments as well.
00:48:03
Speaker
I think that was coming back to what we're talking about yeah so whilst anyone is typing out any potential questions we're just going to let you know that you've got to subscribe to our channel we've got videos on there we've got so this is a new to us video which is where as we've said we take five songs from an artist I'm familiar with and we
00:48:19
Speaker
look at them, analyse them and talk about them. We've also got new music reviews where a new band will put out an album and we'll analyse it and review it. We've got classic album reviews which is my favourite because we go back into the archives and metal history and we look at albums that shape the genre. So far we've done Arise by Sepultura. We've also done metal profiles, we've done an Aussie Osborne profile
00:48:41
Speaker
We just do all things metal and we don't consider ourselves reviewers and we're not taking stances. We just talk about the stuff we love. If there's an album we love or a person we love or a band we love, we're going to try and talk about them. Just let us know in the comments as well if you enjoyed this format again. If you just joined us recently, I've asked it.
00:49:06
Speaker
you've liked. Yeah please like. So get on the liking and subscribe please. Any questions coming through? No I don't think so I think we answered everything and thank you very much you guys for being with us here today this was our first scream stream
00:49:24
Speaker
This is our first live stream. It was very good. I enjoyed it a lot. It's nice to have the interaction with you guys. I mean, just talking about things and someone asking a question or sort of giving their opinion and saying things like they're a musician as well. We're trying to build a community here. We're trying to build a community of like-minded metalheads that just love the music. If any of you go onto our Facebook page, you'll see we don't, we've sworn already. So I'm going to say we don't take any shit.
00:49:49
Speaker
we're not going to have people commenting and saying oh well I think this genre sucks or or you're wrong for liking this genre we want to be a community of people who love metal and can appreciate all the different elements of it not everyone will like every different sub-genre of metal there's too many metal is such a broad genre there's no way everyone is going to like everything but we want to talk about it with you guys we all know what you love and want to talk about it with you and that's what we're trying to build here absolutely thank you so much for being here today
00:50:17
Speaker
We'll see you very soon. Have a metal day. Have a lovely day. See you guys. Papa, I'm gonna click everywhere. Bye.