Hard pressed for a follow-up to their commercially successful album Empire (which spawned 4 hit singles, including the top 5 Silent Lucidity), Queensryche decided to wisely wait out the worst of the grunge storm that eradicated talent, musicianship, and confidence from the musical scene, replacing it with grungy, whiny, flannel-wearing crud that to this day still haunts us. (Gee, am I on a soapbox?) It is truly ironic that the city Queensryche came from was the same city that would do them in (Seattle, if I have to spell it out for you).

Along comes 1994. After the commercially successful Empire was long forgotten, and out-and-out grunge was starting to split at the seams, Queensryche put out what turned out to be it's finest album. And sadly, no one cared. This album went multi-platinum but strangely, it remains horridly underappreciated.

Promised Land, even to fans of Queensryche, came as quite a shock upon first listen. No, Queensryche wasn't pulling a Warrant and trying to go grunge to sell records. Their often political, anything-but-cock-rock songs were never completley mainstream to begin with, something that kept them in good favor with critics and music lovers. On Promised Land, sonically, Queensryche stays much the same for all intents, keeping their sweeping song structures, original lyrical themes, and prog-rock musicality intact.

The shock was how hard this album hits the listener, maybe not right away, but when you really sit down and take a good listen to this entire album, front to back. This is a dark record. Real dark. The entire album reads like one big suicide note from beginning to end, and not in the 'I hate myself I wanna die' way (copyright Kurt Co... oh wait, no one gives a damn). This album is extremely subtle, at times, the music is light, airy, spaced, darn near soothing. And at these times the lyrical content seems to be at it's most harrowing, in a very personal sense.

I'm going to take a different approach to reviewing this album. Something that every other reviewer seems to have missed (or maybe it's just my imagination, but what the hell) is that this album is very distinctly split into sections, songwriting-wise. My interpretation is as follows, and this is what I'll use to refer to the rest of my review.

Section 1: I Am I / Damaged
Section 2: Out of Mind / Bridge
Section 3: Promised Land / Disconnected
Section 4: Lady Jane / My Global Mind / One More Time
Section 5: 9:28am / Someone Else
(Note that except for section 5, the sections go right down the line from the beginning of the album to the end)



Section 1: (Grunge, Queensryche style)
'I Am I' is a song unlike any I've ever heard, from Queensryche or others. Driven by the anything-but-straightforward drumming of Scott Rockenfield (simply the most underrated rock drummer out there), 'I Am I' kicks the album off and sets the tone. It's not grunge, but it's definitley different and it's definitly got a sinister edge to it. The lyrical content hits hard and is very unapologetic. Geoff Tate's vocals sound quite different, very sinister and steeley, definitley not the elegant romantic that popped up here and there on Empire. I'm not going to quote lyrics, it's been done in other reviews. Just listen to the song.

'I Am I' segues straight into 'Damaged', and these two songs go quite well together, they both contain powerful, hard-hitting instrumentation and some mean vocals from Geoff Tate. 'Damaged' contains a simple, yet extremely cool riff that drives the song through.

Section 2: (Chris DeGarmo fancies himself Harry Chapin)
After 'Damaged', change sets in with a very olde-English sounding acoustic-based song called 'Out of Mind'. Tate sings quite sweetly on this one, however, here's where the lyrics start to really define the album, in a subtle way, of course. It's hard to explain, it just needs to be listened to. Rockenfield takes a back-seat on this and the next song, and lets guitarists Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton drive this song, as well as the next song, 'Bridge'.

'Bridge' was the only song of this album to garner any significant airplay ('I Am I' made a minor dent as well) and it's structured like a hit, the musicianship isn't too flashy, Geoff tones the wailing down. 'Bridge' is a song that discussess a lifelong strain between father and son, much like, you guessed it, 'Cat's in the Cradle'. Of course, Ugly Kid Joe did his own cover of that song so Queensryche just had to settle for a re-interpretation. Despite it's painfully obvious derivative nature (right down to the Dad begging for forgiveness in the last verse), this song works very, very well and carries a mood of despair and regret. And hey, Queensryche also pilfered Pink Floyd's Comfortably Numb for 'Silent Lucidity'. So at least they know what works and they're drawing inspiration from musicians worth doing so from.

Section 3: (The dark, moody soundscape section)
The album's mutated stepchild of a title track steps in next, and wow, is this a masterpiece. Everything from well-placed synthesizer to a saxophone finds it's way into this extended song. The band themselves tone their virtuosity down a notch, carrying the song with well-placed guitar squeals, cymbal crashes, and bass accents. Geoff Tate takes center stage on this one, and he stops fooling around and turns to screaming like it's Rage for Order (the band's second album) all over again. He carries the song with his deep, natural bass-voice during the verses (if you can define any part of this song) and then, seemingly out of nowhere at times, he'll just cut loose, conveying a mood of utter hopelessness and regret. This song really is quite chilling, especially his screams of 'Where... did it all go wrong?'..

'Promised Land' blends into 'Disconnected' so well that you might not even notice they're two seperate songs at first. 'Disconnected' is a song that many people don't really care for, and to tell you the truth, if any song on this album could be described as 'weak', this would be it. But it's not. It's just different. No discernable hook. No hard-hitting chorus. Just blunt honesty from Geoff Tate and the subtle music and stellar drumming accent the sparse vocals quite well.

Section 4: (About time they started rocking again!)
... well, not quite. 'Lady Jane' marks a turnaround for this album in sonics but not in mood. Lyrically, the subject of the song (who just so happens to be a lady named Jane) is as dark and hopeless as ever, but the music starts to pick up here, with some multitracked chorus vocal overdubs and flashy instrumentation, all backed by a piano melody that Linkin Park would have killed to come up with.

'My Global Mind' gives the album a kick in the rear, with some wah-wah wall-of-guitars set to a crashing Bo-Diddley beat, Geoff Tate waxes political here, for the only time on the album. It's quite catchy and makes for a nice pickup after all the moodiness of the previous 5 tracks. And with almost no delay after the final cymbal crash comes...

..'One More Time'.. I can't say enough great things about this song. Queensryche pulls out all the stops here, from the haunting harmonized guitar leads to Rockenfield's jazzy, accenting drumming, to the driving bass-work, to Tate's fluid, multi-octave vocals. The sense of regret and hopelessness hits another peak on this album (the first being on the title track), this time, wrapped in a catchy, deceptivley melodic package that still finds a way to keep the mood of the album intact without sounding like a commercial Empire wannabee. The chorus is hands-down, one of the best that the band has ever pulled out, and the half-step key change following the solo sends a chill down my spine every time without fail. 'One More Time' justifies the purchase of this album all by itself.

Section 5: (Is there hope?)
You may notice this section consists of the first 'song', 9:28am (which is nothing more than a soundscape prelude to 'I Am I') along with the album closer, 'Someone Else?'. These two cuts, to me, represent similar themes, that being a small, scant glimmer of hope. The primary, upfront sound in 9:28am is a baby's cry, which I take to meaning as the innocence and unfufilled promise only a newborn child has.

'Someone Else?' is the third true masterpeice of the album (Even though every song here is quite wonderful). This is a song, again, unlike anything Queesnryche ever did before, with Geoff Tate backed by nothing more than a piano's majestic accompaniment. This is a song of a man who's spent his entire life looking back, and now decides to finally move forward, as he realizes that his past was 'Someone Else, not Me'. For as stark of a mood as the piano creates, this is one heck of an inspirational song and is a perfect close to an album filled with darkness and despairity in all it's varying forms. Geoff Tate delivers a vocal performance that's right up there with his very best, showing off his incredible range without a single Rob Halford-ish wail.

(Note: an alternate full-band version of this song appears on Queensryche's Hits compilation, and it contains extra verses and it works very well but there's just a magic to this sparse, beautiful piano-only peice that can't be duplicated).

Promised Land is a front-to-back masterpeice. You won't be able to get into it if you're expecting light-hearted 80's metal like Empire, or an obvious story wrapped in a melodic package like Operation Mindcrime. I have great respect for Operation Mindcrime, but there's something about a concept album that doesn't spell the story out, that lets you interpret your own story, and that is the trump card that makes Promised Land the best album this stunningly talented Seattle band ever put out. Once you're a fan of Queensryche, this is a must-buy.


Recommended: Yes

Great Music to Play While: Driving