EMPIRE

I'm not fluent in German but is this band's name supposed to mean a feminine version of Reich? If so, is it supposed to have an umlaut over the 'y'? Just wondering. This is my favourite Queensryche album. It was the band's most commercially successful album. I never could get into Operation: Mindcrime. Never understood why that album was so popular. This one had some great singles on it. The only pre-Empire song I really liked was their cover of Dalbello's "Gonna Get Close To You". I know they have way proggier albums than this, but Empire is where I get on and off the cruise ship Queensryche.

First off, a lot of the music on here sounds like '80s Rush meets Hair Metal. Everything screams: "This Was Made In The Late Nineteen Eighties!!!". The vocal samples are pretty cool. Choice of keyboard and guitar sounds not so much. "Silent Lucidity" is a ripoff of "Comfortably Numb". It's still a good song. My favourite song was always the title track. Love the middle section. The most interesting musical moment happens at the end of "The Thin Line". Nice guitar and keyboard there. At the beginning of "Della Brown" you hear a sample I know I've heard elsewhere. You hear some guy say in New Yorkese: "Ya f_in' bum". That exact same sample is in Anthrax's 1991 remake of their own song "I'm The Man". I wonder where it comes from.

"Jet City Woman" and "Another Rainy Night(Without You)" are great pop-metal singles. "Resistance" really sounds like '80s Rush. I always liked the first half better than the second half(I still have this on cassette). Never did hear the follow up Promised Land. By the time it came out I was listening to NIN, Smashing Pumpkins and Dr.Dre. Not much prog here. 2 stars.