Band:	Queensrÿche
Album:	Queensrÿche
Style:	Progressive heavy metal
Release date:	June 24, 2013
Guest review by:	IanYeara

01. X2
02. Where Dreams Go To Die
03. Spore
04. In This Light
05. Redemption
06. Vindication
07. Midnight Lullaby
08. A World Without
09. Don't Look Back
10. Fallout
11. Open Road

All right, let's bite this in the butt; I am not a Queensryche fan, in fact this was the first Queensryche album I had listened to in full (though I have since listened to more). From the first time I heard the song "Redemption" I was very excited for this album as a metal head. Obviously this is a very hyped album with a lot of expectations riding on its shoulders and basically the reputation of the name Queensryche what with Geoff Tate's Frequency Unknown being a gigantic flop; the obvious questions are going to be, "how does it meet these standards and how does it compare to the last 20 years of garbage that this band has been pumping out?"

In this reviewer's humble opinion it meets all the hype and standards with some kick-ass prog metal and some really catchy melodies. The band didn't try to experiment and they didn't try to break any molds, they stuck with what they knew best and came up with some ridiculously catchy songs. The shortness of the album as a whole hurts it a bit as some of the songs come up a bit short, but it definitely gets the job done.

"Redemption" is my clear favorite with some fairly aggressive playing and a damn catchy chorus and the band really proving they are back. But of course there are definitely some other songs that need to be mentioned; "Where Dreams go to Die" is a really dark song with some rather interesting lyrical content...

"I'll take you there, where castles built will fall, Where dreams go to die and I promise you this, With God as my witness, that your time will finally meet its end. Your dreams will burn and die and you cannot resist".

I thought this was rather dark for this band, but in a chilling "this is awesome sort of way" so overall "Where Dreams Go to Die" gets the "best chorus" award. "Vindication" gets the fastest, most energetic song award; it doesn't do any double bass drum, but it's still faster than the rest of it and very up-beat and almost happy and of course another good chorus (that's it, I'm done mentioning choruses, they're all good). "In this Light" is pretty good for a ballad and everything else, while not necessarily worth pointing out specifically is still good; no filler material here folks. What I enjoyed most about this album (mind you this is without hearing other Queensryche first) is the energy, enthusiasm and work they put into this album, if I didn't know any better I would think it was just another album rather than a landmark and career redemption. They made this album sound like nothing ever went wrong and they've been doing as well as this for the last 20 years which really impressed me; also considering how much Geoff Tate tried to stick his new Queensryche album in everyone's noses, especially this Queensryche, which is really funny because this album blows it out of the water.

This is one of those albums I could wax eloquent about all day long, but suffice it to say this is an excellent come back and the best album this band has made since Operation Mind Crime (that's really not saying much is it?). It certainly has its flaws, aside from it's lack of length, both instrumental pieces are really boring and almost unnecessary, I don't really consider them filler material because they don't take up much space at all. Where it falls short is in song length, songs like "Fallout" really didn't have enough time to develop and realize their full potential. I really hope Queensryche makes their next album longer as well as more aggressive, not that this wasn't aggressive at all, but it could have used a little more. End of the line, this album has turned me into a Queensryche fan and hopefully it will put hope back into their fans.