Label: Rhino Records
Release date: 03/31/2009
Production: Jason Slater
Length: 60.36 min
Genre: Art Metal
Queensryche! A band that left an unmistakable mark on the rock/metal map for all time, but somehow started drowning musically in the work that followed “Promised Land” (1994). Queensryche only started clinically crawling back among the living with “Operation Mindcrime pt. II” (2006), and “American Soldier” is the proof that undeniably confirms you’ve got nothing to fear when you come face to face with it in an online shop or in a real-life CD store. You can trust it 100%. Queensryche are finally back!
Of course, we shouldn’t compare the new album to their past catalog, the one that put them among the biggest rock/metal bands of our time, because that would automatically degrade it. Geoff Tate conceived an album whose individual song stories are interwoven like different personal confessions of Vietnam War veterans. Supposedly, Geoff Tate did a few interviews with these surviving heroes for the occasion and poured them into the language of a musical sermon. Some interview inserts are used as seasoning within the songs, e.g. in Unafraid or in If I Were King. Elsewhere, Queensryche masterfully pull an extra, wide-ranging maneuver to break up the monotony, subtly highlighting a particular emotion. In the calmer Middle Of Hell, for instance, even an alto sax sneaks into the backing of the chorus, and with such an effect that you say to yourself: “Well, I did NOT see that coming!”, yet at the same time it fits the picture of the composition perfectly.
The new Queensryche remain art rockers. The sound is “Seattle”, with that touch of gritty smear when it comes to distortion. That was especially sought after in the era of the main culprits on the planet who sparked “grunge”, whose paradise was right there in Seattle. But Queensryche are art rockers! The choruses are what give “American Soldier” all the attention it needs and convince you it’s an excellent album. In the studio, the guys tried to recreate a man in action and reaction, body and soul, thrown onto the battlefields of Vietnam, as well as a man who can’t hide the painful gashes he has to live with, the traumas tying him to the horrors he survived in that very same war.
The form of the basic motifs is condensed, clear, flowing, and easy to consume and process in your brain. As already mentioned, soaring, powerful choruses stand out in them, which the opener Silver confirms right away. Queensryche stay recognizable in everything, while at the same time offering a different album, one that’s hard to compare directly with its predecessors in terms of compositions. Within these simple forms of the leading riffs, Rockenfield’s drums constantly seek out plenty of room to maneuver for their expression, which is best documented in the mid-tempo, punchy ballad At 30 Thousand Ft, which is especially dark in its crafted atmosphere, and Wilton’s solo is woven into it with an eighties guitar effect reminiscent of The Needle Lies.
Production-wise, Queensryche once again don’t disappoint. The especially voluminous A Dead Man’s World showcases an excellent, dynamically contrasting flow, with most of the sound heavily packed into the bass line. Rockenfield is an important factor throughout the album, bringing dynamics into the songs with his varied drumming and deepening the dramatic moment, which feels relentless across an hour of listening. Yes. “American Soldier” is a very dark album. It effectively “lives and suffers” in the traumas of war veterans, yet stays listenable the whole way through and never too heavy to take. Most of the songs lean toward a mid-tempo groove. This further spotlights the juicy sonic curtain that adorns the compositions. Just how strong a pair of writers and composers Queensryche are and remain (especially when it comes to chasing polished melodicism) is confirmed on the new album too by the excellent ballads Remember Me and Home Again, which make sure the peak of “American Soldier” is guaranteed in its closing stretch.
The Killer is the strongest of the album’s punchy tracks when it comes to the sheer catchiness of the chorus, and it’s written straight-up as a hit single! So the album is full of variety in its leading motifs. Tate dove in deep to bring the chosen concept to life. The songs radiate different emotional states. From anger, aggression, a craving for bloodshed, to everything that stems from the burden of guilt, the state of a heavy conscience that grows over the ego like an invisible shadow. Queensryche aren’t trying to recapture the grandeur of the glory days of the early nineties; instead, they’ve finally “kicked” it where it counts. They’ve taken a healthy step forward. A developmental step in the right direction. Experience, rich know-how, and great compositional maturity are brilliantly capitalized on this time. What “Operation: Mindcrime pt. II” (2006) hinted at has finally come into the world in full. An album that was meant to be born at least 10 years earlier. At last, it’s here!
author: Aleš Podbrežnik
rating: 8.5 / 10
Tracklist:
01. Sliver
02. Unafraid
03. Hundred Mile Stare
04. At 30,000 Ft.
05. A Dead Man’s Words
06. The Killer
07. Middle Of Hell
08. If I Were King
09. Man Down!
10. Remember Me
11. Home Again
12. The Voice
Lineup:
Geoff Tate – vocals
Michael Wilton – guitar
Eddie Jackson – bass
Scott Rockenfield – drums
