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Watch this video for the new Queensryche song. If it helps with your decision, there are a lot of half-naked chicks in it. The song is called “Wot We Do” and it comes from the Seattle band’s upcoming twelfth album, Dedicated to Chaos. The video was created by the band’s vocalist, Geoff Tate, and features performance and backstage footage of the Cabaret shows that they did last year, and it’s a testament to just how far they have fallen. This is the same band that released the excellent concept album Operation: Mindcrime and once almost got themselves shot while trying to secretly record gang members talking so that they could include it on the song “Empire.” So, what went wrong? In interviews for this album the band have been trying to make it as clear as possible that this is supposed to be a very current and modern album. Geoff Tate told Paul Anthony of U.K.’s Rock Radio, “It’s kind of like an Empire record set 25 years in the future,” and drummer Scott Rockenfield said, “It’s huge rock but with a great dance vibe to it, real modern dance. It’s kind of like Rage [For Order] through a time tunnel, bringing it into the now.” If you’ve just watched the video for “Wot We Do” you have to be wondering what the hell they’re even talking about.

Do they look like a group that knows what the fuck is cool these days?

In order to truly know where things went wrong we have to go back more than two decades to the release of Operation: Mindcrime and their first taste of fame. It was at that time that Mtv kind of started paying attention to the band with the release of their video for the song “I Don’t Believe in Love.” After that little taste of fame (and by extension, not being broke) they dove headlong into the first album that they thought was bringing them ‘into the now’ — Empire. The problem is that they really thought that they understood what was cool in 1991 and album sales seemed to suggest that they were right, but they were totally wrong. The reality of the situation was that the highly produced, big budget rock albums of the eighties were already on their way out and less than a year later Kurt and Co. were going to release Nevermind and kick its make-up wearing ass the rest of the way out the door. No, really the band got lucky with a lush little ballad by the name of “Silent Lucidity.” Don’t get me wrong, the song (and album) were great but they weren’t what was ‘current’ and ‘in the now’ at all; the band just got lucky. At any rate, the huge concerts and fat bank accounts lead the band to believe that they could afford to experiment a little and that the new fans would certainly be along for the ride — oopsie. The album was called Promised Land, and it really was an excellent release. It was a darker, moodier, more expansive release that brought back a lot of the experimentation of their Rage for Order days. Unfortunately, it was album that lacked the kick of Mindcrime and the hooks of Empire. Also, the Mtv kids had already jumped ship to grunge anyway, which left the staunch metal supporters to listen to the odd instrumental choices and abundance of acoustic tracks and just scratch their heads.

You can’t drink beer and go muddin’ to saxophone solos.

After the disappointing sales of Promised Land, the band made their first really huge blatant leap towards the greener pastures of ‘the now’ with the grunge-influenced Hear in the Now Frontier in 1997. At this point they weren’t even trying to hide the fact that they craved the fame and fortune. Unfortunately, the album was a total misguided mess. Which, when you think about it, totally doesn’t make any sense. You would have thought that since they all lived in fucking Seattle some of that scene would have rubbed off on them, but it wasn’t to be. Instead of being a decent Pearl Jam clone (which might have actually fit them), Hear in the Now Frontier totally ditched the prog rock and metal of previous albums and also completely missed the point of what made grunge and/or alternative so addicting to the masses. It’s not entirely the band’s fault, though, because they weren’t the only ones that thought they knew what was cool and how to co-opt it (see similar releases by Motley Crue and Skid Row, to name just two). After Hear in the Now Frontier (justifiably) flopped Chris DeGarmo jumped ship to do whatever the hell he does these days. This was a relief to fans because a lot of blame for the new grunge direction went to him. It is possible that he is to blame for the grunge, but that still doesn’t explain who is to blame for Q2k and Tribe. If nothing else, you have to hand it to the band for their ambition and willingness to do whatever was necessary to jump back in the spotlight — hello Operation: Mindcrime II. Too bad that by the time of Mindcrime II‘s the band couldn’t even remember how to copy their own sound well. In the movie Gladiator, there is a scene where Commodus is crying about virtues and he tells his father that ambition can be a virtue when it drives you to excel. The band picked that part up, apparently, but they failed to finish the movie and learn that you also have to know what the hell you’re doing with that ambition or you’re pretty well fucked.

Pictured Left: The music buying public, Right: Queensryche’s career

This pretty much brings us right back to that video and the terrible song that accompanies it. Beginning with the video… obviously boobies never go out of style and kudos to Geoff Tate for realizing it, but it is also the first point of contention. The point being that Queensryche were never a ‘tits-and-ass’ kind of band, but that is what they’ve fallen towards. Second, the lyrics are some of the most terrible in the Queensryche repertoire. Again, this is the same band that managed an excellent concept album and were always adept at writing thought-provoking lyrics.  As for the music, yes the metal-buying public is more open minded these days than they were when Promised Land was released, but the saxophone solo still isn’t doing them any favors. Also, I’m not sure which person in the band thinks that the cheese-groove and terrible brass instrumentation is what is ‘current’ and ‘in the now’, but it shouldn’t surprise anybody that they’re still as clueless about the mainstream as they were way back when they released Empire. What exactly this means for the album as a whole is still a mystery, but as a fan (i.e. masochist) I still hold out hope that this song isn’t representative of the full album.

Queensryche: Misunderstanding the mainstream since 1983.