Queensryche - A classic Progresssive band that have changed!

August 6th 2015

London, Electric Ballroom, UK

**3/4

A band that needs to get it's act together!

Queensryche **3/4 are an American Progressive Metal band, who were formed in Washington way back in 1982. Tonight they hit the London, Electric Ballroom to a Sold Out!!! crowd. The support bill for this show was really strong, with Death Angel and Armored Saint playing great sets before them.

Queensryche have always had a certain magic to them, but has that changed at all in the last few years. Only time will tell. They start off well, opening their set with 'Anarchy-X' off one of their most successful albums 'Operation Mindcrime'. This song has some really nice elements to it, and guitar parts that come off really well in the live environment of the London, Electric Ballroom.

They go old school with the brilliant 'Nightrider', one of their first songs and 'Breaking the Silence' again off the classic 1988 'Operation Mindcrime'. This is the first moments the set seems to faulter a little, even though the crowd seem to be enjoying it. And this is brought to a louder volume when singer Todd La Torre starts the crowd chanting before breaking into 'Walk in the Shadows', a song that I think is played tonight at the wrong tempo with Todd vocals going out of time at points.

'The Whisper' is a little bit complexed and a touch messy, while 'En Force' has got a new epic modern feel to it. 'The Warning' the title track from the album of the same name and from the same era as 'En Force' goes by in the blink of an eye. 'Silent Lucidity' is beautiful as always, but just doesn't seem right... which is a real shame cause it's one of my favourite songs.

The rest of the set seems to lag a little with a long guitar solo and a version I did not care too much for of 'Arrow of Time', until classic hit 'Eyes of a Stranger' comes up and shows the band have some hope. But this might be just because I really love this song.

This classic song off 'Rage for Order', is one I always remembered from when I was a kid. Coming off the second album the follow-up to the debut 'The Warning', it showed what the band where capable of doing and it is a classic.

They came back on for a two song encore starting off with the brilliant 'Queen of the Reich', before their was even 'The Warning' they had a self titled EP and this is the second song tonight to come off that. This song could not be more classic Queensryche.

I was really looking forward to seeing Queensryche, but I think it was the vocals of Geoff Tate are more up my street. I hear that he has his own Queensryche project, after Geoff argued with the other members of the band over the ownership of the name. The new singer Todd is not bad, but he doesn't have the right presence, and the vocals keep going out of place are a bit worrying. I don't know if this is because of over use, or under practice.

I wouldn't run out to see the new line-up of Queensryche again, and this is sad cause I really did love them. But when something doesn't click with you... it just doesn't click. I did though like the fact they played a selection of different songs. So in a way it was nice to hear these done live, but this was just not a good set in my opinion.