Review by UnhinderedbyTalent for Queensrÿche - The Warning (1984)

Yawn.....

My interest in Queensryche is limited to one album in their discography, Empire.  This was of course the pinnacle of their accessibility, combining mass appeal, catchy tunes with strong storytelling based song structures.  I have never really understood the appeal of the band at any other point in their career.  Even the much lauded, Operation Mindcrime does little for me so the one dimensional and largely flat debut holds little of my attention whenever I bother to listen through.

Accepting this was their debut and the band had some craft to still learn and finesse there is still a massive amount of bluster here for very little effect in terms of memorable and powerful output.  The bare bones of their more recognisable songwriting prowess was here at this point most certainly.  The drama of their brand of theatrical, progressive/power metal apparent in the vocal style of Geoff Tate from virtually the opening track.  But he sounds excessively nasal on this record (which could be due to the fact I can now only locate a remastered copy) and this makes the vocals sound forced unfortunately.

Notwithstanding the obvious credentials of DeGarmo and Wilton there is little in the way of anything remarkable from them here with Jackson and Rockenfield generally going through the motions in the background and it all makes for a very dull experience despite it being clearly geared towards being a prog metal record.  There's no bite or energy to proceedings despite nothing much really being that bad or wrong with the playing.  The album sounds like a band with an over-enthusiastic vocalist who joined a group of mates who just weren't that interested in pulling out anywhere near as many stops as he clearly was.