THE WARNING

Queensryche's debut album lives up to expectations following their promising self-titled debut EP. The Warning maintains the solid riffage and expands upon the progressive metal aspect that would set the band apart from the other groups of the time. There's no escaping the hair metal taste of the record and its production, yet this album offers much more.

The title track is a strong opening, Tate's blinding vocals in top form as he establishes himself as one of the finest voices in metal. En Force continues the run, a seemingly catchy yet predictable number at first, yet changes from a full speed rock anthem into a slow moving ballad carried by Tate's opera inspired lead vocal. The choruses present here are infectious, Deliverance another highlight and we're only three tracks in! The band is clearly hungry and that comes through in the performance of the songs, there's plenty of energy here before the tempo suitable shifts as a well timed ballad in No Sanctuary shows the softer side of Queensryche's song writing.

Next is a strange song, N M 156 is clearly different, the group experimenting with a wild concept concerning the relationship between machines and humans; the track definitely adds another shade to the album yet feels a little awkward, it doesn't quite flow as well as everything else. Luckily, the shining glory of the record is up next, Take Hold of the Flame proving itself a monster of a track and by far the best number on here. Tate delivers is best performance and the song was to be a rather successful single.

Before the Storm and Child of Fire are enjoyable, interlinking melodic numbers which lead to the epic Roads to Madness, a near ten-minute mammoth upon where the band pushes the boundaries of the progressive flare that they proudly possess. Albeit an enjoyable and interesting number accompanied by some excellent orchestration by none other than Michael Kamen, it ends rather abruptly after the tension and energy that it managed to accumulate.

The dual guitars of DeGarmo and Wilton are much in the vein of the NWOBHM scene, best compared to the likes of Iron Maiden. Lyrically, The Warning follows a loose theme inspired by George Orwell's 1984, providing an interesting subject matter as opposed to the rather predictable themes from the other hair bands; also take note how the album was purposely released in 1984. So, The Warning is a very impressive start; it's not perfect but is a landmark in the progressive metal genre. 9/10.

Top Three Tracks:

1) Take Hold of the Flame 2) Warning 3) Roads to Madness