RAGE FOR ORDER

"Rage For Order" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, Washington based power/progressive metal act Queensrÿche. The album was released through EMI Records in July 1986. It´s the successor to "The Warning" from 1984 and features the same lineup as the debut album. Queensrÿche achieved moderate commercial success with "The Warning (1984)" and scored the support slot as the opening act for Kiss on their "Animalize (1984)" tour. Something which further enhanced their profile. EMI Records smelled the potential for greatness and started interfering, demanding that the band employ a more glam oriented image, hence the change of wardrobe and hairstyle since the more sinister and dark leather clad look of the band on the debut album.

Stylistically quite a few things have happened too, but despite the change of image, "Rage For Order" doesn´t have anything to do with glam metal. Instead the band´s US power/heavy metal style has taken a progressive direction and keyboards have been given a prominent role in the soundscape. There´s even some programming featured on the album, and the keyboards and the programming effects provide "Rage For Order" with a futuristic almost sci-fi tinged sound. The basis of the music is still US power/heavy metal though. Melodic lead guitars, beautiful clean/acoustic guitar sections, hard rocking riffs and rhythms, and Geoff Tate´s strong high pitched vocals in front.

The material on the 11 track, 45:47 minutes long album is generally well written, but not all tracks stand out equally much. The album opens strong enough with "Walk In The Shadows" and especially "I Dream In Infrared". "The Whisper" and the Dalbello cover "Gonna Get Close To You" (from her 1984 album "Whomanfoursays") work pretty well too (the latter is quite mainstream oriented, but Queensrÿche put their own spin on the song), but it´s like the album fades a bit after that. Here and there a memorable vocal line, guitar lead, or rhythm pattern appear, but even after years of listening to the album I still can´t remember what each track sound like, when I look at the tracklist. Some tracks are simply that unremarkable.

One of the strongest assets of "Rage For Order" is the strong musicianship. The instrumental part of the album is very well played with intricate layers of keyboards, guitars, bass, and drums, but it´s the incredibly powerful vocals by Geoff Tate, which elevates the album to a higher level. "Rage For Order" features a detailed, but not that powerful sounding production. Especially the rhythm guitars lack a bit of punch, but it´s an overall issue, that the music sounds a bit too polished and not raw enough. So "Rage For Order" is an album which leaves me a bit biased. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is deserved.

(Originally posted on Metal Music Archives)