Available On Amazon
Regularly leaping from one genre to the next, Queensryche has never been known as the type of band that keeps their music consistent from album to album. While their albums tend to stay genre-specific throughout (such as Empire’s glam metal sound and Operation: Mindcrime’s
progressive metal sound), each album brings something different to the table. With their 1986 release of Rage for Order; however, this song consistency throughout their albums ceased to be for a brief moment as they took the variation found from album to album and threw it all together into one record.
An amalgamation of Def Leppard’s catchy vocals, Dream Theater’s hate for 4:4 timing and Slayer’s tendency to verbally abuse their microphones, Rage for Order
took elements from everything that is rock and metal from the 1980s to today and left something for fans everywhere to appreciate to one degree or another. Rage for Order single-handedly promoted Queensryche from “the guys who open for Iron Maiden” to one of the era’s truly mainstream progressive metal bands, as evident through its over half a million sales.
Photo: By Queensryche2 [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Despite Queensryche’s apparent inability to stay consistent throughout the album, one thing that never changes is their ability to fully utilize both guitarists to their full potential. While they may not outright stick out in some of the slower songs on the album, every song is an aspiring guitarist’s worst nightmare. In several parts of the album, the guitar parts could be seen as outright unorthodox by music lovers everywhere through high amounts of treble and even harmonized chords. The creativity brought to the table by the guitarists is truly outstanding.
The vocals in the album are the most “metal” you’ll ever hear coming out of lead singer Geoff Tate’s mouth. Through belting choruses, changing octaves and power screams, this is truly Tate’s most aggressive work when purely considering the style of vocals used.
With a single, over half a million record sales and a place on the charts everywhere from the Netherlands to Canada, Rage for Order
captivated rock and metal fans everywhere through a mix of glam metal, progressive metal and hard rock that keeps the album unique and keeps listeners surprised through an entirely different source of influence found in the album’s writing style at every turn. Through harsh-yet-melodic vocals and progressive, complex guitars, Rage for Order is truly one of the most unique rock albums of its time.
Queensryche Rage for Order Album Review article published on Classic RockHistory.com© 2022
Classicrockhistory.com claims ownership of all its original content and Intellectual property under United States Copyright laws and those of all other foreign countries. No one person, business, or organization is allowed to re-publish any of our original content anywhere on the web or in print without our permission. All photos used are either public domain creative commons photos or licensed officially from Shutterstock under license with ClassicRockHistory.com. All photo credits have been placed at the end of the article.
I’m listening to “Rage” right now, in fact.
Years ago, I put it ahead of “The Warning” (never a great fan of that album, I was), but way behind “Mindcrime” and “Empire”, even “Promised Land” (which was the finale for me as a QR devotee).
Over time, I’d come to appreciate the album much more. Sorry to throw another ‘charting’ at you, but I think it is my second favorite album from this once amazing band, behind “Mindcrime”.
It is…beautiful. The melodies are just haunting. The crescendos – unreal, like in “London”. The feelings of misery, despair, and unease that come through Geoff’s amazing vocals, the interesting and thought-provoking lyrics and the music itself are something to behold. I do like the harder numbers, too, of course, like the never tiring “Walk in the Shadows” and “Chemical Youth”.
*whew* catching my breath…so thankyou for an insightful review that is a great read….but can anyone tell me if there is a theme that is tied together with all these songs? It sounds as if it is a story about the loss of human freedoms to increasing control by mechanization and computerization. But then, there is that creepy stalker/vampire theme (“London”, “Gonna Get Close to You”). So maybe it is folly to read into it too much, and there is no overall concept, and any hints of one are lyrical coincidence.
Just an amazing, weird, wonderful album….from a band that was so different, unique, and criminally underrated.
It should be noted that the band in the photo is a much later version, and not the full staff that created “Rage for Order”. Gone are Tate (vocals) and Degarmo (guitarist).