Queensrÿche: Different Is Good

Different is good. Ask Queensrÿche. Kelley Simms of SMNnews.com caught up with Queensrÿche singer Geoff Tate last year to talk about the 20th anniversary of the epic album "Empire". Read excerpts below.

The Seattle quintet has set their own standards and done things their own way since 1981, when they set out to establish a sound that was different than the metal out at the time. Slayer, Metallica, Megadeth and Anthrax were metal-thrashing mad and starting to make their mark in metal history. But Queensrÿche had a totally different and progressive approach to heavy metal. Their self-titled EP (1983) and "Warning" (1984) set them apart from their peers. Not much has changed: Queensrÿche still pushes the bar of progressive metal and the trends it sometimes follows.

2010 marks the 20th anniversary of 1990’s seminal breakthrough, "Empire", which spawned chart-toppers “Silent Lucidity,” “Jet City Woman” and “Another Rainy Night (Without You)” and established Queensrÿche as innovators of the progressive metal sound, which broke bigger ground in the US market for the band.

Tate: “The original, actually, is a great sounding record. In fact, a lot of digital sound engineers use ´Empire´ as a reference to building the PA or they go into a different studio and test a room for frequency response to get ready to record. Which is kind of interesting, because that just shows it’s a really well-made record. That’s really due to James Barton, our engineer of that record, who did a fantastic job. All of the records he’s done with us, they’re all very interesting sounding. He’s just a consummate professional when it comes to sound engineering. What they did with it this time was remastered it, although I don’t think it really needed it. But it does sound good, I have to say. I don’t think it sounds necessarily better than the original, but it’s a bit different, mostly in the high end. The digital gear they use nowadays is much better than it was back in 1990, I think it’s called analog digital converters that they’re using now, are just more pristine.”

Read the entire interview on this location.