Concept albums

To be fair, that doesn't mean it doesn't suck.

 

I wear my Rush fandom like a badge of honor. I take no offense to anyone who says they suck.

 

YOU HAVE NOTHING TO BE ASHAMED OF CUT THE SHIT

Everyone knows Queensryche for "Silent Lucidity" and that's too bad. Similar to Extreme ("More Than Words") and Mr. Big ("To Be With You"), the tune got them a lot of new fans but it also led many to toss away any notion of serious musicianship and craft.* Unlike Extreme and Mr. Big, Queensryche did not fit into a hair metal or cock rock bin, despite what their early promo photos would lead one to believe. The Warning and Rage for Order are rather experimental within the metal genre in production, time signatures and themes.

Mindcrime is where it really all came together. It is difficult to make a concept album set in reality without it being a re-telling of a familiar story (W.A.S.P's The Crimson Idol) or too theatrical (Savatage's Dead Winter Dead, which they parlayed into what Jon Oliva wanted them to be all along: The Trans-Siberian Orchestra). Damned if they didn't pull it off.

Mindcrime has themes of societal/structural greed, corruption and revolution interwoven with personal loneliness, loss, and addiction. Each song can stand on its own merit without the story and the themes are just as relevant today as they were in the late 80s. The album is widely considered to be a "no-skip" affair in which there are no clunkers or fillers.

Religion and sex are power plays
Manipulate the people for the money they pay
Selling skin, selling God
The numbers look the same on their credit cards

Politicians say no to drugs
While we can pay for wars in South America**

Fighting fire with empty words
While the banks get fat
And the poor stay poor
And the rich get rich
The cops get paid
To look away
As the one percent rules America

That excerpt, from "Spreading the Disease," could have been written and contain as much veracity today as it did 30 years ago.

You may be ashamed of liking a metal album (which is another rant for another time).

You may be ashamed of liking a Queensryche album (which, given their output from 1997-2013, is fully understandable).

There is no need to be ashamed of liking this one.

*Don't laugh; Extreme (Gary Cherone, Nuno Bettencourt) and Mr. Big (Billy Sheehan, Paul Gilbert, Pat Torpey) were loaded with talent.
**They changed this to "Saudi Arabia" during the Empire Tour. Afghanistan doesn't quite flow, but you get the point in 2019.

 

For @X-Hack

 

I love you the most.

 

The only things I feel strongly about are heavy metal and posting pictures on internet message boards.

This is home now.

 

Agree with the former. Not sure I agree with the latter, especially when they try to counter with some bad excuses for bands and music in general.

 

The 2011 Grammy-winning album “The Suburbs” by Arcade Fire should be included.

 

"A Quick One" wasn't a concept album. Pete wrote "A Quick One, While He's Away" to fill out the album.

 

I don't believe the Moody Blues or Alan Parsons released anything that wasn't a concept album. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)

 

Was the phrase 'one percent' really in the American vernacular 30 years ago?