Through now three albums in with former Crimson Glory vocalist Todd La Torre, it’s still kind of surreal to hear Queensrÿche sound this good, more than 30 years after Operation: Mindcrime. The question now becomes: did the disappointment of the group’s ‘90s/‘00s albums with Geoff Tate lead the band to this re-discovery of its core identity? Or was Tate holding everyone back with his vision of fitting in with then-contemporary trends?
We might never know the answer. But it doesn’t really matter, because the last five or so years have seen albums that have brought out classic Queensryche without sounding old or nostalgia-seeking. Again, it’s a real marvel, because had you told fans before the split with Tate that this is the way Queensrÿche’s career was going to roll out, most people probably wouldn’t have believed you. At all.