Empire

Queensrÿche

Product Details

• Audio Cassette (August 27, 1990)
• Original Release Date: August 1990
• Label: Capitol
• ASIN: B000002UVA
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  DVD Audio
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (85 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #189,219 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Exploring the uncharted territory between heavy metal and progressive rock, Queensryche has always been difficult to categorize. While Operation: Mindcrime is their most highly-praised album, Empire remains their most accessible, with a somewhat more commercial approach that has no negative impact on the quality of the material. Empire produced a string of hit singles, including "Best I Can," the title track, "Jet City Woman," and "Silent Lucidity" (probably their best-known song, and ironically unlike most of their other work). At times sounding a great deal like Pink Floyd, Empire is an impressive collection that is all substance, no filler. "Anybody Listening?", which closes the album, is probably the best perspective on a life lived on stage since Rush's "Limelight". Highly recommended. --Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A truly great guitar album., August 8, 1999

By	D. Mok (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Empire (Audio CD)

Chris DeGarmo has always been the key player in Queensryche (though the entire band is blessed with killer chops and melodic sense) and on Empire he proves himself also the key to the band's breakthrough success.

The song in question is, of course, "Silent Lucidity", the song that should have won the Best Rock Song Grammy in 1991 (instead, it was Sting's uninteresting "The Soul Cages"). "Lucidity" reminds people that bands lumped into the "metal" category can be capable of music of ethereal beauty, and also emotional contact. "Lucidity" also features one of the most simple, elegant solos I can remember, based mostly on just three notes. Reminds me of The Edge's simple, spare, perfectly tailored solos for U2.

The rest of the album is stirring, dense hard rock: "Jet City Woman" with its spitfire guitar work, the moodily sensual "Another Rainy Night (Without You)", the ferocious, sociologically conscious title track, and the long, narrative "Della Brown" are other standouts, culminating in another of Queensryche's resonant ballads, "Anybody Listening?", thematically close to Queen's "The Show Must Go On".

Though not the reckless adrenalin rush that was Operation: Mindcrime, Empire provided shades of subtlety and beauty first hinted at on Rage for Order, here reaching full bloom. Hear what was to be, unfortunately, the last great gasp of a band gradually being (unfairly) lumped in with the old school, one that deserves better.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Empire" is at the TOP of my list., January 19, 2000

By	[e-mail] (Stockton, IL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Empire (Audio CD)

I have had nothing but respect for the Seattle band Queensryche, since I purchased and listened to "Empire". This band writes and plays some of the most intelligent and thought provoking music out there. From the opening song,"Best I Can", this cd weaves a tale that captures the mind. Geoff Tate has one of THE most powerful and unique voices I've heard. From his sorrowful plea , "Don't slam the door on your way out", in "Another Rainy Night(Without You)", to his quiet reassurance in "Silent Lucidity", Tate has the power to make you FEEL what he sings. This band has got to be one of the best today, and I strongly recommend this CD to you if you're a fan or even if you've never listened to anything by them. Queensryche is most awesome.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Art, meet Entertainment; Entertainment, meet Art, October 30, 2003

By	D. Rausch "myspace.com/rauschofficial" (United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Empire (Audio CD)

To this day, a staggering number of people insist that to entertain is to sell out and surrender growth and innovation. Granted, the frequncy of the stars aligning just right is about as often as a snowball forming in that dark place down below, but it HAS happened, it STILL happens, but never more noticably than in the all-around musical masterpiece "Empire," from the "progressive" "metal" band, Queensryche.

Those quotations are there because Queensryche deserves more than routine catagorization. Their music is at times heavy, and often intelligent, and that's about all the description you should need. If you realize that the past 10 years of mainstream music has been a case of record companies shooting themselves in the foot, this review shall serve to educate you that this album was one of the last appearances of greatness to strike mainstream popularity - it's a good thing Queensryche got this album in before it all went down hill!

The album; dashes of Pink Floyd/Rush/Bon Jovi/Def Leppard/Wagner!
One of my favorite songs ever is the closing track "Anybody Listening?" Epic emotion, powerful vocals, sustained guitar landscapes `a la David Gilmour, operatic theatrics `a la Les Miserables. The song is an adventure, a journey, with changing keys, moods and sections. Everything that a best-song-ever should be is in this unique composition.

Then there's the song that "broke them", despite a very successful prior album ("Operation: MindCrime"). If you only know Queensryche for one song, it's "Silent Lucidity." Granted, it's a bit simpler than much of their work, but just as with "Anybody Listening?", it is a wonderful journey of the mind, "trying to explain to someone the unexplainable," in the words of vocalist Geoff Tate. It is a highly emotional ballad that fits in just fine with the rest of the band's repertoire.

Most of the album is very strong with no filler, but the other big highlights are the songs "Empire," and "Another Rainy Night." These songs deserve some of the highest praise ever, because they adhere to this intelligent-meets-popularity formula better than almost any other song. They deserve even MORE praise, because they are not ballads. They are hard rocking songs, and the former (the title track) was actually quite the popular 'hit.' Can you believe, thinking of a 'hit' as actual good music? It IS possible. These songs are in the normal verse-chorus format, with amazing solos and guitar harmonies, intelligent lyrics, creative chords, and pure heart and soul. They rock like nobody's business, but also allow many people to relate to the music, who normally would be satisfied with bands that only make 10% the amount of effort. It just doesn't get much better than this.

The hardcore fans want their "...MindCrime", but I am going to cave in here - "Empire" is my [just barely]favorite Queensryche album, and the fact that it was very popular doesn't change the fact that it deserved what it got and more. MindCrime is also great - but for once in music history, selling less records doesn't mean it must be better music! "Empire" is the epitome of "exception to the rule." Commercial music hasn't allowed for this much creativity since.