There’s really very little to say about Empire that hasn’t been written before. Recorded in the wake of the groundbreaking, awe-inspiring ‘Operation Mindcrime’ it turned out to be Queensryche’s biggest selling album, due in no small part to the success of the beautiful, Michael Kamen orchestrated ‘Silent lucidity’, and even if it isn’t the fan favourite, it’s still an amazing album no matter how you look at it.
Listening back now to disc one of this special two disc set the first thing you notice is just how well this record has aged. The blistering opening couplet of ‘Best I can’ and ‘the thin line’ both make great use of front-man Geoff Tate’s uniquely powerful voice while the band are on top form with all members contributing their very best to a slickly produced set of excellently written rock songs. While Empire as an album lacks the conceptual might of Mindcrime, it certainly makes up for that in the quality of songs such as ‘Jet city woman’ – a pop-rock track par excellence and the politically-charged anger of the storming title track.
Of course, fans of Queensryche will already own this album, but what may encourage the new spend is the brilliant re-mastering of the album which renders the whole thing in a clarity that the original master only hinted at. Rather than a full remix (which is entirely unnecessary in this case anyway) the new master presents empire in a new light with the ballads sounding cleaner than ever and the heavy tracks boosted with a sonic might which had previously only been apparent on live recordings. Moreover, being a special twentieth anniversary edition, the original album is packaged with a live recording from Hammersmith Odeon (15th Nov 1990) which is a pristine representation of the band kicking out the best tracks from the album plus ‘walk in the shadows’ and ‘roads to madness’ in front of an enthusiastic British audience as part of the mammoth, 18 month tour in support of the record (which was also documented on the ‘operation live crime CD/DVD). It’s a great bonus (as are the three extra tracks tacked onto the original album) and as a further incentive the whole thing has been beautifully packaged as a box set with post cards, a poster and a booklet with photos from the period.
It seems that piracy has had one major bonus for music fans as it has forced record companies to reassess the way they present music. In the nineties it was not unusual to find yourself presented with a bare-bones best of or uninspired collection whereas now decent packaging, DVDs and other bonuses are common place representing real value for the collector. This re-issue is no exception with the sterling re-master worth the price alone while the live disc will be a real boost to long-time fans of the band. While Queensryche continue to be a going concern and, in my opinion at least, have been unfairly marginalised over albums which were actually rather good (‘hear in the now frontier’ in particular was unfairly savaged by complacent critics), this double disc set is still a powerful reminder of just how big the band became in the early nineties and it’s nice to hear one of their classic records sounding as sonically huge as it now does. This, perhaps, isn’t essential but it’s certainly a good purchase for fans of the band who’ve forgotten the sheer might of Queensryche in their prime.
