Band splits are always interesting beasts and Queensryche’s split, which resulted in the band ‘sans Tate’ carrying on and Geoff creating ‘Operation Mindcrime’ so far seems to be slightly favoring the former. In truth, despite the talent involved in the first two parts of Tate’s intriguing trilogy, ‘The Key’ and Resurrection’ were in the most underwhelming musically and in the eyes of your average rock fan rather ‘light’. By contrast Queensryche with their new vocalist on board grabbed the bull by the horns and delivered the meat and potatoes.
‘The New Reality’ is the third and final chapter in that trilogy and arrives just over a year after part two. Sure ‘Mindcrime’ the band is conceptually grand – exploring as it does international politics, the world economy and social ethos, but it’s also as opaque as the album of the same name and the music is just as sweeping but it lacks that immediacy that came from the guitar and still lacks that essential bite. It smacks of a band that wants to be recognized for making ‘grown up’ music when all most of us want to do is rock out and escape for a while.
‘The New Reality’ is just a little bland in truth and that shouldn’t be a surprise given that Tate and his collaborators recorded all three of the albums in the trilogy at the same time and it’s only Frontiers that chose to split the recordings up and release one a year. Interestingly in the same interview that Tate reveled that he also confirmed that this album would be the last by the ‘Operation Mindcrime’ project.
Best of the bunch on an album that starts with the almost electronica meets early-Genesis beginnings of ‘A Head Long Jump’ and the synth-fueled hard rocker ‘Wake Me Up’ is difficult – this is an album meant to be taken in one hit as a whole and there are no obvious ‘singles’. To be honest the Progressive nature of most of the tracks is rather cloying for someone who finds much Prog Rock far too anal. ‘It Was Always You’ adds more electronic sounds, sax and synth, whilst ‘The Fear’ begins much like the last and again synth and electronic sounds are prevalent and all the while Tate does his best ‘Bowie’.
Call me a Luddite but the dirty blues-infused hard rock / metal of ‘Under Control’ comes not a moment too soon before the album dives back with the title track into more (and in this case seven minutes) of the same. ‘My Eyes’ is yet more samples, synths and electronic noise. Some of this to be sure does contain a fair smattering of guitar but it never really gets out of the mix.
The rest of the album too treats the story-telling as primary ‘A Guitar in Church?’ paints a cinematic scene setting it apart, whilst ‘All For What’ adds spoken word and grandiose piano and strings, before ‘The Wave’ throws in more quavering electronica and a Peter Murphy slant and ‘Tidal Change’ that follows it is merely a codicil with more guitar.
That leaves us with the conclusion of the trilogy the deliberately opened ended ‘The Same Old Story’ which musically takes it all back to the beginning. If you loved the first two parts of the trilogy you’ll love this, if you struggled through them then prepare yourself for more of the same.
TRACKLISTING: A Head Long Jump | Wake Me Up | It Was Always You | The Fear | Under Control | The New Reality | My Eyes | A Guitar In Church? | All For What? | The Wave | Tidal Change | The Same Old Story
