Queensrÿche: The Warning [CAPITOL / EMI]

Why you'll love it

This reissue comes with a printed insert of photos and lyrics. Metal Hammer ranked The Warning the 13th best power metal album of all time, and "Take Hold of the Flame" became a hit around the world, especially in Japan.

This edition

• Printed insert with photos and lyrics
• Stereo mix

About the album

Plenty of young metal bands in 1984 wrote about dragons. Queensrÿche wrote about surveillance, power and the future, working out the songs on the road behind their debut EP with George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four in the back of their minds. It was an early sign of the ambition that would define the band, and the lyrics also wander into mysticism and the occult.

They flew to London to record with James Guthrie, best known for his work with Pink Floyd, and Michael Kamen added orchestral arrangements, with sessions spread across a run of London studios. Geoff Tate's operatic range soars over the twin guitars of Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton, with Eddie Jackson and Scott Rockenfield locked in underneath. "Take Hold of the Flame" is the anthem, "NM 156" stomps with robotic menace, "Warning" opens with a jolt and "Roads to Madness" stretches out into the prog epics that came next.

The band spent the following year opening for Kiss, Iron Maiden, Dio and Accept, which is a fairly thorough education. Four years later came Operation: Mindcrime, but this is where the plan was first drawn up.

Also at Kops: more Queensrÿche on vinyl · browse Metal

Tracklist

Listen

On EMI America / Capitol, a reissue of the 1984 album.