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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Audio CD
For the die hard Queensryche fans, this 1994 release remains for many a gem in the collection. Recorded by the band in a home made recording studio, on a small desolate island in the far off reaches of Puget Sound (near Vancouver BC), the whole laid back, creative feel of the recording has been perfectly represented. The `raw` sound of the album is best experienced by listening on head phones (as the listening party on its release was-hundreds of headphones!). This album was the first release of the band after the multi platinum "EMPIRE", an album lauded as the bands best and certainly most commercial success, but this was due to the songs being very much "mainstream" in sound. Promised Land goes the other way and stays with the bands creative nature. Promised Land is almost a conceptual album, taking life as the subject, the opening track is nothing more than an eery collection of sounds depicitng death and then later reincarnation, this leads into the first song, "I AM I", which is a thumping, almost eastern sounding track. The album does have the occasional "heavier" piece, such as "DAMAGED" but also has very mellow and quite pieces such as, "OUT OF MIND" (although the subject matter is "heavy"!), "LADY JANE" and certainly the solo piano piece "SOMEONE ELSE", which is a haunting melody and certainly reminds people of singer Geoff Tate`s excellent vocal skills. This particular release is the `remastered` album with some additional tracks, written around the same time as Promised Land. Including a live recording of "REAL WORLD" a track written and used in the film "Last Acion Hero". The bands following release, "Hear in the now Frontier" was a disappointment to most fans and it is at this point the bands popularity fell away and has continued to do so since. However, one should recall that Queensryche filled the Royal Albert Hall in 1995 on the Promised Land Tour and remember that Queensryche were indeed, one of the premier acts in the rock world, and were really rather different. This album should be hailed as of their best as it did not deal with the obvious or stick to the trends of society at the time, hence you`ll be treated to an almost personal musical experience.
Format:Audio CD|Amazon Verified Purchase
Promised Land was the fifth full-length Studio Album from the Seattle Progressive Metal band Queensr’che, it was released in 1994 following up their multi-platinum selling 1990 album Empire.
The music on the album for the most part is not up-tempo driving metal music like some of their earlier work or shimmering commercial rock like some of their highest charting stuff, but rather a slow and contemplative progressive style that relies on piano, saxophone and acoustic guitar to do a lot of the work. It is the sort of album that requires a lot of patience to really enjoy, and may take a few listens to really wrap your head around properly.
Despite the slower brooding pace and mostly quieter nature of Promised Land when compared to the band's earlier material, the strength of the songwriting is still very impressive and when it does finally kick off there are moments of superb lead guitar to enjoy as well. This isn't necessarily an album to listen to if you want to bang your head, but if you allow the music to just wash over you it will prove to be among the best moments in the band's career.
Thinking about it, there are two kinds of songs on the album; big powerful tracks that start off as quiet ballads or hypnotic, dense and slow building songs that evolve slowly over time with some metal riffs and a sort of eastern flavor. In addition to the core band there are often a lot of weird percussive rhythms and touches of synth, but the main focus is on the vocals and lyrics.
Geoff Tate's powerful and dynamic voice caries the listener through a whole range of moods and mindsets, from desolation to practical thinking across a range of topics from parental relationships to coming to terms with your inability to improve the state of the world.
Highlights include the emotional `Bridge' as well as `My Global Mind' and the lyrically superb `One More Time.'
Overall, if you are willing to give it the time and patience that it asks of you, Promised Land is a very interesting album that is worth a place in your collection.
The music on the album for the most part is not up-tempo driving metal music like some of their earlier work or shimmering commercial rock like some of their highest charting stuff, but rather a slow and contemplative progressive style that relies on piano, saxophone and acoustic guitar to do a lot of the work. It is the sort of album that requires a lot of patience to really enjoy, and may take a few listens to really wrap your head around properly.
Despite the slower brooding pace and mostly quieter nature of Promised Land when compared to the band's earlier material, the strength of the songwriting is still very impressive and when it does finally kick off there are moments of superb lead guitar to enjoy as well. This isn't necessarily an album to listen to if you want to bang your head, but if you allow the music to just wash over you it will prove to be among the best moments in the band's career.
Thinking about it, there are two kinds of songs on the album; big powerful tracks that start off as quiet ballads or hypnotic, dense and slow building songs that evolve slowly over time with some metal riffs and a sort of eastern flavor. In addition to the core band there are often a lot of weird percussive rhythms and touches of synth, but the main focus is on the vocals and lyrics.
Geoff Tate's powerful and dynamic voice caries the listener through a whole range of moods and mindsets, from desolation to practical thinking across a range of topics from parental relationships to coming to terms with your inability to improve the state of the world.
Highlights include the emotional `Bridge' as well as `My Global Mind' and the lyrically superb `One More Time.'
Overall, if you are willing to give it the time and patience that it asks of you, Promised Land is a very interesting album that is worth a place in your collection.
Format:Audio CD
Promised Land ranks possibly as Queensryche's darkest work, a stark contrast to its glossy and slick predecessor Empire. The band, particularly Geoff, finally having achieved success were having difficulty coming to terms with the meaning of it all and this feeling of mid life crises, coupled with the emptiness of material success, permeates the album.
Kicking off is the awkward and baffling choice of single; `I am I', which is an angry, heavy, discordant track with Far Eastern over tones that just about manages to stay the right side of listenable. This segues straight into the pulsating and driving `Damaged', which is one of the thankfully heavier moments on the CD. Having despatched the two faster tracks of the CD, the music slows to a snails pace for the frankly disturbing acoustic `Out of Mind', which deals with the `not often covered in a metal song' subject of life in a mental hospital (ignoring Anthrax's Madhouse, which is a more conventional approach to the subject!). The song fizzles out rather inconclusively, giving way to the fragile and similarly acoustic `Bridge'. Sung about DeGarmo's relationship with his dad, this is obviously heartfelt and it therefore compliments the general air of oppressive misery that hangs over the CD like a lead weight. The slow burn title track `Promised Land' follows and is suitably anguished and complex, replete with a drifting saxophone backdrop and mild latter day Roger Water's style Pink Floyd undertones. This is Queensryche at there most inventive and atmospheric, building to the the sound of a bar where Geoff is being toasted for his success but being apparently completely alone. `Disconnected' links, subject wise, neatly to the title track that precedes it, aided and abetted by a massive grinding bass guitar, which features heavily on the better tracks on the CD. Mary Jane is a sort of ghastly nursery rhyme and still jars to this day and then things pick up with the ludicrously out of place `My Global Mind', which seems to have been written for a different CD. Surprisingly up tempo and sporting a catchy chorus it breathes fresh air into the generally downbeat proceedings. As does `One More Time Around', with its velvety chorus harmonies, but then it's back to the piano for Geoff to conclude on the misery and isolation that his success has brought him (even the band have deserted him on the cd by this point). However `Someone else?' is an effective wrap up to the general theme of the CD and its success comes from the fact that it is simple, heartfelt and poignant.
So a dark and brooding work but firmly in Queensryche's top 5 cds, pipped by Rage, Mindcrime 1, Empire and arguably American Soldier (in that order).
Kicking off is the awkward and baffling choice of single; `I am I', which is an angry, heavy, discordant track with Far Eastern over tones that just about manages to stay the right side of listenable. This segues straight into the pulsating and driving `Damaged', which is one of the thankfully heavier moments on the CD. Having despatched the two faster tracks of the CD, the music slows to a snails pace for the frankly disturbing acoustic `Out of Mind', which deals with the `not often covered in a metal song' subject of life in a mental hospital (ignoring Anthrax's Madhouse, which is a more conventional approach to the subject!). The song fizzles out rather inconclusively, giving way to the fragile and similarly acoustic `Bridge'. Sung about DeGarmo's relationship with his dad, this is obviously heartfelt and it therefore compliments the general air of oppressive misery that hangs over the CD like a lead weight. The slow burn title track `Promised Land' follows and is suitably anguished and complex, replete with a drifting saxophone backdrop and mild latter day Roger Water's style Pink Floyd undertones. This is Queensryche at there most inventive and atmospheric, building to the the sound of a bar where Geoff is being toasted for his success but being apparently completely alone. `Disconnected' links, subject wise, neatly to the title track that precedes it, aided and abetted by a massive grinding bass guitar, which features heavily on the better tracks on the CD. Mary Jane is a sort of ghastly nursery rhyme and still jars to this day and then things pick up with the ludicrously out of place `My Global Mind', which seems to have been written for a different CD. Surprisingly up tempo and sporting a catchy chorus it breathes fresh air into the generally downbeat proceedings. As does `One More Time Around', with its velvety chorus harmonies, but then it's back to the piano for Geoff to conclude on the misery and isolation that his success has brought him (even the band have deserted him on the cd by this point). However `Someone else?' is an effective wrap up to the general theme of the CD and its success comes from the fact that it is simple, heartfelt and poignant.
So a dark and brooding work but firmly in Queensryche's top 5 cds, pipped by Rage, Mindcrime 1, Empire and arguably American Soldier (in that order).
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Beautiful, haunting, powerful ... STONKING!
Absolutely awesome album. One of my all time favourite albums, the intensity, multi layered and textured sounds over thought provoking, sometimes tear inducing lyrics is just... Read more
Published 22 months ago by D. Gotteri
Not the best, but still good
Personally this is my least favourite Queensryche album. The songs are a little bland and the sound isn't exactly great but it still has some great moments. Read more
Published on 17 Aug 2005
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