Interaction--RealAudio

Picture this: Following Queensryche's 'Empire' tour, Geoff Tate and the boys all get together for a band meeting. They decide to write their next album with some of the mechanical quirks of 'Rage For Order', some of the crunching riffs of 'Operation: Mindcrime', and the musical advances of 'Empire'. Everything is written and recorded... but then the master tapes mysteriously disappear, they all get their memory erased by some strange light from the sky, and we end up with 'Promised Land' instead. Hmph.
So whatever happened to those master tapes, you ask? The guys from Siam managed to steal them, and 'Prayer' is the result. Vocalist Tony Mills is a dead ringer for Tate in many places on this disc, and the evilized distortion is pure Queensryche, circa '86 or '87. I've played this CD for some of my Qryche friends before, and said "hey, have you heard the new, heavy Queensryche album??" They listen and get all excited, just about wetting themselves, before I reveal the truth. They aren't happy with me.
Needless to say, if you're a fan of those power/prog days of old, this is a disc you'll definitely enjoy. It isn't quite as good as that other band's prime--but it's much better than what they've since become.
"Sacrifice Divine" is a strong opener, and the intro to "Interaction" sends shivers. All of "Sleepwaves," "New Age Warning," "Animus," and the chunky "Liberty" are standouts, with "Raison D'Etre" being an acoustic mood piece.

TRACK LIST: A Passage to God/Sacrifice Divine/Interaction/Sleepwaves/Liberty/Queen of Swords/New Age Warning/Transcendence/Animus/Christian/Raison D'Etre/The Language of Menace (Acoustic)