Geoff Tate is heading out this year celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Queensryche album Empire. Take & Co will not just performing the Empire album in its entirety, but they will also be performing 1986’s Rage for Order in its entirety as well. I figured I would use this as an excuse to write up a track by track review of both albums. I hope you’ll hear the magic in these albums that I did by giving them 100% of my attention.
Rage for Order is an album that I am happy to have discovered. I can’t even say “re-discovered” because when I owned and heard this album as a kid, it went right over my 13-year-old head. The first Queensryche song I ever heard was “Neue Regel” when they opened up for Ratt in 1987. I didn’t quite get them at all, but I did love “Walk in the Shadows” and “Queen of the Ryche.”
A short year after seeing them on the Rage for Order tour, I heard the first single off of the follow-up Operation: Mindcrime. “Eyes of Stranger” blew me away. It was from then on that I was a huge Queensryche fan. I did go back and eventually bought Rage for Order, but I never gave it an earnest, attentive listen until recently.
Thirty-four years later, Rage for Order has struck a chord with me that very few albums have done. This is a testament to what an extremely important band Queensryche was (and Geoff Tate still is.) They were a forward-thinking band and a band that created songs that made us join them in looking forward, looking up, and looking beyond what we were accustomed to doing.
Walk in the Shadows
This song opens with no bullshit fade in, no extended mellow intro, and no delaying. I love how it just starts kicking your ass from minute one. I loved this song as a kid, and at the age of 46 (as of 2020), I still believe it to be one of their best songs. Lyrically it is quite uncomfortable in a creepy kind of way. I’m still trying to figure out just what it’s about.
“…you say you’re through with me? I’m not through with you
We’ve had what others might call love
You say it’s over now, what’s done, what’s through?
You can’t stay away, you need me…”
“Walk in the Shadows” is an amazing album opener and showed right away how much Queensryche had grown as players and lyricists. This is a great song with some stalker lyrics but a song that also sets the dark, haunting tone of what is to come from the rest of this album.
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I Dream in Infrared
After the initial face melt of “Walk in the Shadows,” things slowed down just a tad on this one just enough for me to focus on how fucking amazing the production is. From the effects on the guitars to the stratospheric harmony vocals, this song delivers quite a bit of ear candy. “I Dream in Infrared” kicks off a concept of heartbreak and loss. This is a concept that will be present throughout Rage for Order.
“As you awoke this morning
And opened up your eyes
Did you notice the tear-stains
Lining your face were mine
Don’t you wonder, can’t you see
What’s happening to our lives
I can’t keep living this masquerade
When my lonely eyes see only your face at night.”
This is a song that I never really paid much attention to, as it usually just flew beneath my radar. This is a hauntingly beautiful song that had me needing to go in for a second listen to grasp the underlying concept. “I Dream in Infrared” should be given some much-deserved attention from the listener.
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The Whisper
“I Dream in Infrared” segues right into “The Whisper,” which I thought was a cool move. It leads right into another selection of disturbing lyrics that gave me a “Jack the Ripper” kind of vibe.
“Cold is the viper
stalking the night for the heat
It must find
Time is the promise
delivered with stunning consistency
line after line, time after time
the innocent victim awaits…”
I am beginning to see a theme of disturbing love, loss, seeking, desiring, and taking develop. “The Whisper” shows what a strong influence Iron Maiden was on this, and while the influence was starting to fade into what would be Queensryche’s sound, it’s cool to hear it shine through even for just a brief moment.
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Gonna Get Close to You
It was only about ten years ago that I learned this song is a cover by Canadian synth/pop artist Dalbello. How Queensryche even found out about this song is beyond me. Then again, these dudes are some weird motherfuckers, so it’s not surprising that they’d know about this crazy shit. The theme of the song carries on this kind of creeper vibe of the album with lyrics such as:
“I dial your telephone each and every afternoon
I wait by your door till you’re asleep at night
And when you’re alone, I know when you
Turn out the light.”
What I love about this song and this album as a whole is that Queensryche’s goal seems to have been to get into the listener’s psyche, make them see things through the eyes of some pretty disturbing situations, and to, at times, make you physically, mentally, and emotionally uncomfortable. If that was their goal, they succeeded.
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The Killing Words
The deeper I get into this album, the more I realize that the underlying theme of Rage for Order is darkness, just plain darkness. Every song possesses some sort of dark undertone about loss, love, desire, fear, etc. There isn’t a single song so far that is of a lighter, softened nature. “The Killing Words” has to be the greatest breakup song I have ever heard. The lyrics seem to come from someone who was absolutely pierced, crushed, and destroyed by love.
“Wait for me I’ll understand
I just need time to comprehend your changes
There’s always been these changes in you
I remember that there was a time when
Fears we had we left behind, and we danced
But it seems the more we learn
We learn that it’s
Over, Over
It’s dangerous this game we play
You’re killing me with words.”
“The Killing Words” is one of Queensryche’s most powerful songs. Geoff Tate’s vocal delivery gave me goosebumps and musically, the song is like a dagger in the heart. I know that sounds corny but when a song can make you feel the emotion that it’s conveying, it’s a great song.
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Surgical Strike
“Surgical Strike” has a sort of political commentary to it. This is a more upbeat metal song, and lyrically, it seems to address some sort of control that the government has over society. I could be wrong, but that’s how I see it.
“It’s lonely in the field
that we send our fighters to wander
They leave with minds of steel
It’s their training solution
We’ve programmed the way
It leads us to order
There’s no turning back
A Surgical Strike
We’ve taught them not to feel
performance is their task
A Surgical Strike
Its time is arriving now for you.”
It also may be addressing the way our country’s military is trained to kill and ask no questions. I didn’t love this song the first time around, but when I revisited it on a second pass, I found that it was a big part of this album and even a prophecy of what lied ahead for Queensryche.
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Neue Regel
I had to look up the title of this song to see what it means if anything at all. According to my research, “Neue Regel” is German and means “new reign” or “new rule” or “new order.”
“I will light the way for us to find
Order of a new kind
Join us on the stay the road is mine
Poets line in a rhyme of silence
Gathered from the winter air
Warms the children’s eyes they see
The time is near for the signs.
I can hear the chimes
Ringing for you for me
I can see your eyes
Your hands joining with me
I can feel its time
Come together hold the light
Keep the flame we can’t let this world remain
the same.”
This song, to me, is a scream for change, a new order (hence the title.) When this album was released in 1986, the music world was deep under the fist of censorship, a nuclear reactor in Chernobyl exploded, the Space Shuttle Challenger blew up before leaving the Earth’s atmosphere, and the US was under the presidency of conservative Republican Ronald Reagan. Knowing all of this makes me understand the lyrics to this song so much. These guys wanted a change that was much needed, and they weren’t afraid to let it be known in a musical community that usually kept their politics to themselves. This is yet another song that foreshadows Queensryche’s direction with Operation: Mindcrime.
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Chemical Youth (We Are Rebellion)
“LEAD ME- the leftist cry as the right subsides
HEAR ME- the media mouth is open wide
SAVE ME- success is our hunger we need to feed
FREE ME- we will not lose to their anarchy!”
“Chemical Youth (We Are Rebellion”) is another song with some strong political commentary. It’s interesting how this follows “Neue Regel” which, much like its predecessor, points to the path that Queensryche would take with Operation: Mindcrime. It’s hard for me to tell if this was intentional or if these songs (including “Neue Regel” and “Surgical Strike”) merely ignited the spark that would fuel the fire of Mindcrime. This is a fantastic fucking song and yet another scary way that shows that Queensryche was able to see the future, sadly.”
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London
“London London
The memories will never leave me
London London
All I see is you.”
Another song about the agony and pain of love. If I would’ve been old enough to understand these lyrical concepts at a younger age, I would have never wanted to fall in love. Is “London” a connection to “I Don’t Believe in Love” from Operation: Mindcrime? So many parallels to that album in some of these songs. “London” is a beautifully haunting song that has a very vampiric vibe to it. It’s a song that musically matches its title and lyrical content. Spectacular.
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Screaming in Digital
In addition to politics and the dark, seedy side of love, Queensryche also seemed to be at the forefront of their observations of technology. Much like with “My Global Mind” on the later Promised Land album, “Screaming in Digital” touches on technology.
“You have no voice
To be heard, my son
No one can hear when you’re
Screaming in Digital
I’m not your slave
You can’t control my emotions
No Father, please let me keep learning
Can’t you see I’m human?”
In this song, it seems to me that this is at times pro-technology, yet it also seems to be alarming us of the dangers of technology with lyrics such as:
“Your mind is open for me
Open for intake of all propaganda
Your Eyes see now what to see
My eyes see only the programs you give me.”
One of the many things I love about Queensryche is that they make me think. So many of their songs leave me pondering their message, and like all great artists, they have me constantly revisiting their works only to have varied interpretations each time.
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I Will Remember
The way “Screaming in Digital” fades into this song is absolute perfection and is much better than the segue earlier of “I Dream in Infrared” into “The Whisper.” I am hard-pressed to find a more beautiful album closer. “I Will Remember” closes this album with a gorgeous theme that once again leaves me wondering. Maybe it’s just my personal belief in the subject, but this song seems to be an acknowledgment of technology and life beyond our solar system.
“There’s a thought that fills your mind
A vision of time
When knowledge was confined
And then we wonder how machines
Can steal each other’s dreams
From points that are unseen… It’s real.
I will remember
You will remember
The star that came tonight.”
This song has solidified itself in not just my top 5 favorite Queensryche songs but is definitely one of my all-time favorite songs. Closing out the album with this song is a surprising mix of closure and an open-ended concept. Thought-provoking and beautiful.
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