Hear in the Now Frontier (1997)
(This is a review originally appeared in the 'May 97 issue of BigO magazine)
Rating: 7/10
Not Operation: Mindcrime II (the Revenge of Dr. X) then.
Queensryche's HEAR IN THE NOW FRONTIER, only the Seattle quintet's sixth studio album in its fifteen years as a band together, was recorded in a mere six weeks but is a whole world away from the gloomy gothicism of its last one, PROMISED LAND.
The title of the album itself is a subtle, but only semi-serious play on words telling listeners that what they'll be opening their ears to is music that's an indicator of where Queensryche are as a band and as individuals. One can't help but wonder though, if it's going to be cryptically prophetic that the severed ears featured on the cover of the album are floating about in jars and stranded in a desert in the middle of nowhere.
"Sign Of the Times," the album opener and the first single, sounds like the long-lost cousin of "Last Time in Paris," (from the soundtrack of The Adventures of Ford Fairlane) till now the most uncharacteristically straight-ahead rocker Queensryche has had to offer. "Sign" is a riff-driven number that says its piece eloquently and then gets out of your face. It sets the mood and pace for the rest of the album to be the band's least theme-oriented full-length effort to date.
And it's not the only one either. "Anytime/Anywhere," clocking in at 2:54, is not only the shortest Queensryche song ever, but also one of its most spontaneously rocking. It's probably only incidentally about sexual obsession ("I've got to have you, anytime/anywhere that's all"), but if it's these arch-proponents of "brain-metal"'s conscious foray into Aerosmith territory, it's a pretty darn convincing one. Well, in a Queensrychean way at any rate... "I am amplified by what's inside of you" indeed.
More unsuspected and enjoyable curve-balls come in the form of "Hero" and "All I Want." The former is an example of the spare instrumentation (as opposed to one claustrophobically cluttered with sound-effects) that allows the band on this album to stretch out and provide more varied and effective aural landscapes to the songs. The narrator of "Hero" feels lost, without focus or ideals in a homogenized society, and the music, gliding effortlessly on just a lazy, slide guitar figure, perfectly captures that sense of drifting aimlessness. "All I Want" may just be a simple love song, but its swinging jazz rhythm and guitarist Chris DeGarmo's singing, unaffected by the notion of cliche or convention, makes it another surprising treat.
"spOOL" will be comforting to the more sophistically-noodled of the band's fans. It's a great song though, sounding somewhat akin to "Anybody Listening?", a perennial fan favourite from EMPIRE, and comments on the state of humanity, but thank god not in any trite or moralizing way. Sardonically and a little sadly, it's reflected that even with "4 billion years between our ears, still hatred brings as many tears. Still we judge each other... why when we're only looking for the same high?" Their hope of course, can't help but be tinged with cynicism: "Grind time for old misconceptions, roll out new scenery as per suggestion."
Inevitably, and perhaps with some truth, it will be felt that a number of tracks on this album, like "Get A Life" or "Some People Fly" are fillers, ear-stuffing for the undiscerning, or that Queensryche has lost the edgy, rebellious innovativeness that helped them make an album as remarkable as OPERATION: MINDCRIME. But even if HEAR IN THE NOW FRONTIER isn't a landmark, for all the new scenery it offers it's certainly a welcome detour.
Gerald Tan 1997
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