Q2k
Seattle vets Queensryche breach the new millennium with heads held high, their music ever-straddling that uneasy middle ground between 1980s big-hair metal and '90s shaved-head sludge. In other words, they've managed to keep their originality intact. The band's sense of taut drama remains, with "Falling Down" and "Sacred Ground" setting the tone. Melodic (if not overwrought) vocalist Geoff Tate manages to evokeR.J. Diowithout all the medieval kitsch that comparison implies. "One Life" proves they've learned a trick or two from angst-ridden younger Seattle cousinsAlice in ChainsandSoundgarden, though not enough to keep them from the occasional lapse, like the bitter-saccharine "When the Rain Comes." But by sticking to their guns, especially in the epic-scaled "Liquid Sky," Queensryche may yet share the same last, ironic laugh thatDef Lepparddid onEuphoria.--Jerry McCulley