SCREAMING IN DIGITAL
                                       
The On-Line Queensryche Digest : Volume 173 - 09Jan95

   "Futuristic 'Rychean discussion." - Michael Wilton
   "Quite entertaining to read." - Chris DeGarmo
   
   Produced in cooperation with the Queensryche Campaign fan club.
   Hosted by Internet Online Services, a division of IDT.
   Edited by Dan "Shag" Birchall
   
   Mail: qryche@ios.com
   FTP : ios.com, /pub/users/qryche
   WWW : http://www.ios.com/~qryche/
   
   
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Screaming in Digital - Editor's Note

   Hello again everyone - this week's main news is that we'll finally get
   to hear the new song that isn't on Promised Land. Read on...
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Contents

   Dirty Little Secret - Jim
   I Am I Single - Clive
   Geoff Smoking - Jim
   Geoff Smoking - Ken
   Sister Mary - Christopher
   Story Behind Bridge
   Promised Land Impressions - Kevin
   Bashing Other Bands - Jim
   European Tour Dates - Randi
   Queen of the Reich Video? - Jim
   MTV Unplugged Releases
   Tablature - Chris
   Album Covers - James
   Damaged Impressions - Tim
   Bridge Video - Mike
   Bridge Video - Jim
   I Am I and Damaged - Chuck
   Last Word on Vampires - Christopher
   Latin in Suite Sister Mary - Sam
   Whispers in Roads to Madness - Ken
   Soundbites - Jenn
   Autographed Warning - Shawn
   Nightryder Bootleg Available - Jeff
   Mindcrime Merchandising - Dan
   
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Neue Regel - News & Reviews

   Dirty Little Secret - Jim (rycherox@aol.com)
   
   The B-side to Bridge is supposed to be a song called Dirty Little
   Secret, also recorded during the Promised Land sessions.
   
   I Am I Single - Clive (c.mccaig@queens-belfast.ac.uk)
   
   Queensryche will be releasing a single here in the UK for I Am I, on
   January 16th. For collectors, the tracks on the CD-single are I Am I,
   Real World, the full band version of Someone Else, and Dirty L'il
   Secret. The single received 3/5 in Kerrang, but no details of Dirty
   L'il Secret were given. Also, Queensryche's previous three albums had
   made the top 10 of Kerrang's critics choices of the year. Promised
   Land failed to land in the top 25, for 1994.
   
   
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Speak - Comments & Questions

   Geoff Smoking - Jim (rycherox@aol.com)
   
   For those of you who don't believe that Geoff smokes, the proof is on
   video. When Headbanger's Ball did the listening party special, Riki
   did a segment at one of the coffee houses, and Geoff was puffing away,
   dumping the ashes every so often into the tray on the table. If you
   still find it hard to believe, then ask anyone who's met him and given
   him a cigarette when asked.
   
   Geoff Smoking - Ken (kenneth.d.tucker@sprint.sprint.com)
   
   Geoff's at least was a smoker. I had the opportunity to meet Geoff,
   Michael and Scott on their last tour when they played at my
   university. When asked about the smoking, he said that he did smoke
   but had just quit. I can't say if he has started again or not.
   
   Sister Mary - Christopher (christopher.t.varas@lawrence.edu)
   
   Geoff or Chris said recently that Nikki is trying to make a comeback,
   but Queensryche have always insisted that they didn't want to make
   Mindcrime II. Is it possible that Pamela Moore's new band, Sister
   Mary, may be continuing the story? After all, she is a close friend of
   the band, and it would certainly be the perfect forum to bring Nikki
   back - the name of the band is certainly appropriate.
   
   I don't know anything about the band Sister Mary other than the
   sketchy info posted here a while back, so if anyone has any
   information about it, please let me know. I'm wondering if the guys in
   Queensryche might help pen the songs, and possibly bring Nikki back
   that way. Of course, Mary is dead - I suppose that might pose a bit of
   a problem.
   
   Story Behind Bridge - (jtb10421%usa.decnet@usav01.glaxo.com)
   
   I just wanted to know the storyline behind the song Bridge. Pardon me
   if this is a strange question, but I am a new fan. If anyone can tell
   me exactly who they are singing about, I would appreciate it.
   
          The song Bridge was written by guitarist Chris DeGarmo, about -
          or to - his father, who was absent throughout his childhood,
          then resurfaced and attempted to re-establish a bond after
          Chris had become famous and successful as a member of
          Queensryche. As the lyrics indicate, the bond was never
          established to begin with, and therefore cannot be
          re-established. -sh
          
   
   
   Promised Land Impressions - Kevin (atheist@ris.com)
   
   I've been reading the responses about the new Queensryche album for a
   few weeks now and at first I found it really interesting but now I
   find it really boring so I'm not going to write a long review of the
   album song by song or anything like that. =)
   
   The album is quite good; I enjoy it immensely. When I first heard the
   album it took me by surprise because it seemed like a completely
   different style, but after a few listens I fell in love with it. I
   still think that Operation: Mindcrime is their best but this album is
   another fine addition to the Queensryche album list!
   
   Bashing Other Bands - Jim (rycherox@aol.com)
   
   Can we be a little more considerate when it comes to bashing other
   artists? Just because you may not like them, that doesn't mean that
   what you think is etched in stone. I'm referring to the "stale"
   comment about Pink Floyd in the last issue. They have been called many
   things, but "stale" isn't one of them - the day you can outplay Dave
   Gilmour - a major influence on Queensryche, I may add - is the day
   when I'll even give a comment like that an iota of serious
   consideration.
   
          I'll second Jim's suggestion - Screaming in Digital was founded
          to provide a forum for mature, flame-free discussion of
          Queensryche. If you want fights and insults, there are plenty
          of places to go. This isn't one of them. -sh
          
   
   
   
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Roads to Madness - Tours & Shows

   European Tour Dates - Randi (randi@statoil.no)
   
   Do you have any information about pending European tours? The jungle
   telegraph over here has February 16 rumored as the Oslo, Norway date
   but I haven't been able to get any information. Queensryche are
   fantastic live and I would hate to miss a gig in my home country!
   
   
   
          An early list of proposed tour dates did include an Oslo date,
          but the most recent version I've received from Queensryche -
          revised December 7th, and included in issue 170 of Screaming in
          Digital on December 19th - only lists dates in Stockholm and
          Copenhagen. Keep in mind, though, that the schedule is still
          subject to change. -sh
          
   
   
   
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Spreading the Disease - Info & Resources

   Queen of the Reich Video? - Jim (rycherox@aol.com)
   
   Does anybody out there know how or where I can get my hands on the
   Queen of the Reich video? I've never seen it, other than the brief
   view on the Building Empires video, and the guys treat it like a
   guilty secret, but this is purely for historical - or would this be
   hysterical? - purposes. :)
   
          The Kerrang! Metal Monsters videotape released in 1985 includes
          the complete video for Queen of the Reich, along with the sweet
          sounds of Helix, Wendy O. Williams, Armored Saint, and other
          contemporary artists. -sh
          
   
   
   MTV Unplugged Releases - (s.phenna@soton.ac.uk)
   
   A couple of years ago there was an article in Q magazine, I think,
   which listed the first 20 MTV unplugged albums to be released. If my
   memory serves me right, the Queensryche session was around number 17
   on the list, so does anybody know if a release is still on the cards?
   
   My bootleg CD has five tracks, but it would be great to have the
   complete show. Maybe EMI would like to put out the rest of the show as
   B-sides - not that I've seen any singles for this album in the UK or
   US yet! By the way, as with many other people the first half of
   Promised Land took a bit of listening to, but now I rate the album
   pretty highly. Certainly in my top 5 for the year. Also thanks to
   everyone who wrote about Dream Theater in recent issues; on a recent
   trip to the US I got their latest offering and love it. Not quite
   Queensryche but still good.
   
   Tablature - Chris (cave@erc.msstate.edu)
   
   Someone asked about "tablature" in the last issue. As far as I know
   there are only 2 song books for Queensryche music. One is Selections
   from Empire and the other is Selections from Mindcrime. As the titles
   would suggest the books do not contain every song, and neither
   contains the bass lines, although Eddie's bass parts are usually easy
   to figure out. The Empire book is not very good. The tab is very small
   and the symbols are not the "standard" ones found in the guitar mags.
   It also is $25. I would not recommend it. The Mindcrime book is much
   better. However, it also is $25.
   
   My suggestion is to buy a 4-track recorder with variable speed, and
   slow down the songs you want to learn and figure them out for
   yourself. Tab is great, but doing it yourself is much more rewarding
   and will make you a better player in the long run. It is good for your
   ear too. A place to check for tab for any band is "ftp.nevada.edu" - I
   think there are a few Queensryche songs on there. I know that there is
   a tab of the song Queen of the Ryche that is well done in a very old
   back issue of Guitar for the Practicing Musician. Of course, I would
   be happy to transcribe a Queensryche song for you - for a fee.
   
          For reference, the Queensryche fanclub offers those $25 books
          for $20, and some tablature is also available from the
          Queensryche FTP site here at IOS. -sh
          
   
   
   
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Discussion

   Album Covers - James (qralston+@pitt.edu)
   
   I have to disagree with Andrew's views on Queensryche's album covers
   (v170). As someone who has worked in the field of computer graphics, I
   feel defining the overall appeal of a picture based solely on the
   number of subjects in it is rather naive. Pictures, like music, have
   textures, tones, moods, and feels - you can't possibly classify them
   on a simple "stuff in picture" unipolar scale, any more than you can
   judge how "good" a song is by how many fast-paced guitar runs it has
   in it. Photography, drawing, painting, etc. are arts, not sciences;
   they are subjective, not objective. Here are my evaluations of the
   Queensryche album covers:
   
   Queensryche: As far as I can tell, just the band's name in their own
   particular font. The color combination - black background; yellow text
   with purple edging - is sort of interesting, but that's about it. It's
   fairly obvious that the album cover ranked pretty far down on their
   list of priorities - which might be expected for a group making a
   debut album.
   
   The Warning: I'm not impressed. The overall quality - texture and
   complexity - of the picture is poor; I've seen comic books that looked
   better. The colors feel dingy and washed-out; there isn't that much
   overall contrast. The snot-green eyebeams are irritating more than
   anything else, and the image theme itself, in my opinion, is rather
   cliched - but that's debatable).
   
   Rage for Order: I like this cover. The symbolism or theme is
   interesting, and there's something about the texture that seems crisp,
   despite the misty-red background. Perhaps it's the red, black and gold
   combination; I'm not sure.
   
   Operation: Mindcrime: I'm not that impressed. To be sure, the black
   and gold "mindcrime" symbol is well-done, but other than that, I've
   seen copies of USA Today that had more visual appeal. It looks like
   they ran the background of the crowd through a 50% threshold dither to
   quantize it to black-and-white. What's the point? I could understand
   if they wanted to produce a grayscale artwork - the human eye has a
   lot more rods than cones; thus, we can perceive more of the gradients
   and complexities in grayscale pictures than color ones - but the
   outright black-and-white just doesn't do much for me. Perhaps they
   wanted to make the crowd background noise - which would fit the
   musical themes of the album - and have the mindcrime symbol and title
   in the foreground, in contrast. But if so, they didn't use a good
   color combination with the mindcrime symbol - it has so little
   contrast with the background that it's almost camouflaged. In
   comparison, the title has a color combination that gives it enough
   contrast. And speaking of the title, I really wish they had forsaken
   the attempt at horizontal symmetry and not inverted the colors between
   the "s" and "r." In my opinion, it would have looked a lot better if
   the word "Queensryche" was either completely red-on-white, or
   white-on-red.
   
   Empire: This one has a really dark feel to it - probably due to the
   black background, coupled with the faded or dingy blue, purple and
   green color choices. The large computer-generated pixel granularity on
   the tri-ryche symbol makes it look slightly interesting, as does the
   symbolism in the way the word "Empire" is spelled out. Other than
   that, though, this album cover wasn't really that exciting. It's just
   sort of there.
   
   Promised Land: Technically speaking, this is the best album cover
   Queensryche has had to date; it has the highest overall quality -
   level of detail, sharpness, crispness - of any of Queensryche's album
   covers. I think that more than any of their other album covers, the
   cover for Promised Land really affects the overall tone of album.
   Musically, the album is full of darkness, emotional isolation,
   emptiness and perhaps even a touch of evil. The mental image I get
   from it is, say, one of a deserted street, late on a cold but clear
   winter night, with only one streetlight lit, the street stretching out
   into almost complete darkness both in front and behind, and complete
   silence except for the buzzing of the streetlight and the slight
   whisper of the wind. The album cover and the whole picture, however -
   with its magnificently warm browns and golds, the silent totem pole,
   and the serene, reflective pool - tempers the overall musical
   impression. To continue the metaphor, the music is the chilling street
   in the dead of night, representing a dark portion of our journey
   through life, but the totem pole and pool are what lies at the end of
   the part of the journey - a warm apartment, a cup of hot chocolate, a
   warm bed, a dozing mate.
   
   As you might have guessed, this is my most favorite album cover to
   date. It doesn't speak with the harshness of say, The Warning or
   Operation: Mindcrime, but in its own way, it speaks more powerfully
   than any of the other album covers: companionship instead of emotional
   isolation; warmth instead of darkness; peace and serenity instead of
   conflict.
   
   Damaged Impressions - Tim (sacredbod@aol.com)
   
   I read somewhere that Damaged about entering a relationship, still
   bearing the scars of your childhood (read: dysfunctional family). The
   line "The one that lays beside me is sharing scars of my broken
   yesterdays" means that his girlfriend gets the fun of living through
   the hell he went, or is going, through. The "Mother Mary in control"
   is probably more a Biblical reference than a continuation of the
   Mindcrime theme - maybe he's going to church a lot in order to heal.
   
   Regardless of interpretations, Damaged is one of the coolest songs
   I've ever heard, and is completely unlike anything I've ever heard
   from just about anybody. I don't really see how people are calling
   that middle section a direct Metallica ripoff. It's similar, yeah, but
   not a ripoff - come on, you guys know Queensryche better than that!
   Oh, and one of the coolest components to the song is that big, fat
   brutal rhythm line.
   
   Bridge Video - Mike (mikeb@cs.brandeis.edu)
   
   I finally saw the Bridge video the other day. I did think it was a
   good video, and had a very "dark" effect. I still am not sure what the
   guy with the black hood and 3 cables is supposed to mean, but overall,
   a pretty good video. The one thing that I was really reminded of was
   was the video Ugly Kid Joe did for Cats in the Cradle, which of course
   reminded many people here of the Silent Lucidity video.
   
   I think that Bridge might have the same overall effect as Silent
   Lucidity, drawing in people who otherwise would not have bought
   Promised Land, and expanding their audience. I know some will say
   that this is selling out, but I think that Bridge is a very
   appropriate video for them to have released to get more people
   interested in more talented bands.
   
   Bridge Video - Jim (rycherox@aol.com)
   
   In my opinion, this is the best of the videos Matt Mahurin has done
   for Queensryche. There are many powerfully moving and disturbing
   images in that clip, some of which coincide well with the song and
   some which veer away from the intended topic, no doubt the work of Mr.
   Mahurin, who has tossed in his own ideas in their past videos. I'm
   sure many viewers will be able to identify with some scenes; a lone
   child bouncing a ball against a wall, a heartbroken boy listening to
   his mom and dad arguing - so much for the American Dream.
   
   There are a few points in the video that confuse me, I have to admit.
   The biggest one is the scene involving the boy getting a computer from
   his dad. Just what is this supposed to symbolize? The parts where the
   boy sits in his room, staring at the monitor, then the parts with the
   mask and the wires running from his head to the computer - what does
   all of this mean? Is this the director's way of shocking the audience,
   or do the guys in the band have a hand in this? From songs like
   Resistance, I Will Remember and My Global Mind one gets the
   impression that they are wary of technology creeping deeper and deeper
   into our lives. Is this their way of expressing their mistrust?
   Another thought occurs to me - is this their way of rebelling against
   a nation of youth staring for hours on end at a television screen
   while playing video games? Maybe they're saying that in a way,
   computers have become surrogate parents. Are the parents of today
   letting their kids learn from a box of wires? Are we losing our
   humanity, becoming more and more like machines? I have to thank them
   and the director for bringing these questions to the fore. Thinking
   man's metal, indeed.
   
   For those of you who don't like the idea of the artist not appearing
   in the video, what's the big deal? The performance clip has for the
   most part lost any spark of creativity. In the space of a little over
   a decade, videos have evolved into a true art form, with moments of
   sheer beauty and intensity, with more than a few disturbing images
   tossed in for good measure. Which would you rather watch; A video of a
   group of musicians standing around playing instruments or a collection
   of thought-provoking images that mesh wonderfully with the
   accompanying music?
   
   I Am I and Damaged - Chuck (crenner@umr.edu)
   
   Bryan said that I Am I and Damaged seemed to go really well together,
   and that he always heard them together on the radio. Well, just ending
   I Am I cold sounds kinda weird, and the beginning of Damaged follows
   it up really well. But there's another reason: skip your player to
   track 3 the next time you're listening to Promised Land. There's just
   a bit of the end of I Am I there. So if you were to just play Damaged
   and not cue past the first few frames, it would sound really weird. So
   you get people like me who just play both tunes, and we're all happy.
   
   Last Word on Vampires - Christopher (christopher.t.varas@lawrence.edu)
   
   I think the whole vampire thing has been kind of overdone, but I have
   two things to say before we (pardon the pun) lay the subject to rest.
   First of all, I'm glad to find that there are so many vampire
   aficionados out there. If any of you are interested in continuing a
   discussion of vampires (in whatever forum) drop me a line. Undead
   fiction and mythology is my passion, and I'm more than willing to
   discuss anything about it with anyone who wants to.
   
   Secondly, and more importantly, I'm a little concerned about some
   things I've been reading recently. I hate to point fingers, but
   several people have insinuated that it's stupid to read vampiric
   meanings into various lyrics "where there simply isn't anything."
   Guess what? You don't have a hammerlock on the truth either! One of
   the most wonderful things about literature and music is that looking
   at them from various viewpoints yields various interpretations.
   They're called interpretations for a reason - there is no "right" or
   "wrong."
   
   There is absolutely nothing wrong with considering Gonna Get Close to
   You or The Killing Words from a vampiric perspective. The people who
   have posted such things are not - I believe - trying to say, "This is
   what the song means," but rather, "Here's how the song appears if you
   look at it from this perspective." If I want to look at I Will
   Remember from a Christmas perspective, what makes that so wrong? I
   could also write a pretty convincing post explaining Take Hold of the
   Flame from an arson perspective.
   
   If people want to point out various angles on songs which they find
   interesting, it's nobody's place to say that what that person sees is
   "there" or "not there," and anyone who tries to pass such judgements
   reveals not a deeper, more complete "understanding" of the song, but
   rather a condescending unwillingness to accept the fact that other
   people have valid ideas and interpretations which may not happen to
   agree with their own.
   
   I fully understand that people may be getting tired of reading these
   posts (they're even starting to sound repetitive to me), but if that's
   the case, then just post something saying that the subject seems to
   have been beaten almost to death, and if people would like to continue
   the discussion, perhaps they could do it on a personal level. Don't
   trash the ideas these people are espousing, though. That's just a
   lousy thing to do.
   
    I've enjoyed SID for far too long to have it ruined by petty quarrels
   like this. Can we please try to make sure that this publication
   remains one in which people can post any idea they have, no matter how
   outlandish, without fear of getting flamed?
   
          Yes, it will remain one - but if you choose to post views in a
          public forum, you accept any and all civil responses to your
          views, including disagreement. Mind you, I will never allow a
          post which directly attacks any known reader of this digest as
          a person, but disagreement with a theory, no matter how
          vehement, does not constitute a flame.
          
          I agree that continuation of the vampirism topic at this point
          in time would certainly constitute beating an undead horse, and
          appreciate your offer to arrange for it to be discussed
          privately elsewhere. -sh
          
   
   
   
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The Killing Words - Interpretation

   Latin in Suite Sister Mary - Sam (ssivakum@ptd.intel.com)
   
   The Dies Irae, or literally the "Day of Wrath" is one of the oldest
   and most famous of Gregorian Chants. It describes the horrors of
   judgement day. Interestingly, it is one of the most commonly used
   tunes in music. If you thought rap artists invented sampling, you
   should listen to classical music. The Dies Irae is one of the most
   widely used samples in classical music. Rachmaninoff was quite
   obsessed with it and it appears in just about all of his compositions.
   An excellent piece is Liszt's Totentanz which, besides being
   rollicking piano music, also uses the Dies Irae. Liszt, incidentally,
   was one of the great piano maestros of the nineteenth century, a
   Yngwie Malmsteen of the piano, and just like Yngwie has been accused -
   with some justification - of being all flash and little substance. The
   Dies Irae also has made appearances in modern popular music. Check out
   Stanley Kubrick's The Shining, for instance.
   
   Roads to Madness Whispers - Ken (kenneth.d.tucker@sprint.sprint.com)
   
   I have a question about what is whispered in Roads to Madness. About
   half way through the song you can hear Geoff start to whisper, "My
   conscious..." and then the music gets louder. You can tell that there
   is something being said, but you can't make it out.
   
   Soundbites - Jenn (pike1_je@bentley.edu)
   
   I work in a movie theater and the new Steve Martin movie Mixed Nuts
   includes the "Doctor Blair" soundbites that appear in Operation:
   Mindcrime. Just a little tidbit for anyone who is wondering if they
   still use that part.
   
   
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Anybody Listening? - Advertisements

   Autographed Warning - Shawn (haybron@zeus.franklin.edu)
   
   I have in my possession a copy of the Warning album, fully autographed
   in Dayton Ohio, before they were big. If anyone is interested in
   acquiring it, please e-mail me. My license plate, also in Ohio, reads
   "I AM I."
   
   Nightryder Bootleg Available - Jeff (dilcher@netcom.com)
   
   I have a bootleg disc called Nightryder for sale. It's on Oh Boy
   records, and the label says it was mastered by Stefan Vardopoules.
   It's dated 1990, the jewelcase features two color photos of the band,
   and the disc is in perfect shape. The tracks are Nightrider, Prophecy,
   Deliverance, Child of Fire, En Force, Blinded, The Lady Wore Black,
   Warning, Take Hold of the Flame, and Queen of the Reich. First 20
   bucks takes it, and of course I'll pay the postage.
   
   
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Breaking the Silence - Miscellaneous

   Mindcrime Merchandising - Dan (hcicc01.rebenn01@ssw.alcoa.com)
   
   I was just thinking how cool it would be if the guys decided to come
   out with a set of Operation: Mindcrime action figures. You could have
   all the primary characters. What collector's items they would be.
   Also, so that you could act out your favorite scenes, they could have
   accessories and vehicles. You could sell the Dr. X limo, complete with
   working automatic window. Also, you could have the Sister Mary rosary.
   I've drawn a sketch of what it looks like. Finally, you could have a
   activity set of the hospital, with the nurse, a hypodermic needle, a
   hospital bed, and a door slammer sound effect. Remember the candy that
   was marketed for Jurassic Park? We could have Operation: Mindcandy!
   
   My point to this is that Mindcrime should stand alone as one album in
   an entire catalog of albums. No movies, no cartoons, no comic books,
   nothing. And it is certainly not the point of reference the band
   members draw from every time they write another song. I don't think
   you should try to tie every work back into it.
   
   
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   That's all for now - and things are already coming in for next week's
   issue. Keep them coming...
   
   'Ryche on,
          -Shag