Queensrÿche Empire

After the breakthrough success and worldwide respect that Queensrÿche gained from their conceptual masterpiece Operation: Mindcrime, it was a fair assumption that they couldn't possibly outdo or perhaps even match themselves. Empire, released just two years after that watermark, reveals that Queensrÿche reinvented themselves (though certainly not for the last time). While many fans were clamoring for a conceptual sequel, the band offers a song-oriented approach that is more art rock and less metal (though Empire does rock hard in places)…

This version, newly remastered at Abbey Road Studios, brings together all the available recordings to narrate the story of this remarkable album on 3 CDs. This Deluxe edition includes the original album remastered, a bonus CD with B-sides and rarities and another one recorded live in 1990 in London.
After the breakthrough success and worldwide respect that Queensrÿche gained from their conceptual masterpiece Operation: Mindcrime, it was a fair assumption that they couldn't possibly outdo or perhaps even match themselves. Empire, released just two years after that watermark, reveals that Queensrÿche reinvented themselves (though certainly not for the last time)…

Queensryche has partnered with Capitol/EMI for the September 14 release of an expanded 20th Anniversary Edition of the band's triple platinum-certified album, Empire. The new 2CD and digital packages both include the remastered album, featuring six hit singles, including the #1 hit "Silent Lucidity," as well as 13 bonus tracks, among them 10 previously unreleased live performances recorded in 1990 at London's Hammersmith Odeon. The 2CD package is presented in a lift-top box with five postcards, a fold-out poster and a booklet featuring photos from the band's personal archive.After building a fan base with album and EP releases throughout the 1980s, including 1988's Operation: Mindcrime, Queensryche broke into the mainstream across North America and abroad with the 1990 release of Empire. In the U.S., the album peaked at #7 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and its hit ballad "Silent Lucidity" became a rotation staple at rock radio and on MTV, topping Billboard's Modern Rock singles chart and earning Queensryche the MTV Viewers Choice Award for the song's music video. Empire also made the U.K.'s Top 10, and the band headlined an 18-month "Building Empires" world tour, the band's longest trek to date.

In 2010, for Empire's 20th anniversary, Queensryche issues a deluxe package that includes a 24-bit remaster of the original album, as well as the three bonus tracks that were included on the 2003 expanded edition, and a live disc recorded at Hammersmith Odeon in London during the supporting tour. What's remarkable about the live disc is that it is raw, power-on, great-sounding Queensrÿche with no overdubs; all but three of the set's tracks are from the Empire album.

Their fourth studio album, "Empire" spawned a number of singles and placed well on the Billboard charts, as well as in the hearts of the fans, especially "Silent Lucidity". This was the most commercially successful Queensryche album of the early days, eventually reaching triple-Platinum--and this DCC Gold treatment just capped the success.

Queensrÿche started as The Mob in 1981, by guitarist Michael Wilton, drummer Scott Rockenfield, guitarist Chris DeGarmo and bassist Eddie Jackson. Without a singer, they recruited Geoff Tate to sing for them at a local rock festival…