Empire (Queensrÿche album)
Empire is the fourth full-length studio album by the American heavy metal band Queensrÿche, released on September 4, 1990. The album stands as Queensrÿche's most commercially successful release, reaching triple-platinum status and the primary single, the power ballad "Silent Lucidity", reached number 1 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks and number 9 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Silent Lucidity" was also nominated for the Grammy Awards of 1992 in the categories Best Rock Song and Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. The album won a 1991 Northwest Area Music Award for Best Metal Recording.
In a June 2019 interview, former vocalist Geoff Tate announced his intentions to perform the entire album live in 2020 to celebrate the 30th anniversary. He also said that there will be a new 30th anniversary edition box set.
Reception
Empire has received generally positive reviews from critics since its release.AllMusic praised the album, selecting the songs "Jet City Woman", "Empire", and "Silent Lucidity" as the album's best tracks. The review stated that the band went for "a song-oriented approach that is more art rock and less metal" with lyrics that talk about social and physical handicaps in "Best I Can" and issues such as poverty and regret in "Della Brown" and romance with "Another Rainy Night " and "Hand On Heart". The reviewer concluded by praising the band's mature sound and the production done by Peter Collins.
Record Collector gave the 20th anniversary edition of the album a generally positive review. The reviewer called the album a "very pleasant, but only intermittently gripping" listen, calling the songs "Best I Can", "Silent Lucidity", and "Jet City Woman" as being some of the band's best material. Comparing Empire to the band's earlier albums, The Warning and Rage for Order, the reviewer wrote that it is "a little boring". The reviewer concluded by calling the live CD accompanying the re-issue "flawless", making it a "worthwhile reissue". PopMatters reviewer Adrien Begrand also reviewed the album's 20th anniversary release. Begrand called the album an "enigma" that's "beautifully produced and features some of the band's quintessential songs, but at the same time it's a rather bloated, conceptually scattershot piece of work containing filler that honestly has not aged very well". Begrand praised the songs "Empire", "Another Rainy Night", and "Silent Lucidity", calling them the album's best tracks, favorably comparing "Silent Lucidity" to Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb". Begrand had a mixed reaction to the live CD and referred to the cover of "Scarborough Fair" as being "abysmal".
Jim Farber of Entertainment Weekly was highly critical of the album. Farber criticized the album's progressive metal riffs, calling them "tuneless bombast" as well as the dire nature of the lyrics. Farber concluded his review by calling the band members "relentless killjoys".
Track listing
Personnel
;Queensrÿche- Geoff Tate – vocals, keyboards
- Chris DeGarmo – 6 and 12 strings electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards on "Best I Can" and backing vocals, lead guitar on "Best I Can", "Jet City Woman", "Silent Lucidity", and "Anybody Listening"
- Michael Wilton – 6 and 12 strings electric and acoustic guitars, lead guitar on "Empire", "Resistance", and "Another Rainy Night"
- Eddie Jackson – bass guitars, backing vocals
- Scott Rockenfield – drums, percussion
- Michael Kamen – orchestral arrangements on "Silent Lucidity", conductor
- Randy Gane – message left on answering machine on "Empire"
- Robert Bailey – keyboards, programming
- Peter Collins – producer
- James Barton — engineer, mixing at Royal Recorders Studios, Lake Geneva, Wisconsin
- Marcus Ramaer – assistant engineer
- Dan Harjung – mixing assistant
- Paul Northfield — engineer on tracks 6, 12, 14
- Neil Kernon — producer and engineer on track 13
- Tom Hall — engineer on track 13, assistant engineer on tracks 6, 12, 14
- Bob Ludwig – mastering at Masterdisk, New York
Charts
| Year | Chart | Position |
| 1990 | Billboard 200 | 7 |
| 1990 | UK Albums Chart | 13 |
| 1990 | Norwegian Albums Chart | 14 |
| 1990 | Oricon Japanese Albums Charts | 18 |
| 1990 | German Albums Chart | 22 |
| 1990 | Swiss Albums Chart | 22 |
| 1990 | Swedish Albums Chart | 26 |
| 1990 | Dutch Albums Chart | 56 |
| 1991 | RPM100 Albums | 18 |
| 1991 | New Zealand Albums Chart | 50 |
;Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
| 1990 | "Best I Can" | Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 28 |
| 1990 | "Empire" | Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 22 |
| 1990 | "Empire" | UK Singles Chart | 61 |
| 1991 | "Silent Lucidity" | Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 1 |
| 1991 | "Silent Lucidity" | Billboard Hot 100 | 9 |
| 1991 | "Silent Lucidity" | RPM100 Hit Tracks | 7 |
| 1991 | "Silent Lucidity" | UK Singles Chart | 18 |
| 1991 | "Silent Lucidity" | German Singles Chart | 46 |
| 1991 | "Silent Lucidity" | Swiss Singles Chart | 24 |
| 1991 | "Silent Lucidity" | GfK Dutch Charts | 21 |
| 1991 | "Silent Lucidity" | New Zealand Singles Charts | 11 |
| 1991 | "Best I Can" | UK Singles Chart | 36 |
| 1991 | "Jet City Woman" | Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 6 |
| 1991 | "Jet City Woman" | RPM100 Hit Tracks | 92 |
| 1991 | "Jet City Woman" | UK Singles Chart | 39 |
| 1991 | "Another Rainy Night " | Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 7 |
| 1991 | "Another Rainy Night " | RPM 100 Hit Tracks | 76 |
| 1992 | "Anybody Listening?" | Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 16 |