They released the quintessential heavy-metal concept album of the 1980s with "Operation Mindcrime." Their follow-up album saw them reach the height of their commercial popularity with "Empire" in 1990.
All the while, Queensryche avoided the cliche hard-rock trend of the day of writing songs about girls and partying and continued to deliver intelligent, politically charged songs with lyrics that raised social consciousness.
So when the band recently released its 12th album, "American Soldier," it appeared as though the Seattle-based rockers were once again getting into the realm of mixing politics and music. But lead singer Geoff Tate, speaking to the Deseret News recently from his home in Washington, said that's actually not the case.
"There's no politics involved with this record at all," Tate said. "It's the first record that we've written that isn't about us … our feelings, our observations, our viewpoints. It's all about someone else."
That someone else is actually a collective person: the men and women of the U.S. armed forces, beginning with Tate's own father.
The genesis for "American Soldier" began in 2006, during a day off from touring. Tate was sitting on the back deck of his father's house, talking to his dad, a war veteran, when the conversation took an unexpected turn.
"He launched into telling me stories about Korea in the '50s," he said. "This was kind of unheard of in our house. He never talked about that. That was kind of monumental to me."
Tate quickly grabbed his video recorder and started making a tape of his father's conversation. It was the start of what would become an on-going project to talk to others who served in the military. Tate would randomly spot soldiers from all war eras in airports or gas stations or supermarkets and talk to them.
"It took a long time to collect stories and sort through them and figure out what to do with it all," Tate said. "The songs came directly out of the interviews."
Although the result was an album that was not political, that didn't mean it was any less bold or ambitious.
Tate found commonalities in all his interviews and used those themes to construct the songs. Actual audio from those tapes is intertwined with the music on the new CD. He hopes other soldiers will hear the album and see those connections.
"We're finding ourselves in the position of a biographer. We're just providing the music to help these individual stories," he said. "It's a walk in a soldier's boots. 'How can you know me, if you don't walk in my shoes?' A soldier isn't an impervious machine, he's a human being. He just got to perform extraordinary acts."
Tate's father served in the Marines and the Air Force in Korea and Vietnam. Tate was born on an Air Force base in Germany. Soldiers from every major conflict that the United States has been involved in since World War II up to the Iraq war were interviewed for the project.
"We never put limits on ourselves. We do whatever it takes to make the song great," Tate said. "Then we have to figure out how to perform it live later. That's where we've been the last couple of months."
For the current tour, Queensryche is once again using a lot of recorded audio and visual elements to complement the music. The set list focuses on blocks of songs from three albums: "American Soldier," "Rage for Order" and "Empire."
The tour has also become more of a family affair for Tate. His 10-year-old daughter, Emily, the youngest of his five children, makes her singing debut on "American Soldier" in the duet, "Home Again," which finds Tate singing from a soldier's point of view and his daughter as the child waiting back home for her father. Emily Tate is going on the road with Queensryche to perform that duet live with her dad.
"What an amazing experience (to record with her), It was a spur-of-the-moment happening," he said. "She's excited. She's been preparing and rehearsing with the band."
Tate notes that the first time she performed the new material in front of a live crowd, it was "pretty nerve-racking" for her, and she had to hold her dad's hand for the whole song.
Also on this tour, Tate's soon-to-be son-in-law, guitarist Parker Lundgren, replaces the departed Mike Stone.
To help promote "American Soldier," Queensryche visited several military bases to do meet-and-greet sessions and sign autographs. And anyone who goes to a show with a ticket and a current military ID can be escorted to the front of the line to get in. Participants should check with the venue prior to the show for instructions.
If you go ...
What: Queensryche
Where: The Depot, 400 W. South Temple
When: April 26, 8 p.m.
How much: $35
Phone: 801-467-8499, 800-888-8499
Web: www.smithstix.com
E-mail: preavy@desnews.com