by Thom JurekNow here's a weird one: Queensrÿche's covers album. Given their long run, and the rock & roll tradition the band's members have come from and indulged in as individual listeners, it shouldn't perhaps be a surprise that they'd be interested in everything from Pink Floyd to Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Queen, Black Sabbath, Gamble & Huff, the Police, U2, and Peter Gabriel (oh yeah, and the score of Jesus Christ Superstar). Appalled or intrigued yet? Both? Yeah. For fans of this mighty, conceptual prog metal unit, there is nothing to fear. The renaissance that Queensrÿche underwent when founding guitarist Chris DeGarmo left the band has been nothing short of astonishing. From Tribe to Operation: Mindcrime II to this, the results have been for the most part tremendously satisfying. The live records, which are really live, attest to that. While the opening version of Pink Floyd's "Welcome to the Machine" draws very natural comparisons to the paranoia and fear on the Mindcrime series, it does not prepare listeners for the reinvention of the Tim Rice-Andrew Lloyd Webber penned "Heaven on Their Minds," from J.C. Superstar, sung from the point of view of Judas Iscariot. Queensrÿche turn this baby into a first-rate metal tune, using its melody but changing its dynamic range and creating a tension that is both heavy and almost unbearably emotional at the same time (and vocalist Geoff Tate should be considered for the role when another touring production of the hard rock musical is assembled: he sings his ass off). The same goes for the C,S,N&Y covers "Almost Cut My Hair" and Stills' "For What It's Worth," as done by his preceding band with Young, the Buffalo Springfield.... Read More...