By Martin Popoff
So here's the deal. By now you should all be chomping into the slimmed-down reissue of the band's Operation Livecrime album. You might also be experiencing prog metal heaven through the resplendent double live digi-release of Live Evolution, a 2CD monster arranged in rough chronological order. That's two. Coming soon, DVD versions of both these monsters. After that, there's a Geoff Tate solo album, a Michael Wilton solo album (not as far along as Geoff's) and then one day through the Seattle rain, a new Queensryche studio album. That's seven, four of which (I skipped the DVDs and I didn't ask him about Geoff's) original QR six-stringer Michael Wilton (www.michaelwilton.com) will tell us about below.
1. Operation Livecrime
"Operation Livecrime is basically a reissue from when we did the album in the early days. And because of the activity of our new record label, EMI decided to re-release it and put a couple extra songs on it (ed.: live bonus tracks). Livecrime was a three or four day shoot. It was very nerve-racking. You almost feel secondary to the film crew and the production people making sure everything is set up right (laughs). Once the show started, you know, fortunately we had been on tour for awhile so it wasn't a one-off. It was pretty much just the show that we had been doing and maybe just kind of looking at the crowd a little bit more (laughs). For me it was, at that moment, 'let's do this, let's have fun,' it's just really take this home and give it the best live representation we can. I wasn't under the assumption that this was going to be a recording that was going to be re-released years ahead in the future (laughs) and still be our fans' favourite. But it was just a great time for me, being a very hard rock, riffing guitar player. Because those songs tended to lean that way."
QUEENSRYCHE - Get Yer News On Seven Releases Right Here Page 2