POP MUSIC REVIEW : Queensryche Brings Depth to Hard Rock

The thinking-man’s metal tag that has always applied to Queensryche, which played the Forum Saturday night, is misleading.

What this Seattle quintet plays doesn’t have much to do with metal as we’ve known it since the ‘80s. Queensryche offers hard rock with an intellectual edge, closer to the music of British progressive rock bands. And those Rush influences do come across loud and clear.

Whatever you call it, Queensryche, for the most part, played it very effectively Saturday night. The band bowled you over with energy and imagination and dazzled with its instrumental skills--especially guitarist Chris DeGarmo, also the chief composer.

The Seattle quintet is touring to promote “Promised Land,” its first album since 1990’s “Empire.” But the new songs pale next to the vibrant older material from “Empire” and the band’s best album, 1988’s “Operation: Mindcrime.”

The show was intriguingly staged--a barrage of eye candy that never let up. Fans of multimedia must have felt like kids romping through a toy store, what with all those images--from stinging cartoons to erotic romps--flashing on the two screens at the rear of the stage, both during and between songs. One song, “Promised Land,” started with an elaborate video that segued into a live cocktail lounge scene crammed with extras.

And you’d have thought lead singer Geoff Tate was Diana Ross, the way he kept changing costumes--once to tails and top hat. At times it also seemed like he’d been watching too many Meat Loaf videos--often wallowing in melodrama with that soaring, Angst -ridden voice.

Some of the songs, particularly from the “Promised Land” album--an epic of self-exploration--are a bit schmaltzy and overwrought, allowing Tate to do some heavyweight emoting.