• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

You know you’re getting old when bands you listened to in high school start getting labeled "Classic". This CD makes me feel even older. Anarchÿ-X are a Queensryche cover band from Italy. You heard me. I suppose they must tour around and have a blast playing old Queensryche tunes and getting laid a lot. On disc the results are a little uneven.

When these guys stick to the older material like "Walk In the Shadows", "Revolution Calling" or "Queen of the Reich", they sound pretty good. In fact on these tracks vocalist Max Bastasi sounds so much like early Geoff it’s uncanny, you’d almost think you were hearing a live album or remasters – he’s very good. The notorious latin accent pops up here and there to spoil the illusion, but only a little. The version of "Suite Sister Mary" isn’t bad either, but doesn’t match the sweep and grandeur of the original, making me wonder why they bothered.

On the later-period songs, the band doesn’t hit the mark as well. "Damaged" was never one of my favorite ‘Ryche songs, and this version doesn’t do it any favors. Even after all these years, I cannot stand to listen to "Silent Lucidity", so let’s just skip it. ‘Someone Else?" was a terrible choice for a song on this CD. "Roads to Madness" would have been better, or in fact any song from "The Warning". "Someone Else?" was Geoff Tate’s finest vocal performance ever anywhere, and anybody is going to sound lame covering it. Bad idea.

So when Anarchÿ-X stick to the old-style material, this disc is a lot of fun. The newer songs don’t fly as well, but only in comparison to the originals. Live I’ll bet these guys are a hoot, and they’re obviously talented enough to do something besides ape classic ‘Ryche. So as cover acts go, these guys are pretty damned good, and if they stuck with the first four Queensryche albums they’d do just fine. But anytime they wanted to do their own stuff would be fine with me, as there is too much talent here to waste on a clone band.