With the new issue of Classic Rock Magazine in the wings being sort of appreciated of Heavy Metal and Rock & Roll, there’s always a chance to hear the 40th anniversary reissues for 2011. The result of the first five Queen albums has received sort of an okay review thanks to guest review none other than Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree. Now alongside Led Zeppelin and T. Rex, Queen are considered one of the most influential hard rock bands to come out of the ‘70s when it comes to the early beginnings of Heavy Metal. With Freddie Mercury’s soaring vocals, Brian May’s earth-shattering guitar solos, John Deacon’s touching bass lines that are sometimes jazzy and soulful while Roger Taylor’s screaming vocals delivers the goods.
Now they have been well received thanks to Muse, Metallica, Foo Fighters, and Def Leppard to name a few, but over the few years with the boring and guilty pleasures of songs like; We Will Rock You, We Are the Champions, Another One Bites The Dust, and the cringing rockabilly rocker, Crazy Little Thing Called Love, some would have seen Queen sold their souls to the mainstream devil or give them a slap in the face. Well let’s draw a line the sand for now, in which every person might point the finger at Brian May for not delivering the goods on releasing the early recordings of the band’s live performances on DVD. So I’m leaving that to the other professionals.
I have to give kudos for Steven Wilson for writing a wonderful review on the Queen reissues and while the extras are not well-cooked, but medium rare. But it’s about time that Queen deserves a second chance to give a new light at the end of the tunnel and slap the so-called rock critics to say, “Hey! Wake Up! This is what we want to hear, not that Justin Bieber crap that we are seeing on Rolling Stone Magainze!” And the first five albums are one of my favorites from 1973 to 1976 (Queen to A Day at
the Races)
Here’s what I have to say about Queen: First of all, I love the golden-era of Queen’s heavy metal sounds of the first five albums. They were the first band to get me into heavy metal thanks to the movie Wayne’s World with the song that refuses to die, the 5-minute epic single classic rocker, Bohemian Rhapsody. But let’s cut through the bullshit: A Night at the Opera is one of my favorite albums and from start to finish is a damn killer. Queen II is almost a progressive metal masterpiece with the Ogre Battle suite and the medieval Father To Son. Now I crave Sheer Heart Attack with it’s early beginnings of Thrash Metal and vicious guitar solo that May does on Brighton Rock and Stone Cold Crazy. The self-titled debut album was a rocky start, but it’s a fine album.
A Day at the Races was a little bit cringy at first when I first heard it in 2001, and now I adore the album as the band go into the devil-ism of sports anthem, funky bass lines, writing a theme song to a comic book hero almost would have made them again Guilty Pleasures. I still think the golden-era of Queen still bites the neck of the girl’s neck to give blood and keeps on trucking. So I now ask you a question. Which era you prefer, the golden-era of Queen (1973-1976) or the guilty pleasures-era of Queen (1977-1982)? (I love the album Jazz)
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