After Empires, the band released Promised Land in 1994. It kind of picked up where Empires left off, but with a modern twist. Not unusual for a band that is so diversely talented. The album went platinum in the States and debuted at #3 on Billboard charts. It also spawned two rock radio hits.

In 1997, the band put out Hear In The Now Frontier, which showed yet another side of Queensryche. This time, they decided to do a Seattle grunge meets Iron Maiden-style album. However, there was just too much grunge in there, so most loyal fans turned away. This certainly was not the same band that came up with Mindcrime and Empires. Shortly after the Frontier album flopped, Chris DeGarmo left the band and was replaced by Kelly Gray (alternative producer/musician that was partly responsible for Dokken's Shadowlife CD).

They released Q2K last year to almost no audience. The album did so poorly, they had to begin touring clubs and canceling dates in certain cities. Q2K was noticably harder and heavier than Frontier, but the fans didn't care.

Queensryche have alway put out quality prog rock albums. But, unfortunately in today's world that doesn't mean much. Most of their fanbase was always hoping for another Mindcrime or Empires. When they didn't get it, they went elsewhere.

Robert