Queensryche is a regal name perhaps for a band of young rockers still traversing that elusive highway to the top.  But the name suggests discipline and power fueled by an air of majesty appropriate image for a group whose powerful yet melodic compositions are a passionate attempt to expand beyond the creative limitations of hard rock music.

"Queensryche is trying to create something that's uniquely ours," explains lead vocalist Geoff Tate, who, along with guitarist Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton, bassist Eddie Jackson and drummer Scott Rockenfield, continually experiment with sound combinations, tonal contrases and unorthodox lyrical themes in hot pursuit of that goal.  Rage For Order, the band's second full-length album for EMI-America Records, is certainly the Seattle based group's most accomplished cohesive work.

"It's a statement oriented album," explains DeGarmo, "a complete concept.  It's very much like the world right now -- a kind of chaos searching for direction -- therefore, Rage For Order."

It's a far cry from their Bellevue, Washington basement days when they were were known simply as The Mob.  In 1983, on a whim, they recorded four songs they had written.  The finished product testified to the young band's potential.  When the songs were played from local record merchants Kim and Diana Harris, the pair immediately offered to manage them and to press up to 10,000 copies of an EP.  The next order of business was a name for the band.

"The name was the last thing we came up with," explains DeGarmo.  "We were writing songs, and on one even bothered to think about what to call the band.  We had a song called "Queen Of The Reich" and that became our inspiration.  We wanted the name to bring across the discipline of the band, and Queensryche has a real sting to it."

The success of the Queensryche EP resulted in a worldwide recording deal with EMI Records, who subsequently re-released the EP before sending the band to London to record their first full length album, "The Warning" and LP that gave Queensryche the opportunity to fully explore their potential.

"We accomplished what we wanted to on "The Warning" both lyrically and musically, and it was well-received," says Tate.  "But it really gave us something to look forward to with this new album.  Rage For Order is more mature in approach.  We're trying to get more texture into our music and more dynamics.  Queensryche is a very modern band, modern as in technical.  Technical as in high tech.  High tech as in art.  The machine moves with real precision, and that's how I envision what we're doing now.. but with an angry feel, a rebellious sort of nature."

To capture all that energy and raw feeling on vinyl, the band recruited noted producer Neil Kernon (Dokken, Hall and Oats, Autograph) to produce Rage For Order.  "He knew there would be no limitations on the band's ideas," explains DeGarmo.  "We wanted to branch out and take a different approach to recording."  With Rockenfield's drum tracks cut in an empty Seattle warehouse using the Le Mobile remote studio, Queensryche headed for Mushroom Studios in Vancouver to complete the album.

On Rage For Order, Queensryche have captured the power an discipline that defines their music.  "We want to write intense music, and not limit ourselves to anything," says DeGarmo.  "We have always written angry, aggressive songs, and now we are cementing our sound.  I think we're just trying to update metal music, to modernize it.  I'd like to think of us as innovators and originators.  We don't sound like anyone else, but Queensryche."