Speaking About Queensyrche's Guitar Godliness

The electric guitar has claimed a permanent place in the hearts of headbangers. In certain cases a sorcerer's mastery of the instrument turns a metal song into a transcendent experience. One of my all-time favorite metal songs is "Speak" by Seattle's Queensryche. This song can be found on the psychologically provocative "Operation:Mindcrime". "Eyes of a Stranger" and "I Don't Believe In Love" got some love from MTV, but "Speak", to my mind, is far more penetrating than those other songs. We all owe a debt of gratitude to ax man Scott DeGarmo for infusing "Speak" with the carnival thrill ride of emotions. From the first moments of acceleration, you find yourself in the hands of an ax maniac who knows he's at the height of his power and isn't afraid to let you know he's plenty confident. Listen to the first ten to fifteen seconds. I can sense anger, defiance, empowerment, and even giddiness behind those notes. The song itself plunges into the world quite similar to what's unfolding in the opening passages of the 21st century storyline. The rich control media, government, and law. Vocalist Geoff Tate shouts from the rooftops how imperative it is to have educated masses. Otherwise the power balance stays decidedly slanted towards the extreme "haves". Scott DeGarmo channels venom from everywhere on the metal compass. Every location he gets it from is like a bullet to the heart. Geoff, drummer Scott Rockenfield, bassist Eddie Jackson, and additional lead guitarist Michael Wilton all feed off the blistering energy Scott lays down. The saliva essentially drips off Scott's drum kit. Geoff's already straitjacket worthy voice just gets even more impossible to comprehend. The icing on the cake comes in the last five to ten seconds. Here we have an avalanche of instrumental savagery. Who's at the epicenter? Scott DeGarmo, of course. His work is what fuses the voices, the subject matter, and the overall pacing into one inescapable time bomb Goose pimples for everyone. "Speak" is my #2 all time metal song favorite behind Whitesnake's Zeppelin-esque "Still of the Night". Queensryche has earned a reputation as being the thinking man's metal band. But after one listen to this little tooth chattering explosion of ideas you won't ever forget that they also know how to bang heads like there's a zero hour urgency to the proceedings.