Queensryche: The Warning

1995 was the year I graduated from Ball State University with my Finance degree.  I spent my last semester of college as a suitcase student commuting back and forth from Ball State to Indianapolis on the weekends to do a couple of jobs; working as teller for a big bank and working Sunday mornings at a Little Caeser's. I was living at Elliot Hall, a 21+ dorm on college that somehow had been invaded by a bunch of foreign exchange students. Unfortunately, most of them were obviously well to do Europeans who thought they were better than us midwesterners. Arrogance and elitism became the order of the day to fit into the social scene and I wasn't going there. If you wanted to friends with most of them, you basically had to bash the US at every opportunity.

I didn't really get a professional job upon graduation. I still had the job as a teller with the 'big bank' but was looking to get into either commercial lending or branch management. I also had a second job at Pizza Hut* to keep me in luxuries, like effect pedals and more CDs. I figured in a year or two, I could get ahead at the bank and start a real life. In May of 1995 I graduated, moved out and said goodbye to few remaining friends I had at Ball State. One odd piece of trivia is that the last person I said goodbye to was a singer named Jeff, who by strange coincidence was the first or second person I met at Ball State who became a long term friend.

This was also the year that my friend Greg and I started our second band, which became known as Primal Faith. Greg was a singer/ryhthm guitarist and I was switch hitter between lead guitar and bass guitar. Greg and I were in a failed attempt of a band in 1994 that I won't get into now. He called me in 1995 and was interested in starting a band. It sounded like a good idea to me! We started out as a 'double guitar duo' writing original songs and learning covers. We spent our weekends of the summer of 1995 writing tunes in the spare bedroom of his house on the east side of Indianapolis. There was a real creative chemistry between us. More than once we found out that we had compatible parts of incomplete songs that we could put together to create something that more than the sum of its parts.

This was also the year that I moved out of the parents house for good awhile. I had my first real apartment just a few blocks away from the bank that I worked at. Sometimes, I even got to see it because I was working 40 hours at the bank, 15 hours at Pizza Hut, and working on music with Greg for another 5-10 hours per week. There will be more about Greg and Primal Faith in the future.

I bought Queensryche: The Warning because of the song "Take Hold of the Flame" which seemed to be the high point of their set when I saw them in 1988. I really felt like I needed to Take Hold of The Flame and do something with my life. Everytime I put in this disc, I am taken back to 1995. None of the events of 1995, meaning the bank, the band or Pizza Hut turned out to be my destiny. More on all of this later.

I'm also going to add that this a metal classic and was the start of a signficant period of creativity for Queensryche. It has aged incredibly well and is a 9 out of 10.

*(more on the switch between Little Caeser's and Pizza Hut later on)