Yeah, there's really no depth here, it's as straightforward as it gets. Kinda like if you were trying to read a deeper meaning into Van Halen's Atomic Punk. Nope, it's all surface. They were just kids, it was the late '70s/early '80s guitar-oriented rock and metal scene, they wrote something that was "cool" and cyberpunk-ish for the time. That's pretty much the whole thing they've got going on for the eponymous EP (and as others have mentioned, the song came before the name!) and for The Warning.
Rage for Order is their first album where they start dealing with concepts in a more thorough way, though their only two concept albums in the sense of "one story carried through to its conclusion" are Operation: Mindcrime, of course, and Promised Land. Empire is conceptually linked to the changing times, but not a concept album any more than Hear In The Now Frontier.
"But dude, what about Operation: Mindcrime II?" Okay, fine, I'll give. But without DeGarmo, nothing in the world could save the project from being a try-hard also-ran compared to their glory days.
To contextualize this song and others on the EP, gotta remember that the band minus Geoff Tate was originally performing Maiden and Priest covers... Which clearly had a HUGE influence on their first work here. Geoff Tate stepped away from his band to lend vocals so they'd have something to shop around, then once they agreed to get away from covers entirely, he joined the band.
Real shame about the current state of things, but not every band is like able to stay together or remain relevant for decades. In fact, history shows most aren't. But this much public acrimony in a split is a rare thing.
Yeah, there's really no depth here, it's as straightforward as it gets. Kinda like if you were trying to read a deeper meaning into Van Halen's Atomic Punk. Nope, it's all surface. They were just kids, it was the late '70s/early '80s guitar-oriented rock and metal scene, they wrote something that was "cool" and cyberpunk-ish for the time. That's pretty much the whole thing they've got going on for the eponymous EP (and as others have mentioned, the song came before the name!) and for The Warning.
Rage for Order is their first album where they start dealing with concepts in a more thorough way, though their only two concept albums in the sense of "one story carried through to its conclusion" are Operation: Mindcrime, of course, and Promised Land. Empire is conceptually linked to the changing times, but not a concept album any more than Hear In The Now Frontier.
"But dude, what about Operation: Mindcrime II?" Okay, fine, I'll give. But without DeGarmo, nothing in the world could save the project from being a try-hard also-ran compared to their glory days.
To contextualize this song and others on the EP, gotta remember that the band minus Geoff Tate was originally performing Maiden and Priest covers... Which clearly had a HUGE influence on their first work here. Geoff Tate stepped away from his band to lend vocals so they'd have something to shop around, then once they agreed to get away from covers entirely, he joined the band.
Real shame about the current state of things, but not every band is like able to stay together or remain relevant for decades. In fact, history shows most aren't. But this much public acrimony in a split is a rare thing.
Ah, well.