I was a kid when Empire came out, so didn’t really get a lot of the broader themes explored therein, but I was sooo into it, playing the cassette over and over until my step-father would pound on my door demanding I put something else on or he’d beat me retarded with his belt. I loved the symbol on the cover, and created a superhero (basically a Batman knockoff) who used it as his emblem, complete with shuriken and a car in that shape. About six months later I discovered Nirvana, Mother Love Bone, Green River and other bands in the local grunge scene (I was living in Everett at the time, roughly 30 miles from Seattle) and pretty much forgot about Queensrÿche altogether.

Recently, however, a bout of nostalgia led me down a Queensrÿche rabbit hole and I found myself appreciating them in ways I never had before, including songs that had left me cold and utterly indifferent. Some of their songs even feel more relevant with the shit going on today than when they were written (the whole Operation: mindcrime album is particularly prescient.)

But the song I’ve been listening to the most is “Silent Lucidity,” which, for some reason is giving me strong Dionysos vibes, though mostly in the past this song has made me think of Hermes.