‘Queensryche by Ross Halfin’ from Rufus Publications

“The thinking man’s heavy metal band” is perhaps the singular line that most encapsulates the sound and story of Queensryche – Seattle’s finest and one of the most original and ground breaking American rock bands of the 1980’s. A band that effortlessly married progressive sensibilities with hard rock attitude, delivered through the prism of world class song writing and virtuoso musicianship, Queensryche would rack up sales of over 20 million albums in a storied career that would see them go from a well-respected opening band to bona fide arena headlining status over a five year period from 1987 to 1992.

Photographer Ross Halfin was there every step of the way to capture the journey on film. This book is a celebration of not only one of the most distinctive and original rock bands to emerge from North America but also captures the evolution of Ross as a photographer starting off with a single shoot as part of a magazine assignment when the band had only just released their independently produced “EP” right through to becoming their de facto tour photographer and the many studio, location and backstage shoots that would follow.

Queensryche by Ross Halfin is a book that takes you deep into the inner world of classic Queensryche and showcases the many elements of the bands character from the often serious and moody image projected through studio shoots to the epic scale and energy of their live shows and perhaps uniquely also shows the camaraderie and humour that existed offstage through the candid reportage collected by Ross, often when the band weren’t looking. This varied collection of photographic styles and pictures makes this book a truly inimitable body of work and offers fans an unprecedented look into the inner world of this enigmatic Seattle quintet.

The book also contains written contributions documenting various memories and anecdotes by founder members and principle songwriters Geoff Tate and Chris DeGarmo, original and current members Michael Wilton and Eddie Jackson, the band’s managers during their “golden” period of commercial domination Peter Mensch and Cliff Burnstein, Tour manager and lighting director Howard Ungerleider, and the production team behind the seminal Operation:Mindcrime and Empire albums Peter Collins and James “Jimbo” Barton.

As the band themselves noted in their song “I Don’t Believe In Love” (from 1987’s Operation:Mindcrime album) that they were “under surveillance from the camera eye”…laid before you now is the resulting evidence, and just as the mirror never lies, nor does the camera.