With its 1983 self-titled EP and 1984's full-length debut, THE WARNING, Queensryche began as a heavy metal band. But that wouldn't last for long--the members of Queensryche had always been admirers of progressive and art rock, and with the band's third record, 1986's RAGE FOR ORDER, Queensryche began merging its heavy rock with instrumental technicality and modern production techniques. Few other metal bands were challenging their listeners as much as Queensryche, and the group slowly built a hardcore following. Although it wasn't the commercial success that future releases such as 1988's OPERATION: MINDCRIME and 1990's EMPIRE would be, RAGE FOR ORDER is considered to be one of the group's finest by longtime fans.
The album's lone video, "Gonna Get Close to You," is a creepy tale of surveillance that remains one of Queensryche's all-time best tracks (strangely, it's one of the few tracks the group has ever recorded that it didn't write itself). Other standouts include the album-opening story of vampirism, "Walk in the Shadows," as well as such unusually titled tracks as "I Dream in Infrared," "Neue Regel," "Chemical Youth (We Are Rebellion)," and "Screaming in Digital." RAGE FOR ORDER set the stage perfectly for Queensryche's next release, OPERATION: MINDCRIME.