I had never listened to that Operation Mindcrime song until you mentioned it. As far as I was concerned, Queensryche only sang that song "Silent Lucidity"
Now that I listen to it, yeah, I can definitely see a similarity to that song in the intro of Clear Extended.
Heavy Tryout was me auditioning for a band here in Des Moines that had a big My Bloody Valentine / shoegazing type of sound to them. At the time, I was inspired to create a song in that style. So that was the result of an afternoon of trying to impress other people who ended up thinking I was trying to take over their band. Oh well.... It was a kind of turning point in my "songwriting" skills, since it really helped me put something together that was both melodic, atmospheric, and essentially heavy.
All these clips is more me working on my recording skills and mixing abilities, and that's where that song "Try Again" comes in. I was trying to make these crappy drum samples sound like real drums, and I thought that attempt was pretty successful.
As for the 80s influence, yeah, I grew up in the 80s, so I love all that synthy kind of stuff. Unfortunately, I'm too poor to afford any synth equipment so I just play guitar and that's it. I do challenge myself to make synth like noises with my guitar, but it's more in post production when I can mess with the sounds themselves.
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