The Warning is the first studio album by American progressive metal band Queensrÿche, released on September 7, 1984, and reissued on May 6, 2003, with three bonus tracks.
In 2019, Metal Hammer ranked it as the 13th best power metal album of all time.[3]
Queensrÿche wrote the material for The Warning during their tour in support of the Queensrÿche EP, inspired by world events and the 1949 George Orwell novel Nineteen Eighty-Four.[10] The album was recorded in various recording studios in London with Pink Floyd–producer James Guthrie.
In 2013, lead singer Geoff Tate explained the band’s dissatisfaction with the album’s mix: “The only time I ever experienced [a record label restricting creative freedom] was during the recording of Queensrÿche’s first album, The Warning. We went $300,000 over budget and the label took the record out of our hands and gave it to someone else to mix. … The guy that mixed the album had no clue what Queensrÿche was. He never listened to hard rock music and didn’t take input from anyone in the band. He just mixed it according to how he thought it should sound. No-one in the band could listen to that record. We all hated it.”[11][12]
The Warning shows the band in an early stage of development, playing straight heavy metal songs unlike later albums in which more experimentation was expressed. It was a moderate commercial success in the United States, although none of the singles charted domestically. However, “Take Hold of the Flame” was an international hit, particularly in Japan.[6]
In support of the release, Queensrÿche went on a worldwide tour from August 1984 through to July 1985.[10] During the American leg of their tour, they were the opening act for Kiss on their 1984–85 Animalize Tour and Iron Maiden on their 1984–85 World Slavery Tour, while in Europe they opened for Dio on their The Last in Line tour 1984. They also opened for Accept on their Metal Heart tour in 1985.