Killer queens are the most clear and present reference, but there are dozens more that turn “Viva” into an enjoyable puzzle of allusiveness.
The homage gets almost comically overt in the track “Star Spangled Banner,” which almost sounds more like “Bohemian Rhapsody” than “Bohemian Rhapsody” sounds like “Bohemian Rhapsody” (you’d swear it was Brian May playing the sound-alike guitar) and packs more tempo-changing, suite-like segments into 3 minutes and 10 seconds than Queen did into 5:55 back in the day. You hear their vocal stacking in the constant falsetto background harmonies that threaten to soar even higher than Urie’s already operatic lead vocals. “Viva Las Vengeance” sounds at times like the late, lamented ’90s power-pop band Jellyfish on speed - or like a far less self-serious Muse, to name maybe the only other two groups to ever have been as obsessed with Queen as he is.
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