Queensrÿche "Queensrÿche"

Queensrÿche is the fourteenth studio album by American progressive heavy metal band Queensrÿche, and the first to feature new singer Todd La Torre. It was released during a time when there were two different versions of the band, the other led by former singer Geoff Tate, who would give up his rights to the name in an amicable settlement in 2014.

The album was released through Century Media in digital format and on CD (standard and deluxe edition) and LP on June 24 in Europe; on June 25, 2013 in the U.S. and Canada, and on August 21 in Japan through Avalon Records. The album is produced by James Barton (also known as "Jimbo" Barton), who has previously mixed and engineered Queensrÿche's hit albums Operation: Mindcrime and Empire, and co-produced Promised Land.

Ever since the mid-90s, Queensrÿche was faced with declining album sales and a dwindling interest from the audience. Queensrÿche's twelfth album, Dedicated to Chaos, was released in 2011 to a mixed reception, with some critics giving positive reviews, and others panning the album due to great stylistic differences to previous albums.


Furthermore, it became apparent that there were tensions in the band between lead vocalist Geoff Tate and the rest of the band. These tensions openly manifested themselves at a concert on April 14, 2012 in São Paulo, Brazil, when Tate, who was irate over the firing of his wife and stepdaughter as the band's manager and fanclub manager, respectively, allegedly physically assaulted and spat on drummer Scott Rockenfield and guitarist Michael Wilton. After hoping to reconcile with Tate, the other founding members Rockenfield, Wilton and bassist Eddie Jackson decided to fire him. Tate subsequently filed a preliminary injunction lawsuit, disputing ownership of the band name, that resulted in a verdict that both Tate and the other band members were allowed to use the band name until the next court date. Tate started his own version of the band, and released the album Frequency Unknown under the Queensrÿche moniker through Deadline Music on April 23, 2013. The case was settled in April 2014, awarding the Queensrÿche brand to Jackson, Rockenfield and Wilton.

At the time Tate was fired, Jackson, Rockenfeld, Wilton and guitarist Parker Lundgren had been working with another vocalist, Todd La Torre, under the name "Rising West". They did this to earn an income while Tate was working on his second solo album Kings & Thieves, and would also be touring in support of that album. As Rising West, they performed material from Queensrÿche's first five studio releases (counting from the Queensrÿche EP up to Empire). These releases are generally considered the band's heaviest material, and according to La Torre, "those are the songs and the time period that most represented the core sound of what Queensrÿche material was about." This side project was received with much enthusiasm: both shows they had scheduled to play at Seattle's Hard Rock Cafe in June 2012 sold out in less than 48 hours, and people started calling them "the new Queensrÿche". Following Tate's expulsion from the band, La Torre was officially announced as Tate's replacement, and the band continued under the name Queensrÿche.


Things started developing quickly for the group when they met their future band manager, Glen Parrish of PGM Management, who approached them after the Rising West show on June 9, 2012. Parrish had called the management company in Los Angeles, and according to Wilton he told them: "I have something very hot here and we should grab these guys before someone else does". The band had "at least 3 or 4 record labels" that they were negotiating with, and Parrish chose to sign Queensrÿche with Century Media. This was made public in early March 2013, along with the announcement that the band would release an album on June 11. On March 25, 2013, the European release date was set on June 10. When the album's cover was presented, these dates were pushed back to June 24 and 25.