If the title hadn’t already been famously used, Queensryche might have named its 2015 album “Back to the Future.” The album — actually titled “Condition Human” — is all about the band embracing its roots while keeping an eye on the future, says guitarist Michael Wilton.
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INTERVIEW: Northwest Herald (Todd La Torre)
As lead singer of Queensryche, Todd La Torre knows what it’s like to have a song take you back to a teenage cruise with a best friend.
He was that teen, listening on cassette tape to the very heavy metal band he now fronts – his favorite band since the age of 14.
INTERVIEW: Bass Player (Eddie Jackson)
Knights of the Roundtable: Queensrÿche’s Eddie Jackson and Armored Saint’s Joey Vera Discuss the State of Metal Bass
Even though Queensrÿche and Armored Saint were cornerstones of the ‘80s metal scene neither one fit neatly into any exclusive sub-genre of that particular era. The first two records released by Seattle’s Queensrÿche in the early ‘80s were clearly influenced by the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, but by the time they got to their third record, Rage for Order (EMI, 1986), a singular sound began to emerge. Incorporating a more layered and progressive quality to their songs, along with the digital recording technologies that were beginning to emerge at the time, Queensrÿche began to separate themselves from the rest of the pack. The “Queensrÿche sound” was solidified on their fourth record, Operation: Mindcrime (EMI, 1988), an ambitious concept album regarded by many as the band’s defining masterpiece.