The new Queensryche album Digital Noise Alliance is out. It’s the 4th studio album featuring singer Todd LaTorre, who is a more than suitable choice as replacement for Geoff Tate – at least if I’m going by this album, because this is an outstanding album. It’s very well produced, love the sound, the heaviness of it all, melodies and the songs in general make for a great listen (repeatedly!). I’ve heard plenty of Queensryche stuff since their glory days, but nothing that grabbed my attention like this one with “In Extremis” kicking things off in full force, and other ‘eavy cuts like “Lost In Sorrow”, “Sicdeth”, “Out Of The Black”, “Tormentum”, “Behind The Walls”… DNA only lets up on the ballad “Forest” and on the verses of “Hold On” (the latest single/video). A cover of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell” ends the disc, as a ‘bonus’ track, and it sounds really good (tho’ I don’t think anyone can really capture Billy Idol’s ‘attitude’ in the song, La Torre does a fine job on it).
In April 2022, QUEENSRŸCHE finished a five-week North American tour supporting metal gods Judas Priest. That tour wasn’t merely a fiery return to the stage for QUEENSRŸCHE after a two-year pandemic: it was a rejuvenation. The sound of a band locked-in and firing on all cylinders. “The Priest tour was a great springboard for us to get back onstage in what’s essentially a new world,” says founding guitarist Michael Wilton. “We had so much momentum going off of our last record [2019’s The Verdict] and then, the world, our business, came to a grinding halt. We had to survive, pick ourselves up and get back to being QUEENSRŸCHE.” Now, their legacy has coalesced into another career milestone for the Bellevue, Washington borne band with the release of their 16th studio album, Digital Noise Alliance.