New QUEENSRŸCHE Music Sounds Like 'Rage For Order' And 'The Warning': 'This Is Gonna Be A Really Good Album'

During an appearance on the October 22 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", QUEENSRŸCHE singer Todd La Torre and guitarist Michael Wilton spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's upcoming follow-up to 2022's "Digital Noise Alliance" album. Regarding where QUEENSRŸCHE is in the writing process at the moment, Todd said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET):  "We have a show in Washington, then we go home. Then we have three weeks off. And then in December, we've got a small run in Europe. And we're writing the next record. And … I have a ton of songs to write lyrics and melodies to. So a lot of it's on me right now. [The other guys have] done a ton of writing. I need to throw a bunch of vocals down, and then we can do some arrangement changes or whatever. But, dude, we've been traveling so much. We're never home."

Asked if QUEENSRŸCHE is the kind of band that writes on the road, Todd said: "I don't. It sounds good, but that's kind of bullshit. You're tired. We do 100 shows a year, and so it's, like, you go home for three days. There's no way I can force creativity. My ears need a break. I need to settle in. I have to do laundry. And then I'm packing, and I'm back at the airport again."

La Torre continued: "Stoney [QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Mike Stone] and Michael went to our producer's, Zeuss [Chris Harris], they went to his place and just did a ton of writing... They did several sessions, and they were just recording all brand-new ideas. And it was, like, way more productive and efficient, and they would just send stuff over and be, like, 'Hey, check this out.' And I would listen to it, and we would talk about it. And they did that so many times, so the next one I said, 'Look, I need to just be alone. Let me just do what I do right now.' And then I wanna get together with Eddie [Jackson, QUEENSRŸCHE bassist], 'cause he's really good at writing — he's got a real big pop background with what he likes to write… I'll lean on him first and be, like, 'Hey, I need help with a chorus idea. Let's talk about this.' But I said, 'Why don't you come to my house for, like, a week, and let's just dig in, or maybe the two of us will go to Zeuss's. Let's get a bunch of stuff and then show everybody, and then we can kind of do it that way.' And we've done it where we're all together, working in the same room, but I think just let the two guitar players just do what they do best."

Elaborating on why it's better for QUEENSRŸCHE to write without all the members in the room at the same time, Todd explained: "Sometimes when everybody's involved and everybody's part of what they're doing, it's nice and it's fair and it's great, but it can stump things because everyone has 10 ideas. And that can be counterproductive. And so that's why Stoney and Eddie went to Zeuss's, and then Michael and Stoney went to Zeuss's. They're all going away for a week at a time doing several writing sessions. And the new stuff sounds like old-school 'Rage [For Order]' [QUEENSRŸCHE's second album, released in 1986] and '[The] Warning' [QUEENSRŸCHE's debut album, released in 1984]."

Wilton also explained the delay in releasing the follow-up to "Digital Noise Alliance", saying: "One thing I have to say is gone are the days where bands have six months or even three months where they can just concentrate on an album. Now it's great to be wanted and to have all these offers to play, and we gotta make a living. The economy's different, and we're older now and everything. So it's hard to balance time, like Todd said, to be creative and not think about, 'Oh, what time do I have to be at the airport.' 'Oh, okay, where's my seat?' And we're not the only band like that. Most bands are like that. Zeuss, our producer, he's going, 'I'm doing the same thing with three other bands that I'm recording. I'm trying to figure out periods of time where I can record them, because they're doing the same thing you are. They're touring for a week and then coming back.' It's challenging. But now we've kind of told the booking agents to just kind of chill out and let us write this next record. This is our last album on Century Media."

As for how the QUEENSRŸCHE songwriting process has evolved, particularly in the decade and a half since La Torre joined the band, Michael said: "Yeah, I think with this version of QUEENSRŸCHE, each album has progressed, and everybody's cohesive and the creative element is just — it's glue now. And I think each album, it gets more just together.

"QUEENSRŸCHE has always been about the riff," Wilton explained. "Come up with the riff, come up with the killer intro, come up with this to grab people's attention. We were always a live band when we started out. We were a two-guitar live band. And I think as QUEENSRŸCHE progressed in the years, we played with so many different great acts — METALLICA, AC/DC — I mean, so many great bands. We did festivals all over the world with all these great bands. But as a touring band, you kind of get the respect of the bands and the individuals that go, 'Oh, yeah, QUEENSRŸCHE. Yeah. Yeah. I think they'd be good opening up for us.'"

Michael added: "When I write, I'm old school. I still write like when I did when I was in my 20s, and it starts with the riff. And then it just grows. And that's kind of the blueprint of even the next QUEENSRŸCHE album. I had Stone with me. It's, like, 'Hey, I got this riff,' like that, and he would bounce an idea off me. 'And I can do this on top of that, and I can do this on...' And it's like the old days. It's really cool. This is gonna be a really good album."

This past July, Todd was asked by Marko Syrjala and Arto Lehtinen of Metal-Rules.com if the next QUEENSRŸCHE album will "continue where 'Digital Noise Alliance' left off, either musically or lyrically". Todd responded: "No. I'm not going to say what it is, but… I don't know if you'd call it a concept album. That's kind of the idea."

La Torre went on to clarify that the next QUEENSRŸCHE album won't be part of the band's classic "Operation: Mindcrime" album series. He explained: "This is going to touch on a subject that QUEENSRŸCHE hasn't talked about since the very first record… There is, 100 percent, a connection [to the first QUEENSRŸCHE LP]. This album is going to be based around a concept that happens on the first album but is never talked about again in QUEENSRŸCHE's history. So, it has nothing to do with 'Operation: Mindcrime'. We don't have any interest in that. This is a whole different thing. Musically, I'd say everything I'm hearing sounds much more old school — more like the EP, 'Warning' and 'Rage For Order', maybe with a little newer flavor — but it definitely sounds like classic QUEENSRŸCHE."

Regarding his mindset while composing the new QUEENSRŸCHE material, Todd said: "Writing a concept album where every song leads directly into the next one isn't really what I'm interested in. It's more like when you watch a movie. Sometimes the beginning starts where the ending is, and then they add pieces throughout the story in different parts of the movie until it all comes together. You could literally move one song over here, and another song over there, and it still works."

Todd went on to say that the lyrical themes covered on the next QUEENSRŸCHE album could be expanded to include more than one full-length release.

"The way I'm thinking about it, there's no way you can tell everything in one album," he explained. "So, it could be. I think if this were the last record the band ever wrote, there would still be storytelling there, and maybe that could be enough. But it would always be open to evolving further. It won't be just a beginning, a middle, and an end. It's a story that can go on and on."

Zeuss previously worked with QUEENSRŸCHE on 2015's "Condition Hüman", 2019's "The Verdict" and "Digital Noise Alliance" LPs.

Wilton told the "Iron City Rocks" podcast about QUEENSRŸCHE's working relationship with Zeuss: "We built such a relationship, and when he hears my ideas and my riffs and everything, he knows, and I trust him with his decisions. And we just have a great relationship with Zeuss."

In a separate interview with J.J. Caithcart of Different Stages Radio, QUEENSRŸCHE bassist Eddie Jackson stated about Zeuss: "Yeah, he's just awesome. He's great to work with and bounce ideas with. He's a great guy, and he's actually a good musician too; he plays guitar and all that. But if it's still working, why not continue working with him?"

Stone, who rejoined QUEENSRŸCHE in 2021, contributed guitar solos to the band's latest studio album.

Since late May 2021, Stone has been handling second-guitar duties in QUEENSRŸCHE, which announced in July 2021 that longtime guitarist Parker Lundgren was exiting the group to focus on "other business ventures."

Stone originally joined QUEENSRŸCHE for the 2003 album "Tribe" and stayed with the band for six years before leaving the group.

For the past nine years, drummer Casey Grillo has been filling in for original QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield, who stepped away from the band's touring activities in early 2017 to spend time with his young son.

In October 2021, Rockenfield filed a lawsuit against Wilton and Jackson, alleging, among other things, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and wrongful discharge. A few months later, Jackson and Wilton filed a countersuit against Rockenfield, accusing him of abandoning his position as a member of the band and misappropriating the group's assets to his own personal benefit. That dispute has since been settled out of court.

Photo by Silly Robot Studios