QUEENSRŸCHE Comments On New Record Deal

Seattle-based progressive metallers QUEENSRŸCHE have signed a multi-album, worldwide deal with Loud & Proud Records, a Roadrunner Records imprint focusing on established artists. The band's label debut — their twelfth studio album overall — is tentatively scheduled for a spring 2011 release. Singer and founder Geoff Tate remains the creative nucleus of the band, which continues to make relevant, against-the-grain hard rock that entices fans, both new and diehard.

QUEENSRŸCHE have been — and unquestionably remain — one of the most respected and innovative names in forward-thinking hard rock throughout the course of their nearly 30-year history. Since their inception over 25 years ago, QUEENSRŸCHE have sold over 20 million albums worldwide and have performed in over 22 countries.

"We are very happy to be signing with Roadrunner/Loud & Proud. This is the rock label and a place where they are as excited about our music as we and our fans are," Tate said.

"We are excited to welcome QUEENSRŸCHE to the label," stated Loud & Proud president Tom Lipsky. "They have earned global acclaim for their distinctive approach to music and we are confident of a successful partnership with them."

In a recent interview with Attention Deficit Delirium, QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield revealed that the band's upcoming album is taking the Seattle-based metal quintet in some new directions.

"I add a lot of film score elements or sound effects [into my drum work], especially on the new thing we’re working on right now," Rockenfield said. "Geoff [Tate, vocals] and I have really spent a lot of time together redesigning the QUEENSRŸCHE thing, which you're going to love. It's huge rock but with a great dance vibe to it, real modern dance. It's kind of like 'Rage' ['For Order'] through a time tunnel, bringing it into the now. There are a lot of electronic elements to it. It's a big rock thing that is going to have a lot of color to it — it's good and really intense."

When asked about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the follow-up to QUEENSRŸCHE's 2009 CD, "American Soldier", QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate stated on this past Friday night's (August 20) edition of Eddie Trunk's "Friday Night Rocks" radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM, "We're about more than halfway through our new album, writing it... In a sense, it is [a concept record]. It's a very contemporary record.

He continued, "'Empire' was a record of the time. Rock music was really the music of the times in 1990. Unfortunately, rock music isn't the music of the times anymore — it's very underground.

"What we're doing with this record is we're taking the 'Empire' song structure, in a sense, where it's very strong songs, very melodic, but we kind of restructured the rhythm section, and Scott's done an amazing job on restructuring that — him and Eddie [Jackson, bass] have just really gone to town, and they've made it very contemporary-sounding.

"These days, in comparison to the old days, people used to sit in their houses and listen to music right in the front room on their stereo system. People don't do that anymore. They plug in and they're mobile and they're moving and they're doing stuff and the music, they're listening to it as they're doing stuff. This music has that feel. It's very contemporary in the sense that it's very rhythmatic. The rhythm structure kind of reflects the way modern life is — we're all busy, we're all doing stuff. And Scott being the incredible drummer that he is, the various time signatures, the feel of the record, it's now — it's very, very now."

QUEENSRŸCHE's Queensrÿche Cabaret tour is being filmed for future DVD release. The trek, which kicked off in late July, was previously described by the group as "Teatro ZinZanni meets Cirque du Soleil, with the band performing their hits and never-heard-before selections accompanied by go-go dancers, burlesque dancers, drag queens, a juggler, ballet dancer, trapeze artist, a contortionist and others. Definitely a fun-filled evening like no other full of freaks and shrieks!"

Quality fan-filmed video footage of QUEENSRŸCHE's August 20, 2010 concert at the Nokia Theatre in New York City as part of the band's current Queensrÿche Cabaret tour can be viewed below.