QUEENSRŸCHE Putting Finishing Touches On New Album

Seattle-based progressive metallers QUEENSRŸCHE are puttting the finishing touches on their twelfth studio album for a late spring release via Loud & Proud Records, a Roadrunner Records imprint focusing on established artists.

Photos from the studio can be viewed below (courtesy of Queensryche.com).

In a 2010 interview with Attention Deficit Delirium, QUEENSRŸCHE drummer Scott Rockenfield revealed that the band's upcoming CD is taking the 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 Eddie Trunk's "Friday Night Rocks" radio show on New York's Q104.3 FM, "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 was filmed for future DVD release. The trek, which kicked off in late July 2010, 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!"