QUEENSRŸCHE Is Already Working On Follow-Up To 'Digital Noise Alliance', Says TODD LA TORRE

During an appearance on the October 11 episode of SiriusXM's "Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk", QUEENSRŸCHE frontman Todd La Torre, who joined the band a decade ago as the replacement for original vocalist Geoff Tate, was asked if he feels like has been fully accepted as the singer of QUEENSRŸCHE after all these years. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We do feel that way; I feel that way. You're not going to please everyone. There are the purists that will only accept the original lineup. But if you take the biases aside and you just listen to the band now and judge the work, I think it stands on its own merit. The people that are not on board are a very small minority when you consider how many people really have gotten on board, how many people dropped off many years ago that have come back into the fold and are just supporting everything that we're doing and they understand that life happens; people have different desires and paths in life. But this is QUEENSRŸCHE now, and this is how it's been for 10 years.

"The new record ['Digital Noise Alliance'] is getting a lot of great reviews," he continued. "Me personally — maybe it's that artist in me, and probably the [other] guys would say the same thing — our best, since I've been in the band, has yet to be written. The best, what I would consider the 'Holy Grail.' But we're really proud of the new record. And honestly, we're already writing new ideas for the next one, and I kind of feel like the next one's gonna be the summit of what I've done so far. But I do believe that each record, there is a progression.

"After 10 years, a big part of me doesn't feel like I have anything to prove anymore — I've solidified myself in the band — but I'm always striving to do better, so in that sense there's a part of me that feels like I need to outdo myself," Todd added. "And we work so well as a team. I couldn't ask for a better group of guys to create music with and play and tour and live together and do what we do. To those people that might have thought maybe the new singer would be a one-album guy — that happens; as you know, there are bands that just did one record [with a particular replacement singer] — I'm four records in and we're working on the fifth one. So, it's all good; everything is going so well in the band."

When host Eddie Trunk noted that La Torre's addition to QUEENSRŸCHE coincided with a return to the band's classic progressive metal sound, which is something that QUEENSRŸCHE had been moving further away from in its final years with Tate, Todd said: "I think there's a couple of parts to that. Briefly, with all due respect, there were no longer outside writers. So just by the fact that Geoff was no longer in the band, I think the band was able to submit ideas to whoever the next singer would be, to be, like, 'Hey…' They're free to write and create whatever and not have maybe something that would be deemed as quote[-unquote] too heavy pushed aside.

"I'm a metal guy — I like all kinds of stuff — but when I got in the band, I said, 'Just so you know, you're never gonna write anything that I'm gonna consider too heavy. So let's do this. Let's have fun.' And so in the beginning Michael [Wilton, QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist] would pull out hard drives of some great ideas that he had that were never worked on beyond his submission.

"These guys really just got back to doing what they wanna do, and I'm just one component that allows that to happen very freely and comfortably," La Torre explained. "And they let me express myself to sing how I wanna sing on this stuff. I mean, you heard my solo record; I would never sing some of that stuff in the way that I sang it on a QUEENSRŸCHE album. However, there are some heavier elements to my voice that are not typical of QUEENSRŸCHE but I think that over 10 years I've been able to do some of those things in a tasteful way as to not deviate from what the classic QUEENSRŸCHE sound really kind of is about."

"Digital Noise Alliance" was released on October 7 via Century Media. The record was once again helmed by Chris "Zeuss" Harris, who previously worked with QUEENSRŸCHE on 2015's "Condition Hüman" and 2019's "The Verdict" LPs.

Guitarist Mike Stone, who rejoined QUEENSRŸCHE last year, contributed guitar solos to the band's new 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 five and a half years, drummer Casey Grillo has been filling in for QUEENSRŸCHE's original 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 the band's fellow original members Wilton and bassist Eddie Jackson, alleging, among other things, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and wrongful discharge. A few months later, Wilton and Jackson 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.