TODD LA TORRE: Next QUEENSRŸCHE Album Will Be 'Based Around A Concept That Happens' On The Band's Debut LP

In a new interview with Marko Syrjala and Arto Lehtinen of Metal-Rules.com, QUEENSRŸCHE singer Todd La Torre spoke about the progress of the songwriting sessions for the band's upcoming follow-up to 2022's "Digital Noise Alliance" album. He said: "I have a ton of songs at home that the guys have worked on and written — a lot of really good demo stuff. I've already put vocals down on a couple of songs, but I have a lot of material staring me in the face, waiting for me to write lyrics and melodies. The problem is that we play so much. Even when we leave Europe, I go home for two days, then I'm out for four days in the States. Then I'm home for another two days, and after that I'm gone all through July. So I only get a little break in August when I can really try to work on stuff, because you need your ears to decompress. You also have things at home to take care of. But yeah, we're writing a new record."

Asked 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."

Last month, QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Michael Wilton told Finland's Kasarin Lapset about the band's next LP: "In between our rigorous touring schedule, we've managed to get a lot of really great demos recorded. And at some point we're gonna not tour as much and really concentrate on the album, and then we'll see what happens. But it's something that could happen really quick, or maybe it won't happen till next year. So I don't know. But the band will determine when it's finished."

This past February, Wilton told Mark Strigl about the musical direction of the new QUEENSRŸCHE material: "Well, we're pushing the envelope. We don't get a lot of standard radio play, so we're just going for it. We're keeping the progressive element, the melodic element, the heavy metal element. So it's gonna be a killer album. But we're trying to make it a little bit different than the previous one. So, fingers crossed."

Asked if QUEENSRŸCHE is still in the "pre-production" and songwriting stage for the next LP or if he and his bandmates are already recording the music for the effort, Wilton said: "Well, it's a bit of both. We're at a point where we know our sounds, so if it's kept in the arrangement of the song, then you're halfway there. But yeah, QUEENSRŸCHE likes to come up with, in the writing process at least, 15 to 20 songs. So that's kind of where we are right now. We're probably on the 13th idea right now. So we're kicking ass."

Wilton also talked about his songwriting chemistry with fellow QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Mike Stone, explaining: "We're both in the room with Zeuss, our producer. And if I have a song, I play my idea. We document it, get it recorded, and then I go, 'Mike, it needs another part on top,' and he comes up with something and it complements, and then we just work together and just build the song. It's great, because you can bounce ideas off each other and it's not just one person saying, 'It's my way or the highway.' It's about getting the vibe and getting the right flavors of the music, and I'll tell you what: Mike Stone does a great job. He can understand what I'm playing and he knows that what we call RŸCHE-ian sound."

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?"

In April 2025, La Torre was asked by Brazil's Monsters Of Rock which "unexplored musical directions" he would like to see QUEENSRŸCHE go in on its next LP. He said: "[We're] kind of [doing] the same thing as what we've been doing. I mean, we don't go in writing a record with a preconceived idea. We just get in a room and [go], 'Hey, show me your guitar parts. What do you have in your mind?' And we kind of all get together in a room and just see what happens in real time. So as far as unexplored musical directions… Personally, I'd love to hear more clean guitar on the next record, maybe some more spacious stuff, some more clean guitar. Orchestration is always fun to work with. It's very huge and cinematic sounding. So those are fun things to play with. Maybe some different percussion things would be interesting to play around with again.

"But, gosh, after 40-plus years, I think without completely changing the band, the band's style of music, I don't know that there's really any too much unexplored musical directions," he continued. "I mean, QUEENSRŸCHE's kind of done a lot within the large space that QUEENSRŸCHE has to run around in. I mean, if we were to do something — we wouldn't write a hip-hop song, we wouldn't write a death metal song. So within the confines of what QUEENSRŸCHE kind of is, as diverse as it as it is, I don't know what kind of unexplored musical directions there would be. On the next one, I mean, I would love to, like I say, play around with some other clean guitar sounds, maybe some more interesting percussion things — like the song 'I Am I' had some really neat percussion things going on."

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.

QUEENSRŸCHE kicked off a European tour on June 6 in Köln, Germany, with shows running through July 5 in Cartagena, Spain. Dates include a mix of headlining shows with RIVERS OF NIHIL opening, as well as festival appearances.