User:L1A1 FAL/Queensrÿche's 13th studio album

TBA is the first studio album by the American progressive heavy metal band Queensrÿche as fronted by Todd La Torre. It will be released on June 10 in Europe and on June 11, 2013 in the U.S. through Century Media. The album is produced by James Barton, who has previously mixed and engineered Queensrÿche's hit albums Operation: Mindcrime and Empire, and co-produced Promised Land.

Background
Queensrÿche's twelfth album, Dedicated to Chaos, was released in 2011 to a mixed reception, with some critics giving good reviews, and others panning the album due to great stylistic differences from previous albums.

Furthermore, it became apparent that there were tensions in the band between lead vocalist Geoff Tate and the rest of the band. These tensions openly manifested themselves at a concert on April 14, 2012 in São Paulo, Brazil, when Tate, who was irate over the firing of his wife and stepdaughter as the band's manager and fanclub manager, respectively, allegedly physically assaulted and spat on drummer Scott Rockenfield and guitarist Michael Wilton. After hoping to reconcile with Tate, the other founding members Rockenfeld, Wilton and bassist Eddie Jackson decided to fire Tate. Meanwhile, Jackson, Rockenfeld, Wilton and guitarist Parker Lundgren had been working with another vocalist, Todd La Torre, under the name "Rising West", playing material from the first five Queensrÿche albums, including the Queensrÿche EP. These albums are generally considered the band's heaviest material. Following Tate's expulsion from the band, La Torre was officially announced as Tate's replacement, and the band continued under the name Queensrÿche.

Tate subsequently filed a preliminary injunction lawsuit, disputing ownership of the band name, that resulted in a verdict that both Tate and the other band members were allowed to use the band name until the next court date, scheduled for November 2013. Tate started his own version of the band, and released the album Frequency Unknown under the Queensrÿche moniker on Deadline Music on April 23, 2013.

In between recording sessions, the version of Queensrÿche with Todd La Torre played shows in the US and Canada as part of their "Return to History Tour", performing only songs from the old catalog. The band was also scheduled to tour Europe in the second half of April, but on March 27, 2013, it was announced that nearly all dates had been postponed to late October and early November 2013, because of "changes in the bands promotional schedule brought upon by their new label, Century Media Records, in order to meet the demands of their upcoming June 10th worldwide release date." Following upset responses from European fans, Queensrÿche responded: "[we] never want to miss any chance to see and play for our fans around the world, but there are some things we have to do for our label in order to get the new record out to you in the time we promised. When the shows were originally booked, these obligations were not known to us as we were still talking with various labels."

Early March 2013, the band announced they had signed with Century Media Records, and provided June 11 as a tentative release date. On March 25, 2013, they announced that the album would be released on June 10 in Europe, and on June 11 in the US.

Music and promotion
The writing process was a collaborative band effort. La Torre wrote the lyrics to between five and seven songs; Jackson has written guitar riffs and vocal melodies; Rockenfield has written melodies. A guitar solo written by La Torre was used as the outro for a song, one song was written by Lundgren and at least one by Wilton. There were no outside writers involved.

A teaser trailer, with demo recordings of the upcoming album, was released on November 14, 2012. La Torre stated that listeners will hear "a difference in sound, style, and writing in the new Queensrÿche record as compared to the last several albums."

A 90-second teaser clip of a new song, "Redemption", was released on February 23, 2013, and a full version of the song followed on March 25, 2013. According to Wilton, "it started out as a riff, kind of in the inspiration of the song Empire. So this really makes me feel like, there's a riff and there's gonna be a catchy chorus. (...) I wrote it in one day, and it's in A440 drop D." Wilton also wrote the melody, but the lyrics were written by La Torre. The working title to the song was "I'm Redemption".

This album is the first one by Queensrÿche to feature La Torre on vocals, which sparked concerns with some fans that the sound will be different from what they were used to with Tate. With respect to this, La Torre said in a late March 2013 interview: "I always try to honor what Geoff [Tate] did vocally. He was a huge inspiration, and I try to represent [Queensrÿche] to the best of my ability, but I also, you know, do put [in] a little bit of my flavor, which is a little edgier and a little grittier at times. And, you know, I try to be authentic but me at the same time. And I think that the new album will finally reflect, you know, that common thread, vocally speaking. And musically, I think that common thread of what the fans — and you know, I was a huge fan — would want to hear, you know. And the previous records, in my opinion, weren't providing that."

In March 2013, La Torre revealed that the band is already writing material for the next album, as they are constantly writing.

Recording and production
In mid September 2012, it became known that the band had started to record demos of new material with new vocalist La Torre. The material was described as being "heavier than anything [the band] put out in years!", and that it would become "a hard rock record with some metal elements to it." The album was announced to be returning to band's sound in the 80s and early 90s, by which the band members usually mean the Queensrÿche EP through to Empire, but Jackson also counts in Promised Land.

La Torre announced in November 2011 that the band would go into the studio in December to start recording their album. On December 10, 2012, it was announced that the band had recorded drum tracks for a new album at the London Bridge Studio between December 2 and 6, where the band had previously recorded Q2K. It was also revealed the other vocal and instrument tracks would be recorded in a different venue in Los Angeles. Some parts were recorded at Wilton's private Watershed Studio. Barton announced that he started mixing the album on April 13, 2013, after the recording had just been finalized. The record was mixed by April 27.

Reception
After the release of the album's first single, "Redemption," Brave Words & Bloody Knuckles compared the track with "Cold," the first single from Frequency Unknown, the album by Geoff Tate's competing version of the band. BW&BK's only point of criticism for "Redemption" was the chorus.

Track listing

 * Confirmed songs
 * "Redemption" (Todd La Torre, Michael Wilton) (4:15)
 * "Vindication"

Personnel

 * Queensrÿche
 * Todd La Torre - vocals
 * Michael Wilton - guitars
 * Parker Lundgren - guitars
 * Eddie Jackson - bass
 * Scott Rockenfield - drums, percussion, keys


 * Production
 * James Barton – production, mixing
 * Craig Howell – cover art