Queensrÿche
Explore the band's historical lineups, musicians, and studio albums.
Active11 formations15 studio albums
Formation chronology
Newest first
Formation 11 of 11
Aug 2021 – Present
Members
- Todd La TorreVocals
- Michael WiltonGuitar
- Eddie JacksonBass
- Mike StoneGuitar
- Casey GrilloDrums
Formation facts
- In July 2021 Lundgren announced he was leaving to focus on other businesses, including his guitar shop Diablo Guitars and a coffee venture. He said he could no longer give the band the time it deserved.
- Stone had already been covering second guitar since late May 2021 when Lundgren missed shows. After the July departure that fill-in work hardened into a permanent return. Digital Noise Alliance is his first Queensrÿche studio album of the La Torre years.
- Grillo had covered the kit live since 2017. Digital Noise Alliance is the first Queensrÿche studio album to carry his name as the drummer, and he played all of the drums, leaving La Torre free to concentrate on vocals after years as the live stand-in.
- Unlike earlier records assembled from emailed parts, Digital Noise Alliance was written together in a room beginning in early 2022 with producer Zeuss. The same five-piece has kept writing since, demoing a follow-up; no release date has been announced.
Studio albums
- Digital Noise Alliance (Oct 2022)
Formation 10 of 11
Apr 2017 – Jul 2021
Members
- Todd La TorreVocals, Drums
- Michael WiltonGuitar
- Eddie JacksonBass
- Parker LundgrenGuitar
Formation facts
- In March 2017 Rockenfield stepped away from the road after the birth of his son. The band announced former Kamelot drummer Casey Grillo as the fill-in, with a live debut dated April 1 at Sycuan Casino in El Cajon, California.
- The call reached Grillo on a cruise celebrating his twentieth wedding anniversary. He had roughly eight days after getting home to learn the set, working long studio days while his wife slid food under the door. The first show was April Fool's Day 2017.
- When The Verdict was recorded, La Torre — a drummer before he was Queensrÿche's singer — tracked the album's drums. Grillo remained the touring substitute. Wilton later called that studio drumming no easy feat.
Studio albums
- The Verdict (Mar 2019)
Formation 9 of 11
Jun 20, 2012 – Mar 2017
Members
- Todd La TorreVocals
- Michael WiltonGuitar
- Eddie JacksonBass
- Scott RockenfieldDrums
- Parker LundgrenGuitar
Formation facts
- In June 2012 Wilton, Jackson, Rockenfield, and Lundgren played two Seattle Hard Rock Café shows as Rising West with Todd La Torre. Jackson later said he was sold after a single song: La Torre called Queen of the Reich, hit the opening scream, and Jackson looked over at Rockenfield thinking, I am sold. Let's work together.
- On June 20, 2012, that side of the band announced it had parted ways with Tate and that La Torre was the singer going forward. For nearly two years both camps performed under the Queensrÿche name, and Tate issued a separate album with his own musicians during the dispute.
- In April 2014 both sides announced a settlement: Jackson, Rockenfield, and Wilton, with La Torre and Lundgren, would be the sole entity recording and touring as Queensrÿche. Tate kept the exclusive right to perform the two Mindcrime albums in full as unique shows.
Studio albums
- Condition Hüman (Oct 2015)
- Queensrÿche (Jun 2013)
Formation 8 of 11
2010 – 2011
Members
- Geoff TateVocals
- Michael WiltonGuitar
- Eddie JacksonBass
- Scott RockenfieldDrums
Formation facts
- Dedicated to Chaos credits Tate, Wilton, Jackson, and Rockenfield as the band, with additional guitar from Lundgren and Kelly Gray. Lundgren later said the finished record included songs he had never even heard in the studio: The record comes out and I am like, I never heard that song when we were in the studio.
Studio albums
- Dedicated to Chaos (Jun 2011)
Formation 7 of 11
Feb 18, 2009 – Jun 2012
Members
- Geoff TateVocals
- Michael WiltonGuitar
- Eddie JacksonBass
- Scott RockenfieldDrums
- Parker LundgrenGuitar
Formation facts
- On February 18, 2009, the band announced Parker Lundgren — from Tate's solo group — as the new touring guitarist. He stayed far longer than a short-term fill-in, remaining through the 2012 split and the first albums with Todd La Torre.
Formation 6 of 11
2008
Members
- Geoff TateVocals
- Michael WiltonGuitar
- Eddie JacksonBass
- Scott RockenfieldDrums
Formation facts
- American Soldier began with a conversation Tate finally had with his father, a career military man who had served in Korea and Vietnam and had rarely spoken about it.
- Tate then interviewed veterans and active-duty soldiers from World War II through Iraq — in airports, at shows, through introductions — and built the songs from their words. Some of those recorded voices are on the album itself.
- The studio band on American Soldier was Tate, Wilton, Jackson, and Rockenfield. Wilton recorded the guitar tracks. Stone was still touring with the group in this period but was not part of that studio four-piece.
Studio albums
- American Soldier (Mar 2009)
Formation 5 of 11
2004 – 2005
Members
- Geoff TateVocals
- Michael WiltonGuitar
- Mike StoneGuitar
- Eddie JacksonBass
- Matt LucichDrums
Formation facts
- Although Scott Rockenfield remained the band's drummer, producer Jason Slater and session guitarist Mitchell Doran later said Rockenfield did not play on Operation: Mindcrime II. They identified Matt Lucich as the drummer who tracked the album.
- Ronnie James Dio took the spoken role of Dr. X, the villain another actor had voiced on the original Mindcrime — a guest appearance, not a joining of the band.
- Pamela Moore returned as Sister Mary, reprising the part she had sung on the 1988 album.
Studio albums
- Operation: Mindcrime II (Mar 2006)
Formation 4 of 11
Jun 2003 – Feb 3, 2009
Members
- Geoff TateVocals
- Mike StoneGuitar
- Michael WiltonGuitar
- Eddie JacksonBass
- Scott RockenfieldDrums
Formation facts
- Stone became the durable second guitarist for the Tribe touring cycle and remained through the rest of the decade, the live guitar partner to Wilton while the band prepared and promoted Operation: Mindcrime II.
- On February 3, 2009, Stone announced he would not join the American Soldier tour, saying he wanted to focus on other projects including Speed-X. A later declaration from Wilton described a firing he had not been told about in advance.
Formation 3 of 11
Jun 2002 – May 2003
Members
- Geoff TateVocals
- Michael WiltonGuitar
- Eddie JacksonBass
- Scott RockenfieldDrums
Formation facts
- Short on material and facing a deadline, the band — then working as a quartet — called DeGarmo. He wrote or co-wrote several Tribe songs and recorded guitar, then left before the album was finished and did not come back as a touring member. Label talk of a reunion overstated a limited studio collaboration.
- Mike Stone, who had already played on Tate's solo work, contributed guitar to Tribe and co-wrote Losing Myself. He was not yet the standing second guitarist when that recording began; the durable touring chair settled with the 2003 tour.
Studio albums
- Tribe (Jul 2003)
Formation 2 of 11
1998 – May 2002
Members
- Geoff TateVocals
- Kelly GrayGuitar
- Michael WiltonGuitar
- Eddie JacksonBass
- Scott RockenfieldDrums
Formation facts
- Kelly Gray — Tate's former bandmate in Myth, and the guitarist-producer who had already worked on Hear in the Now Frontier — joined in 1998 as DeGarmo's replacement and became the second guitarist on Q2K.
- Gray later told Aardschok he and the others had a completely different view of the band's future. "In my opinion a band shouldn't ignore its past," he said, arguing that fans waiting for another Operation: Mindcrime could not simply be set aside.
- Gray's time in the band ended in 2002. Tate told Billboard the arrangement had never been meant as permanent and that they parted so neither side would be limited; Gray placed the split on those clashing ideas about direction. Contemporary reports date his exit to May.
Studio albums
- Q2K (Sep 1999)
Formation 1 of 11
1982 – 1997
Members
- Geoff TateVocals
- Chris DeGarmoGuitar
- Michael WiltonGuitar
- Eddie JacksonBass
- Scott RockenfieldDrums
Formation facts
- Before they were Queensrÿche, guitarists Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton, bassist Eddie Jackson, and drummer Scott Rockenfield played around Bellevue as a metal cover group called The Mob. They brought in Geoff Tate — then committed to another local band, Myth — to sing on a four-song demo rather than join as a permanent member.
- The Mob name was already taken, so the group took a new identity from the demo's opening song, Queen of the Reich. They altered the spelling to Queensrÿche — with a metal umlaut over the y — to keep the sense of a realm without the Nazi associations of Reich.
- Managers Kim and Diana Harris of Easy Street Records pressed the demo on their tiny 206 Records imprint. A copy reached Kerrang! writer Paul Suter, whose rave review sparked sudden demand in Britain and at home. After that surge, Tate left Myth and joined for good.
- Operation: Mindcrime grew from more than one seed. The military fanfare Anarchy-X had already been worked up for Rage for Order and then set aside. After that album's tour, Tate stayed in Montreal, absorbing Quebec's political unrest and people he met there; a later visit to a church, he said, made the whole story lock into place.
- The band treated Mindcrime like a film as much as a record: named characters, a through-line plot, Seattle singer Pamela Moore as Sister Mary, and sessions that moved from Pennsylvania to Le Studio in Montreal with producer Peter Collins.
- For Promised Land the group left conventional studios for a log cabin on San Juan Island, hoping a remote communal stretch would restart the band after Empire. Tate later said the island stay became mostly himself and DeGarmo writing for months while the others came in to track their parts.
- After six studio albums together, DeGarmo left following the Hear in the Now Frontier tour. The split was not announced until January 1998; he described stepping away to pursue work outside the band.
Studio albums
- Hear in the Now Frontier (Mar 1997)
- Promised Land (Oct 1994)
- Empire (Sep 1990)
- Operation: Mindcrime (May 1988)
- Rage for Order (Jun 1986)
- The Warning (Sep 1984)