TODD LA TORRE Celebrates Eight Years Of Fronting QUEENSRŸCHE

QUEENSRŸCHE singer Todd La Torre has taken to social media to celebrate the eight-year mark of him joining the legendary Seattle-based progressive metal band.

Late Monday night (June 8),La Torre wrote: "8 years ago I was fortunate enough to join Queensryche. It has been and continues to be amazing. It isn't easy to rebuild a band and brand with such a legacy, but because of you, this band been able to grow with continued success.

"My words can never thank the guys enough, I just give my best efforts for them and you all.

"Additionally, on behalf of myself and the band, thank you all so much for embracing this chapter of the Queensryche."

Last month, La Torre revealed that he was putting the finishing touches on his long-in-the-works solo album.

This past March, Todd said he would use the coronavirus downtime to write or co-write a few more tunes and "shape up existing songs/demos" for his solo album with his lifelong best friend Craig Blackwell. He also said that he and his QUEENSRŸCHE bandmates would take advantage of the time away from the road "to work on new ideas" for the follow-up to 2019's "The Verdict".

La Torre previously talked about his plans to release a solo LP in a 2017 interview with Canada's The Metal Voice. He stated about the direction of the material that will appear on the record: "Musically, it is probably, like, FIGHT meets PANTERA meets BLACK LABEL [SOCIETY]. It's definitely got that kind of southern… You know, PANTERA had that certain power groove — not full-fledged [speed], but has thrash elements. And then vocally, I'm singing probably a lot more chest voice, and then I've got some brutal gutteral vocals on it… That'll be a lot more brutal and more thrash, but the vocals are definitely more a power-metal, operatic kind of a thing — very aggressive…"

QUEENSRŸCHE has spent most of the past year touring in support of "The Verdict", which was released in March 2019 via Century Media Records.

"The Verdict" marked QUEENSRŸCHE's third full-length release with La Torre, following the departure of original singer Geoff Tate in 2012.

The current QUEENSRŸCHE lineup features two original members, bassist Eddie Jackson and guitarist Michael Wilton, along with La Torre and guitarist Parker Lundgren.