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Queensrÿche is an American progressive metal band of the 1980s, formed near Seattle, Washington in 1981. Chris DeGarmo (guitar) and Michael Wilton (guitar) had played in cover bands, and then recruited Geoff Tate (vocals), Eddie Jackson (bass guitar) and Scott Rockenfield (drums). This line-up began rehearsing and making a demo tape.
The demo tape was widely circulated, and Queensrÿche soon released Queen of the Reich (1983) on their own 206 Records label. The band then signed to EMI and re-released Queen of the Reich as Queensrÿche to moderate success, peaking at #81. This was followed by two more moderately successful albums, The Warning (1984) and Rage for Order (1986).
In 1988, Queensrÿche released Operation: Mindcrime, a massive critical and commercial success. Empire (1990) was just as popular, and also charted in the United Kingdom. By the time the group released Promised Land (1994), Queensrÿche was no longer hip as grunge music and alternative rock dominated the national consciousness. In spite of this, Promised Land managed to become a commercial success due to the band's sizable cult audience. Their follow-up, Hear in the Now Frontier (1997), received mixed reviews. DeGarmo soon quit, replaced by Kelly Gray for Q2K (1999). In 2002 Queensrÿche signed with Sanctuary Records for its future album releases after the conclusion of the EMI contract. Since then, the group has toured on Iron Maiden's reunion trip and released a greatest-hits album. In 2003 Queensrÿche released a new album, Tribe. Prior to recording the album Chris DeGarmo re-joined the band. The band is currently working on a sequel to Operation: Mindcrime, titled as due to come out in spring or summer of 2005.
Lead singer Geoff Tate launched a side project in 2002. One self titled album has been released thus far to minimal acclaim.
Queensrÿche were the first band to apply the heavy metal umlaut to the letter Y. As Tate put it: "We spent eleven years trying to explain how to pronounce it." [1] (http://www.spiraling.com/words/umlaut.html)
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