Queensrÿche guitarist Michael Wilton recently joined in an interview with Metal Edge and gave information about the band’s new ‘heavy’ album, ‘Digital Noise Alliance.’
In the mid-’80s, Queensrÿche was defined as one of the building stones of progressive metal. Music critics counted the band among this genre’s ‘Big Three’ with Dream Theatre and Fates Warning. With the 1988 album ‘Operation: Mindcrime,’ which was accepted as one of the heaviest heavy metal concept albums, they reached the entire world.
Their success continued with the 1990 album ‘Empire,’ and they were also nominated for Grammys with these two successful records. The most recent album was ‘The Verdict,’ released in 2019.
In 2021, the band announced that Mike Stone would replace Parker Lundgren, who wanted to pursue other business opportunities. The following year, the group informed the fans that the sixteenth album, ‘Digital Noise Alliance,’ would be released on October 7, 2022.
Recently, the guitarist Michael Wilton conveyed details about the upcoming album when asked about its sound. Wilton stated that the album would reflect the band’s unique style and extend it to a different level. As the guitarist mentioned, it would have a progressive and heavy metal sound.
Michael Wilton responded when asked about the upcoming album’s sound:
“It’s an album that stretches and encompasses the whole music genre of Queensrÿche. It’s got some very melodic moments, it’s progressive, it’s heavy metal, and it’s very album-oriented visual music that is going to be just a good all-around Queensrÿche album.”
During the same interview, Wilton discussed what Todd La Torre mentioned before the album had vintage gear influences. The guitarist approved what the vocalist said and added that guitars and amplifiers were vintage ones that he used in the ’80s and ’90s. Wilton indicated that some of the things they used that he had never heard made their job easier during the recording process.
When asked about the upcoming album’s vintage gear, he said:
“Oh, yeah, at least the guitars and amplifiers were, as they were all my old school Marshalls I was using back in the ’80s and early ’90s. I played through my traditional old-school 4 x 12s with the Celestion speakers. We also had this one situation where we inputted those into the Pro Tools Digital Audio Workstation with this thing called a Torpedo that simulates speaker cabinets.
I had never heard of it before, but it was mind-blowing in a way that you didn’t have to spend hours trying to mic a cabinet to get the right sound, as with this software, you could move the microphone anywhere around, like behind it, or in front of it and it’s spot-on accurate. And there are so many cabinets you can play through, too.”
As Michael Wilton revealed in the interview, the fans will hear progressive and heavy metal sounds in the upcoming album, ‘Digital Noise Alliance.’ They will also feel the vintage elements with the old-school guitar and amplifiers the band used in the recordings.
