Queensrÿche

Queensryche band photo cover

hair story

Queensrÿche formed in 1982 in Bellevue, Washington, out of the local band the Mob. The band has sold over 20 million albums worldwide, including over six million albums in the United States. They are considered one of the leaders of the progressive metal scene of the mid-to-late 1980s. Although not exactly hair metal, their early days look matched harder hair metal bands like Ratt, Motley Crue and Quiet Riot.

In 1981, the Mob put together sufficient funds to record a demo tape. Still without a singer, Geoff Tate was once again enlisted to help, much to the disapproval of his then-current band, Myth. The group recorded the four songs “Queen of the Reich”, “Nightrider”, “Blinded”, and “The Lady Wore Black”, the latter of which Tate had written the lyrics for. For an entire year, they brought their demo to various labels and were rejected by all of them. The Mob were ultimately offered a management contract by Kim and Diana Harris, the owners of Easy Street Records. However, as Tate remained committed to staying in Myth, the band reluctantly searched for another singer.

Because the name “the Mob” was not available, their manager urged them to choose a different name. They reportedly ran out of ideas, and decided to name the band after the first song on their demo tape, “Queen of the Reich”. The spelling “Queensreich” was modified to prevent association of the band with Nazism; “ryche” is a Middle English cognate to “Reich” which, like the German word, can mean “realm”, “kingdom” or “empire”. The name “Queensrÿche” is written with a metal umlaut over the letter ‘y’… (from Wikipedia)
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hair photos

hair band members

Geoff Tate , lead vocals
Chris DeGarmo, guitars
Michael Wilton, guitars
Eddie Jackson, bass
Scott Rockenfield, drums

hair albums

Queensrÿche (EP) (1983)
The Warning (1984)
Rage for Order (1986)
Operation: Mindcrime (1988)
Empire (1990) – Silent Lucidity #9
Operation: Livecrime (1991)
Promised Land (1994)

post-hair albums

Hear in the Now Frontier (1997)
Q2K (1999)
Greatest Hits (2000)
Live Evolution (2001)
Tribe (2003)
The Art of Live (2004)
Operation: Mindcrime II (2006)
Take Cover (2007)
Mindcrime at the Moore (2007)
Sign of the Times: The Best of Queensrÿche (2007)
American Soldier (2009)
Dedicated to Chaos (2011)
Queensrÿche (2013)
Condition Hüman (2015)
The Verdict (2019)
Digital Noise Alliance (2022)

live shows

Live in Tokyo, Japan – 1984/08/05

Live ’88 Full Concert