QUEENSRŸCHE’S TRIPLE-PLATINUM ‘EMPIRE’ REMASTERED AND EXPANDED FOR 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION, TO BE RELEASED SEPTEMBER 14 BY CAPITOL/EMI

Deluxe 2CD and Digital Packages Feature Remastered Original Album Plus 13 Bonus Tracks, Including 10 Previously Unreleased Live Recordings

Hollywood, California – July 15, 2010 – Queensrÿche has partnered with Capitol/EMI for the September 14 release of an expanded 20th Anniversary Edition of the band’s triple platinum-certified breakout album, Empire.  The new 2CD and digital packages both include the remastered album, featuring six hit singles, including the #1 smash “Silent Lucidity,” as well as 13 bonus tracks, among them 10 previously unreleased live performances recorded in 1990 at London’s Hammersmith Odeon. The 2CD package is presented in a lift-top box with five postcards, a fold-out poster and a booklet featuring rare photos from the band’s personal archive.

After building a devoted fan base with album and EP releases throughout the 1980s, including 1988’s critically acclaimed Operation: Mindcrime, Queensrÿche broke into the mainstream across North America and abroad with the 1990 release of Empire.  In the U.S., the album peaked at #7 on the Billboard Top 200 chart and its hit ballad “Silent Lucidity” quickly became a heavy rotation staple at rock radio and on MTV, topping Billboard’s Modern Rock singles chart and earning Queensrÿche the coveted MTV Viewers Choice Award for the song’s music video. Empire also made the U.K.’s Top 10, and the album’s international success led to Queensrÿche’s 18-month headlining “Building Empires” world tour, the band’s longest trek to date.

Empire also features the Billboard Top 10 Modern Rock hits “Jet City Woman” and “Another Rainy Night,” the Top 20 single, “Anybody Listening?,” and the Top 30 singles “Best I Can” and Empire.”  In addition to the aforementioned live recordings, Empire (20th Anniversary Edition)’s bonus tracks include “Last Time in Paris” from the Ford Forlaine soundtrack, “Dirty Lil’ Secret,” and the band’s cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “Scarborough Fair.”

Since forming in Bellevue, Washington in 1981, Queensrÿche has sold more than 20 million albums around the world. The band continues to tour and record; American Soldier was released last year. For more information, visit

Queensrÿche’s official Website: www.queensryche.com

Queensrÿche: Empire (20th Anniversary Edition) [2CD, digital]

DISC 1

1. Best I Can
2. The Thin Line
3. Jet City Woman
4. Della Brown
5. Another Rainy Night (Without You)
6. Empire
7. Resistance
8. Silent Lucidity
9. Hand On Heart
10. One And Only
11. Anybody Listening?
12. Last Time In Paris [Bonus Track]
13. Scarborough Fair [Bonus Track]
14. Dirty Lil’ Secret [Bonus Track]

DISC 2 (previously unreleased: all tracks recorded live 11/15/90 at London’s Hammersmith Odeon)

1. Resistance
2. Walk in the Shadows
3. Best I Can
4. Empire
5. The Thin Line
6. Jet City Woman
7. Roads To Madness
8. Silent Lucidity
9. Hand On Heart
10. Take Hold Of The Flame

Concept Album Inspired By Veterans’ Stories Examines The Consequences Of War From The Soldiers’ Perspective

Album Available March 31 From Atco/Rhino; U.S. Tour To Begin April 16 In Seattle

( pre-order now, w/ free autographed poster )

LOS ANGELES – Queensrÿche envisions war through the eyes of a soldier with the band’s twelfth studio release, the epic concept album AMERICAN SOLDIER. The ambitious album encompasses a dozen songs inspired by numerous interviews with veterans conducted by Geoff Tate, the group’s singer and chief songwriter, who was intent on telling their story using their words. After speaking with soldiers who served in various conflicts-from World War II to Iraq-Tate turned their firsthand experiences from the frontlines into an unflinching musical examination of the life of a solider and the consequences of war. AMERICAN SOLDIER will be available from Atco/Rhino on March 31 for a suggested list price of $18.98 (CD) and $9.99 (digital).

Tate, Michael Wilton (guitar), Ed Jackson (bass) and Scott Rockenfield (drums) recorded the album in 2008 over the course of nine months. The idea for AMERICAN SOLDIER, Tate says, came from hearing stories from fans that are veterans, as well as his own father, who served in both Korea and Vietnam. “My father was a career military man, but until very recently he never spoke about what he went through. I think that reticence is true of a lot of veterans, which means most people never truly understand what it means to be a soldier at war. Hearing what he and some of our fans have endured made me want to share their stories with the world. This is an album about the soldiers, for the soldiers, as told by the soldiers themselves.”

Those stories resonate at the heart of AMERICAN SOLDIER, imbuing each song with vivid details about both the emotional and physical impacts of war, evoking war zone battles (“Middle Of Hell”), sacrifice (“The Killer”), loss (“If I Were King”), the longing for home (“Remember Me”), and adjusting to society after returning from war (“Man Down!”).

Tate recorded many of his interviews with the soldiers, and some dialogue from these discussions is mixed into several of tracks, allowing the soldiers’ own words to help tell their compelling stories. The band also brought a few of the soldiers into the studio with them to record vocals. The verses of the track “Unafraid” feature the voices of Chris Devine, a Vietnam veteran, and Sean Lenahan, a veteran of Somalia, recalling their war experiences while Tate provides the anthemic chorus. Also making a guest vocal appearance is Tate’s 10-year-old daughter Emily on the gripping duet “Home Again,” which examines the emotional toll of war from two perspectives, with Geoff singing from the soldier’s point of view and his daughter singing from the viewpoint of the child left behind.

Making the album, Tate says, was an enlightening process. “I was surprised to learn how little has changed through the generations. I spoke with a Vietnam vet whose experience wasn’t all that different from a soldier who fought in Somalia almost 30 years later. But what surprised me the most was how antiwar most soldiers are. To me, that makes their sacrifices even more moving.”

Soon after the release of AMERICAN SOLDIER, Queensrÿche will launch an extensive spring tour of the U.S., with international dates to follow later in 2009. The shows will be presented in three suites, with the band performing sets from AMERICAN SOLDIER, Rage For Order, and Empire. The first date of the tour will be April 16 at Snoqualmie Casino in the band’s hometown of Seattle.

AMERICAN SOLDIER
Track Listing

1. “Sliver”
2. “Unafraid”
3. “Hundred Mile Stare”
4. “At 30,000 ft.”
5. “A Dead Man’s Words”
6. “The Killer”
7. “Middle Of Hell”
8. “If I Were King”
9. “Man Down!”
10. “Remember Me”
11. “Home Again”
12. “The Voice”