Queensrÿche guitarists Michael Wilton and Parker Lundgren recently spoke with Guitar World about the making of the band's new album, The Verdict. An excerpt from the discussion is available below.

“We wanted a harder edge on this album,” Wilton says. “Our fans expect it from us. The Verdict has all the elements of our style — hard rock, progressive and metal. It’s all there. We’ve rebuilt the band, and more of our fans are seeing and hearing us. We lost our chemistry with Tate and have moved on happily without him. When DeGarmo left the band, we weren’t writing as a band anymore. Now we are creating music as we did during our early days, and firing on all cylinders.”

“We pushed the envelope on this album,” Lundgren adds. “We wanted to bring a progressive element into the heaviness of whatever song we are playing. We’re all very proud of how exciting and hard rocking the album turned out, and I think our fans, both old and new, will enjoy it very much.”

Read the complete story here.

Queensrÿche wrapped up their US tour with Fates Warning as support on April 3rd in Seattle at the Neptune Theater. The last song of the night featured Fates Warning frontman Ray Alder guesting on lead vocals with Todd La Torre. Check out the fan-filmed video below.

The setlist on the night was as follows:

"Blood of the Levant"
"I Am I"
"NM 156"
"Man the Machine"
"Walk in the Shadows"
"Condition Hüman"
"Queen of the Reich"
"Silent Lucidity"
"Open Road"
"Propaganda Fashion"
"Screaming in Digital"
"Jet City Woman"
"Eyes of a Stranger"

Encore:
"Light Years"
"Empire"
"Take Hold of the Flame"