Q&A: Queensryche guitarist Michael Wilton on latest album, riffs and more ahead of Greensburg show

Other than some festival appearances and three shows back in the 1980s in California, progressive metal band Queensryche had never toured with the German metal band Accept.

Until now, that is.

With close to 100 years between the two bands, the veteran bands are out on the Volume and the Vengeance tour, which will visit the Palace Theatre in Greensburg on Tuesday.

“We’ve been out for a little over a week, and it’s just been great. People are loving the energy of both bands, and the shows are just doing great,” Queensryche guitarist Michael Wilton said Friday. “We’re having a great time. Queensryche fans, they like when we change things up. It’s not just playing the hits or the MTV hits or whatever. It’s all about just giving a solid performance. And I think with this package, we’ve hit a home run. This is a great show, even if you’re not a Queensryche fan, to just check it out. The energy in the show is really, really enticing.”

From the band’s genesis in 1980, Queensryche earned a reputation for pushing the boundaries of progressive metal, earning recognition for songs like “Silent Lucidity,” “I Don’t Believe in Love” and “Jet City Woman.” They made waves with their 1988 concept album “Operation: Mindcrime,” while their 1990 album “Empire” went triple platinum. An acrimonious split with singer Geoff Tate in 2012 rocked the band, with Todd La Torre taking over that same year. In the ensuing years, Queensryche has released four studio albums, including “Digital Noise Alliance” in 2022.

In a phone call Friday from outside Indianapolis, Wilton spoke with TribLive about the latest album, riffs, new music and more. Find a transcript of the conversation, edited for clarity and length, below.

The most recent album is “Digital Noise Alliance,” so how would you describe the overall vibe or feel of it compared to albums from the past?

It’s a progression with this lineup of players. So it’s something that is always evolving as far as songwriting is concerned. It’s not like we try and write a certain type of album. It’s more, I guess, organically built. The way I’ve written songs is the way I’ve done it for 40 years. It starts with a riff, and you just kind of get out of the way of it and build it and see where it goes. You get the other guys involved and then you just stand back, listen to it and see if it’s worthy. If not, it goes on the pile of other songs and then you do the next one. When I came up with the riff for “Empire,” the song was built on that, and it became the title track of our biggest-selling album. (laughs)

Do you have an inventory of riffs or are you always coming up with new ones?

I like to say that I’m always coming up with new ones. I have my trusty bandmates that will police me and tell me if I’ve already written that riff. (laughs) It starts from an idea, inspiration, a riff, and I don’t know if it’s going to be Queensryche. It could be more of my solo stuff. I don’t know. It’s not pre-planned. It’s kind of like you have an easel and I throw the first blot of paint on that, and then you build the picture. It’s a process, and that’s just how we’ve always done it

I’m sure your bandmates are probably good filters of yeah, this sounds right or no, this doesn’t sound right.

Yeah, exactly. They go, oh, this sounds like the last song you wrote. (laughs)

I was digging the riffs on “Tormentum,” so is that a song that you’ve ever played live before?

No, but we’ve talked about performing that. That came together from three ideas, and we just kind of made this epic song. But “Tormentum” is something that we’ve talked about. Maybe next year we’ll try and get that into the set because that would be so much fun to play.

It looks like you’re playing two songs off the newest album. With “In Extremis,” what’s the story behind that song?

The opening riff, it’s just a very active song. It’s up tempo and classic Queensryche melodies, guitar solos, a little progressive in certain spots, but we try and blend in the new Queensryche into the standard, MTV-hit Queensryche songs. It’s a good blend. A lot of people don’t know the new stuff, but they’re curious.

How important is it for your newer music to stand alongside the older classic stuff?

That’s the thing, there’s a buzz about this tour, right? So you’re getting a lot of people that maybe are casual fans, maybe they’ve listened to the band, but never seen them live or just curious because we’re coming through town. For us, that means a lot that they would come check out what we’re all about and what Queensryche’s been doing for the last 40, 43 years. (laughs) But we’ve always got a contingency of hardcore fans that have been there since the EP, and it’s a good balance. You’ve got like a Chinese menu, a list of songs that we have to work with, and when we’re with Accept, it’s more of an energetic-type set.

I imagine that you don’t want to just rest on the past and you want to be moving forward.

Yeah, we like to say that we’re current. We’re putting out albums still. We’re not just playing off the hits. We’re having a great time. We’re not in the top public’s eye or anything. We’re kind of more of our own thing, just trudging through the industry and performing 100 shows a year. It’s a great time for Queensryche.

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What can you say about the role that Todd has played in the band since he joined?

Having Todd La Torre in here, it’s unbelievable. He’s got like a five-octave range. He’s talented. He was originally a drummer and then he turned to be a vocalist. He’s a guitarist, and he’s a musician, which is nice. He’s just not a guy that writes lyrics. He has been in the band, I think, almost 14 or 15 years. With each album, we’re growing as musicians together, pushing the envelope in the creative area. This version of Queensryche is really opening some eyes.

Speaking of the new music, is there any news on the new album? I saw something that you guys are hoping for a 2026 release.

Yeah, we’re working. We’ve started the writing process, and we’re working with our producer, Zeuss, again. But with all the touring, it’s hard to find pockets of time to get creative. You’ve got to get into that world. We’re kind of touring all the time. (laughs) Gone are the days where you have three months without interruptions to make an album. And it’s not just us. All bands are doing that. … It’s fragmented, but that’s how you do it and the producers know that now they have to be flexible. Zeuss is mixing I think six bands at the same time, and it’s like OK, I got you this week. I got Rob Zombie this week. I’ve got Shadows Fall this week. It’s crazy, but, he said, that’s just how it is.

Do you have any Pittsburgh or Greensburg memories from playing here in the past?

Pittsburgh is just a hard rock town, and we can always count on strong support from that city and it’s just known. There’s a difference when you’re playing in the Midwest somewhere that you don’t know. It’s a different energy. We feed off the energy because the people, they get into the music, they get into the songs, and they’re not just standing there with their phone recording. So yeah, we’re psyched. We’re fortunate that we can come and hit your area on this tour. So it’s going to be, if you have a chance, you’ve got to check it out. It’s a lot of fun.