Queensrÿche

When a band loses its lead singer after 30 years, fans have good reason to be skeptical of anyone who steps in to fill the void. With Seattle prog-metal dudes Queensrÿche, the change is even more dramatic because former frontman Geoff Tate is renowned for having one of best voices in metal. Lucky for the rest of Queensrÿche — founding members Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson and Scott Rockenfield, as well as guitarist Parker Lundgren — they found Todd La Torre, a Florida howler with pipes capable of matching Tate’s on the band’s classic material from platinum-selling albums like Operation: Mindcrime and Empire. Since the nasty split with Tate, this version of Queensrÿche has released two albums of original material, and both the self-titled 2013 set and newly released Condition Hüman are throwbacks to the hardest-hitting era of the band, the mid-’80s to mid-’90s, before they spun out into sonic experimentation that turned off many fans.