Rising West

Rising West was an American progressive heavy metal side project that was briefly ACTIVE in 2012, but played an important role in the 2012 Queensrÿche split. The lineup consisted of Queensrÿche members Michael Wilton (guitars), Parker Lundgren (guitars), Eddie Jackson (bass) and Scott Rockenfield (drums) as well as then-Crimson Glory vocalist Todd La Torre. Their setlist consisted entirely of songs from Queensrÿche's self-titled EP to their fourth studio album, Empire, and their shows were praised by fans who had been unhappy with that band's more recent output. After the members of Queensrÿche fired their lead singer Geoff Tate in June 2012, they hired La Torre as his replacement, effectively turning Rising West into Queensrÿche.

History

As Queensrÿche's singer and frontman Geoff Tate was working on his solo album and an ensuing tour, the other band members were looking for a way to earn their own income by playing old Queensrÿche songs in a different band composition and under another band name. Wilton explains that: "Originally this was deemed as a side project, because we were told by our management that we were not going to do anything for the next year so hey, we have to survive." In search of a frontman, Wilton recommended Todd La Torre to his bandmates, the then-frontman Crimson Glory, whom he had met several months prior at the NAMM Show in January 2012. Their encounter had resulted in a songwriting collaboration, among others on a song named "Don't Look Back", which in 2013 would make its way onto Queensrÿche's self-titled album. The band heard some of La Torre's demos on YouTube, and took a leap of faith by booking and announcing two shows at Seattle's Hard Rock Cafe on June 8 and 9, 2012, even before La Torre met the band members. The shows were publicly announced on May 29, 2012, and both sold out in 48 hours. The audience included fans from Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

When the band flew La Torre in from Florida to Seattle nine days before the show, they hadn't played a note together before they started rehearsing at Rockenfield's house, nor did they know whether it would work. Although La Torre was a big fan of Queensrÿche's older albums, he was not very familiar with the songs on Promised Land and they had only limited time to prepare for the shows, the band focused on the material from the Queensrÿche EP to Empire, which are GeneRally considered the band's heaviest releases, and according to La Torre: "are the songs and the time period that most represented the core sound of what Queensryche material was about". Their first rehearsal together went very smoothly, according to Wilton: "we blasted through 18 to 20 songs and everybody was amazed from the professionality, the musicianship and tone of Todd’s voice." Rockenfield was immediately reassured: "the second we played "Queen of the Reich", it was all over."

Despite the popularity, the concerts on June 8 and 9, 2012 would remain the only shows played under the Rising West moniker due to Queensrÿche firing Tate and replacing him with La Torre. The name has not been in use since then.

Queensrÿche split

Rising West has played a pivotal role in offering new perspectives for Queensrÿche after Tate was fired from the band in 2012. By the time Rising West was materializing, a high-running argument and other problems between Tate and the other three original bandmates in Queensrÿche had led to tensions that among others caused Tate's wife Susan, who served as Queensrÿche's band manager since 2005 to be fired, which culminated to a confrontation before a show in São Paulo, Brazil. but both Lundgren and La Torre were not privy to any information concerning tensions among the original band members at the time. Neither was La Torre considering a career with Queensrÿche at that point, as he was primarily focused on Crimson Glory at the time, of which he was the frontman. La Torre explained: "it was just a way to get out there and play stuff that they haven't played in a long time and hopefully be able to earn supplemental income until Queensrÿche was going back out." After Queensrÿche did fire Tate on June 6, 2012, they discussed how they would carry on. They already had found a new manager in Glen Parrish of PGM Management, as he approached them after the Rising West show on June 9, 2012, and according to Wilton called his management company in Los Angeles, telling them: "I have something very hot here and we should grab these guys before someone else does". Lundgren was given the freedom to choose whether or not he wanted to stay with the band, and Wilton has praised Lundgren for being wise and making "a good decision" to stay. La Torre sees his eventual hiring to be a "natural evolution", and he could therefore be announced as the band's new singer at the same time it was announced they had parted ways with Tate, continuing under the name Queensrÿche.

After Tate's firing, he and his wife Susan filed a lawsuit in a Washington court, claiming that he was wrongfully terminated. The ruling in the preliminary injunction was that until the court date on January 27, 2014, both parties were allowed to use the name Queensrÿche; Tate subsequently created his own lineup and both bands toured, with the former Rising West lineup releasing the Queensryche album, and Tate releasing an album entitled Frequency Unknown with members of his lineup and guest musicians. On 27 April 2014, Wilton, Jackson, Rockenfield and Tate announced that a settlement had been reached which gave original band members Rockenfield, Wilton and Jackson the exclusive rights to record and tour under the name Queensrÿche, with Tate agreeing to pursue solo endeavors. The lineup of Queensrÿche has remained the same as that of Rising West.

Name

The project with La Torre would initially be called "West", which stood for the four members of the band: "Wilton, Eddie, Scott and Todd". It was followed with a discussion about whether short names like Korn and Tool roll off the tongue easily. Jackson then suggested "Rising West", inspired by a lyric from "Before the Storm", from the Queensrÿche album The Warning. The band was enthusiastic about this name, because the project felt like something fresh for them, it refers to the band members living on the West Coast, it feels better to say, and Lundgren would later also be a part of the band.