Ever since Todd La Torre took over as their lead singer, Queensrÿche returned to being a good metal band. Great news for people who, like myself, think that ‘The Warning’ is the best Queensrÿche album, but there have been some grumbles about the band not being as progressive as some fans would like. ‘Digital Noise Alliance’ might be a step in the right direction for those fans. Not that ‘Digital Noise Alliance’ is a full-on progmetal album. Queensrÿche was always too melodic and accessible for that. Its compositions, however, are notably less straightforward than on its direct predecessor ‘The Verdict’.

Compositionally, ‘Digital Noise Alliance’ takes more hints from Queensrÿche’s biggest commercial success ‘Empire’ than anything since La Torre joined. Now, I personally think ‘Empire’ is by far the weakest of Queensrÿche’s first six studio releases. Fortunately though, it isn’t the choppy, borderline incoherent songwriting they took from that album. The riffs here are still of the traditional US power metal variety, but the songs are given more room to breathe this time around, allowing the melodic hooks to shine through a little more. The songs themselves aren’t all that intricate, but a lot of care has been put into the vocal and guitar arrangements.

Another thing that clearly got a great deal of attention is the tracklisting. ‘Digital Noise Alliance’ starts with a few relatively accessible, familiar songs before branching out a little more. ‘In Extremis’ and ‘Chapters’ are similarly-styled, catchy USPM tracks with great guitar harmonies and memorable choruses, after which ‘Lost In Sorrow’ and ‘Sicdeath’ slowly start experimenting with unpredictable rhythms and less conventional song structures. It’s a good way of drawing old school Queensrÿche fans and casual listeners in. By the time the album starts becoming a bit more experimental, listeners have already gotten used to the core sound enough to not be alienated.

It is in these relative experiments where ‘Digital Noise Alliance’ shines. My personal favorite is the exciting, multi-faceted ‘Nocturnal Light’, which builds from an atmospheric, quasi-industrial intro to a stomper with effective start-stop riffs and teasing guitar harmonies that allow La Torre to take all the space he needs. ‘Hold On’ needed some time to grow on me, but it is genuinely interesting how that song transforms from a radio rocker to something more complex later in the song. Another highlight is the dark ‘Behind The Walls’, which is a great exercise in tension and release. ‘Out Of The Black’ and ‘Realms’ are simply fun proggy heavy metal tracks.

‘Digital Noise Alliance’ isn’t perfect. Epic closer ‘Tormentum’ shows great promise, but probably should have been worked on a bit more before being recorded, while the Floydian acoustic guitar work of ‘Forest’ is interesting, but lacks the resolution to be as good as ‘Silent Lucidity’, which it clearly appears to imitate. Having said that, I appreciate the experiments on ‘Digital Noise Alliance’. They are what make the album interesting rather than just another Queensrÿche album. Although I still think this line-up has not quite fulfilled its full potential yet, ‘Digital Noise Alliance’ is a rewarding listen that proves there is more motivation to Queensrÿche than just keeping the tours going.

Recommended tracks: ‘Nocturnal Light’, ‘In Extremis’, ‘Behind The Walls’