The cassette came to the attention of local record store owners Kim and Diana Harris, who offered to manage Queensrÿche. In June of 2012, the band fired founding vocalist and lyricist Tate and replaced him with ex-Crimson Glory singer Todd La Torre. The band also went overseas to Iraq to play the music of their American Soldier album for the troops for whom it was written. Though the heavy metal audience had changed drastically since Empire, with many fair-weather metal fans switching their allegiance to grunge and alternative rock, the group retained a strong following, as evidenced by Promised Land debuting at number three on the U.S. charts. View Queensryche song lyrics by popularity along with songs featured in, albums, videos and song meanings. After releasing a handful of ignored albums, the band began to break into the mainstream with the acclaimed 1988 album Operation: Mindcrime. Nevertheless, they retained a large cult following well into the ensuing decades.In 2001, the band issued a double-CD/DVD package titled Live Evolution. The cassette came to the attention of local record store owners Kim and Diana Harris, who offered to manage Queensrÿche. By the end of the year, the band signed to EMI, which released an expanded version of the EP as the Queensrÿche LP later in the year; the record peaked at number 81.Queensrÿche returned in the fall of 1990 with the equally ambitious Empire. After that release, the band set out on the conceptual Queensrÿche Cabaret tour, merging the band's prog sound with a wild, cabaret aesthetic. Empire's success was instigated by the stately art rock ballad "Silent Lucidity," which received heavy airplay from MTV and album rock radio. Q2k followed in 1999, as new guitarist Kelly Gray took DeGarmo's place. Promised Land would eventually go platinum and spawn two album rock hits, "I Am I" and "Bridge. The album proved to be their commercial high-water mark, peaking at number seven on the U.S. charts and going double platinum in America; in the U.K., the album also cracked the Top Ten. By the end of the year, the band signed to EMI, which released an expanded version of the EP as the Queensrÿche LP later in the year; the record peaked at number 81.Queensrÿche returned in the fall of 1990 with the equally ambitious Empire. Its follow-up, Empire, was the group's biggest success, selling over two million copies due to the hit single "Silent Lucidity." Three years later, Queensrÿche (sans DeGarmo, who had become a professional charter pilot) released Operation: Mindcrime II, the long-awaited sequel to their 1988 conceptual smash. In May of 1983, Queensrÿche released the EP Queen of the Reich on their own record label, 206 Records. Tate filed a lawsuit over use of the band's name and his songs. Meanwhile, former member DeGarmo began gearing up to form a new band, which was purported to include former Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney and bassist Mike Inez; although he appeared on Jerry Cantrell's Degradation Trip in 2002, no solo material materialized. Queensrÿche finally delivered their sixth studio album, Promised Land, in 1994. A Dead Man's Words (2009) A World Without (2013) Another Rainy Night (Without You) (1990) Anybody Listening? After that release, the band set out on the conceptual Queensrÿche Cabaret tour, merging the band's prog sound with a wild, cabaret aesthetic. While there, they found themselves victims of a bomb attack but came out of the ordeal unscathed. At that time I was in a pretty dark state. Where their contemporaries built on the legacy of Van Halen, Aerosmith, and Kiss, Queensrÿche constructed a progressive form of heavy metal that drew equally from the guitar pyrotechnics of post-Van Halen metal and '70s art rock, most notably Pink Floyd and Queen. A lucid dream happens when you are aware that you are dreaming, and can control parts of it.