With the nasty protracted legal battle around the rights to the band's name with former vocalist Geoff Tate behind them, Queensryche drummer Scott Rockenfield revealed that, in light of accusations of attacks and financial mismanagement being lobbed back and forth between the parties, the group's morale took a significant hit.

Speaking with Pop-Break.com, Rockenfeld said, "We weren't being allowed to play all of the music that we wanted to play live, and to give our fans what we thought was important. The darker the hole we kept falling into, the faster we wanted to get out of it. That's what happens, you kind of hit the bottom of a hole, and there's only one way to go: up and out of there. I guess my point with all of that is rolling forward to the present right now and what we've had to go through the past couple of years… it was a huge defining moment, you know?"

Rockenfeld says that Queensryche's decision to soldier on and recruit vocalist Todd La Torre brought the group back to a place where, after years of unhappiness, they were once again happy to be making music.

"We're happier, the fans are happier, they're certainly enjoying the music we play live, and have certainly given us great feedback on the record we put out last year," he said. "So overall, everything worked out really well. The morale, for us, just kind of became perfect. I mean, the second we transitioned and got Todd [La Torre] in the band, the morale just went through the roof for us, you know? There was no weird dark clouds for us, and we just don't have that anymore. We're really close to each other. We have the same common interests, we're energetic, and we're happy! We're all working together as a team, and it's not just one person saying, 'you have to do it like this,' it's all of us making the decisions together and making the music together. Long story short: the morale is really high, we're having a great time, and we all really know what we want to do and why we want to do it."

Queensryche are scheduled to follow up last year's self-titled album with a new studio effort in 2015.

In the meantime, their former vocalist Tate announced that effective next month, his group would be known as Operation: Mindcrime, a nod to Queensryche's platinum-selling record to which he won exclusive performance rights.

Tate will reportedly begin work the first part of a new trilogy next month. “It is so refreshing to be able to concentrate on the many stories and ideas that I have been working on with no boundaries or restrictions,” Tate said. “With the newly named band, I think fans will continue to enjoy the music we create and perform together and hope they share this new musical journey with us.”

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