Todd La Torre Rejoice In The Suffering

“On this album I wanted to play what I would like to hear,” the talented singer recently said in an interview. It was the best thing I could hear from him.

So the forced break brought to us by the pandemic, significantly reducing the various activities, may lead us to check out some really great efforts. I don’t mean of course that the pandemic was the main reason behind these releases, but as long as we don’t have live shows and many releases are postponed, we can give a fighting chance in cases like “Rejoice In The Suffering”.

It’s Todd La Torre’s debut solo effort in collaboration with Craig Blackwell who is responsible for the guitars, bass and keyboards, while Todd has once again taken over the drums.

This is an excellent album where the compositions Todd picked for it, although his metal influences are clear, show a musician who can manage these influences in a purely personal way with the end result justifying him completely.

“Dogmata” and “Pretenders” that open the album are nothing but strong, pure metal, but it’s only the beginning. In “Rejoice In The Suffering” we have mind-blowing tracks such as the title cut, “Crossroads To Insanity”, the incredibly catchy “Vexed” and “Apology” which closes the main part of the album and is an ode to his father and the inglorious end that he had.

Also noteworthy is the “Critical Cynic” which refers to the unrepentant deniers of the pandemic, the moving bombs that only hinder its fight.

But apart from the above, in the album we will meet themes from thrash metal in “Vanguards Of The Down Wall” while “One By One”, third and last of the bonus tracks can be loved by the always strict fans of black metal (Yes, you read that right!). Todd reaches even the most demanding vocal notes in a way we’ve never heard him before and he puts out an incredible pluralism in his voice with a clear, flawless impact on the record.

“Rejoice In The Suffering”, apart from being a really great album, also highlights the great musician, professional and person Todd is…take my word for it! Todd La Torre is a lot more than just Queensrÿche’s singer!