Honorable Mention: At least one of the Queensryche albums was well-received
One of the more shocking moments of 2012 came when a nasty legal split lead to two versions of Queensryche releasing separate albums. On one side, you had original members Michael Wilton, Eddie Jackson, and Scott Rockenfield releasing the self-titled album with longtime guitarist Parker Lundgren and new singer Todd La Torre. Then on the other side you had original singer Geoff Tate with a rotating lineup of “all-star” musicians and session players. While no one was really ecstatic that things came down to this, it did make many curious as to which version of Queensryche would prevail and release the better album. Well, though Tate’s album wasn’t completely awful, it quickly became obvious that fans preferred the other version of Queensryche. Not only was it better received critically, but Queensryche outsold Tate’s album AND the band’s previous two records. A court date to determine which version owns the rights to the name has been pushed back to January 2014, but it nice to see which side the fans appear to be taking.
