Video footage of QUEENSRŸCHE vocalist Geoff Tate talking about the band's new song "Middle Of Hell" can be viewed at this location.

Tate recently stated about the track: "The title of this song came from a something a soldier's dad had said on the eve of his son's deployment. He asked his son to be careful because he was going into hell. The soldier wrote back to his family a month after being overseas and told his dad, 'You were right, I'm in the middle of hell.' A soldier named Anthony was on humvee patrol in Baghdad. His vehicle was blown up with a buried mine and Anthony was severely injured and almost died. He said that patrolling the streets was incredibly tense because every time the vehicle would stop there were hundreds of people surrounding you and they didn't seem happy. They didn't want soldiers there. Everyone was dressed as a civilian so how do you know who the enemy is? How do you deal with that? You're on constant alert, watching for something out of the ordinary.

"He also told a story about being back home from his tour of duty and was pulled over by the police. When he asked what he was doing wrong, the officer said that he was driving down the middle of the road. Anthony said he was sorry, but he'd just gotten back from Iraq, where they couldn't drive in the actual lanes because that's where the bombs were. That inspired the line in the song, 'We drive straight down the centerline. No mistakes, not like last time. You don't want to be on the wrong side of Hell.' The chorus says, 'I'm all right. I'll be all right,' and that's a mantra these guys constantly repeat to themselves. They may have lost an arm, a leg, and an eye, but they'll still keep telling themselves they're going to be all right.

"Musically this turned out very hypnotic, it's very representative of driving. I put down a saxophone solo that Michael plays off with the guitar, intercepting and colliding at different times so the song has a mesmerizing feel with an underlying tension."

QUEENSRŸCHE's twelfth studio release, the epic concept album "American Soldier", is available for streaming in its entirety at VH1.com.

"American Soldier" track listing

01. Sliver
02. Unafraid
03. Hundred Mile Stare
04. At 30,000 Ft.
05. A Dead Man's Words
06. The Killer
07. Middle Of Hell
08. If I Were King
09. Man Down!
10. Remember Me
11. Home Again
12. The Voice

"American Soldier" will be available from Atco/Rhino on March 31 for a suggested list price of $18.98 (CD) and $9.99 (digital). The ambitious album encompasses a dozen songs inspired by numerous interviews with veterans conducted by Geoff Tate, the group's singer and chief songwriter, who was intent on telling their story using their words. After speaking with soldiers who served in various conflicts — from World War II to Iraq — Tate turned their firsthand experiences from the frontlines into an unflinching musical examination of the life of a solider and the consequences of war.

Parker Lundgren, a member of QUEENSRŸCHE singer Geoff Tate's solo band, has officially joined QUEENSRŸCHE as the group's new touring guitarist.

Lundgren, who is apparently engaged to Tate's daughter Miranda, played several shows with the QUEENSRŸCHE frontman last September and joined Tate and QUEENSRŸCHE guitarist Michael Wilton for a rare all-acoustic set at KISW's annual Holiday Hangover Ball on December 12, 2008 at Showbox SoDo in Seattle, Washington.

According to The Breakdown Room, AnybodyListening.net's QUEENSRŸCHE discussion forum, the band has lined up an acoustic performance for its hometown Seattle fans on Saturday, April 4.

The details are as follows:

Saturday, April 4 at 2:00 p.m.
Silver Platters (Queen Anne)
701 5th Avenue North
Seattle, Washington