Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Queensrÿche
Label: EMI Records
Released: 1988
Rating: 5/5
The backbone of “Operation:Mindcrime” is its concept. A first-rate chiller, a concept thriller on the road to personal Armageddon. It tells the story of a “junkie” who joins an underground organization, where under hypnosis and heavy doses of heroin he takes and carries out orders to kill corrupt people in leading positions of society. This concept is described in more detail at the bottom of the review, because “Operation:Mindcrime” undoubtedly deserves it, in all its splendor and greatness.
It was more than obvious that the band absolutely loved “Rage for Order” (1986), despite its mixed reviews from music critics, many of whom didn’t like that Queensryche had moved so decisively away from the elements of classic heavy metal with it. The guys kept building on that image. For the new album they picked a chilling concept that reflects their own minds. The music is completely subordinated to the concept!
The band went at it with everything they had, polishing the concept until it came to life so successfully through the music that you could easily shoot a whole movie based on it. A hopeless, ice-cold, logical chill runs through the entire album. Just as a horror story should. The tolling of the bell of judgment day, the anticipation of horror, violence, the plotting of evil deeds, a constant sense of running from the truth. All of it literally pulls the listener so deep into its embrace that at this point you can start seeing through the diseased brain of the concept’s central figure, Nikki. Madness! With that atmosphere, “Operation: Mindcrime” comes dangerously close to Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”. The longer, “full” proper rockers, heads and tails, are interspersed with shorter pieces in between. Everything is masterfully infused with special effects. Throughout, you can hear news reports from TV and radio in the background, along with slamming doors, gunshots, chanting crowds, car power windows rolling down, smashing window glass, rainfall, the ice-cold dialogues of the main actors,…
With the unpredictability and superb dynamics the album puts front and center, Queensryche manage in an instant to create a dramatic atmosphere through Nikki’s inner dialogue with himself (I Remember Now…), which suddenly morphs into the gloomy yet exalted march Anarchy X. We’re at the first real rocker, head and tail, Revolution Calling. The anthemic chorus sucks the listener in with ease. Welcome to the bosom of total manipulation! From here on the album is wound up and runs smooth and easy through the first half, with a “metal” peak in the song The Mission! Right after it comes the strongest art rock moment of the record! The almost 11-minute epic Suite Sister Mary. The darkest moment of the record, where the many emotions and moods that Tate brings to life with his singing simply boil over. A special charm and upgrade, not just for this song but for the concept and the album as a whole, comes from the vocals of Pamela Moore, who brings Sister Mary to life. You won’t easily find so much longing piled up in one place as in the duet between Tate and Moore. The eeriness is further emphasized by the choir that appears almost throughout the whole song. Suite Sister Mary is also the strongest moment of the record, tailor-made in its unpredictability, which wonderfully builds up the sense of drama! The song also has a superb buildup of that chilling atmosphere over its running time, peaking right at the end. The frozen blood in your veins thaws in an instant with the album’s hardest rocker, The Needle Lies, with AOR-style vocal harmonies in the chorus that stand in great contrast to the aggressive stance of the riff and the furious rush of the drums. After the schizoid Electric Requiem, the gloomy part of the album, peaking in Suite Sister Mary and The Needle Lies, suddenly loosens up through the glam metal beat of Breaking The Silence, a rocker with an open riff in the pre-chorus, and then continues through a similar approach in I Don’t Believe In Love. Alongside the closing Eyes Of A Stranger, these two are top-tier AOR material in their choruses alone, with an incredible execution of melody that’s glued to a first-rate, intense touch of melancholy and drama. These are the moments of the album’s greatest melodic perfection. The closing Eyes Of A Stranger opens by conjuring up the atmosphere of Pink Floyd’s famous “The Wall” and is a kind of equivalent to Comfortably Numb from that same Pink Floyd album. In the artistic sense too. The song is perfection, standing out not just on the record but in Queensryche’s entire output. Extraordinary motif shifts, intensity growing to a peak in the chorus, a striking riff you can get hooked on yourself. I’m shamelessly repeating myself by now, but the flawless Tate stands out in this song too. The magic is complete.
On top of all that, Queensryche also delivered an album with flawless production. The album breathes with full lungs in this respect, and on this front it couldn’t be any better than it is. If you tried to improve it, you’d only make it worse. The drums are cannon-like and devastating, with deep-booming echoing transitions that at times recall the moves of Neil Peart (Rush). All the instruments are clearly separated from one another and together build a majestic, one-of-a-kind sound that only “Operation: Mindcrime” has, an album with an out-of-the-ordinary touch. Cleverly crafted riffs, orchestral arrangements in the background that hold the high dramatic mood, yet another flawless demonstration of Tate’s vocals across the album, proving once again that he’s one of the greatest singers in rock! The voluminous growl of a thick bass line. An album of extraordinary dynamics, with the captured magic of the working chemistry of guys who were breathing together for the same cause in the studio!
Yes. This is the album that answers why some bands are (just) bands and others are great bands. Great bands have one big album in their career, an album that’s usually important in the history of rock, a kind of forerunner, a herald of something new, a factor that changes the course of evolution in rock music. Usually such an album doesn’t come right at the start, but through the band’s maturing. That’s “Operation: Mindcrime” too, and with it Queensryche are a great band. It’s a monument of rock music and one of the most important musical documents ever to happen on this planet. Regardless of the fact that this album has nothing to do with the term progressive metal, it pointed the way for the future development of heavy metal. “Operation: Mindcrime” is progressive in the purest sense of the word. Especially in its concept, its poetry, and the unique, singular recognizability that Queensryche managed to develop at this point in their evolution. Incomparable. So I can once again label it an art rock album. I wouldn’t dare call it anything else. Queensryche’s sound and rock that you’ll find only on it! The inimitable charm of high art and intelligence!
“Operation: Mindcrime” proved that even hard rock can possess “intellect”. In other words, “metal with intellect”. Why metal? “The Warning” is a metal album, and metalheads took Queensryche as their own after it! Later on, too, Queensryche cashed in on their divine riffs as if it were nothing, and they always convinced fans of heavy sounds in an instant. And after “Operation: Mindcrime”, a whole bunch of bands took their artistic cues from it, among them Dream Theater and Shadow Gallery. It’s a case of the ideal combination of concept and music. To bring a concept to life through music, you have to know how to subordinate yourself to it. That also goes for the need for multi-layered adaptation. And the music on “Operation: Mindcrime” follows the chosen concept in a thoroughly brilliant way. “Operation: Mindcrime” leaves the listener under the strong impression of reality, and the feelings can stay with you for a few hours after listening. It’s a timeless work of art in the best possible manifestation, and an album that belongs in every school curriculum and in the essential basic holdings of every household.
THE STORY OF THE ALBUM “OPERATION: MINDCRIME”:
The central figure of the concept is Nikki. The story begins in a hospital. The kid lies in an almost catatonic state, motionless on his bed, his memory not functioning normally, with shards of experiences from his past occasionally blowing through the field of memory. After the nurse visits him and gives him one more concrete dose of sedatives for good night, Nikki suddenly has a “flashback” in which the picture of the sequence of events and deeds he committed, leading back into his past, falls into place (I Remember Now, Anarchy X)… In this “illumination” he returns to the times when he was a heroin addict and, as a rebel against society, joined a secret organization devoted to revolution (Revolution Calling). The leader of this clique is the religious and political demagogue Dr. X, who manipulates Nikki through a combination of heroin doses and hypnosis and exploits him for the purposes of killing. Whenever Dr. X uses the word “mindcrime”, Nikki instantly turns into an obedient puppet who blindly obeys and carries out the doctor’s orders. So Nikki accepts every order to kill (Operation: Mindcrime, Speak), to kill anyone who ends up on the wrong side of the villain Dr. X. It happens that Nikki, through one of Dr. X’s allies and likewise a member of this secret organization, the corrupt priest Father William, meets Sister Mary, who went from being a easy girl who once sold her body on the street to becoming a nun. She offers Nikki her services. It’s not entirely clear in the concept whether these services are sexual in nature or whether it’s just platonic feeling (Spreading The Disease). And through the growing friendship with Sister Mary, Nikki starts to question the nature of what he’s doing (The Mission). Dr. X, who is always carefully on the lookout, of course notices this important detail too, seeing a direct threat in Sister Mary! So he orders Nikki to take care of Sister Mary along with the priest. Father William gets a bullet between the eyes, but when Nikki finds himself in front of Sister Mary to carry out the same deed, he gives in and doesn’t fulfill Dr. X’s order (Suite Sister Mary). He and Sister Mary decide to leave the secret organization. Dr. X warns Nikki that he’s an addict and that only Dr. X can supply Nikki with the daily doses he needs to function normally (The Needle Lies). After the conflict with the doctor, Nikki returns to Mary and finds her murdered (Electric Requiem). He simply can’t bear this realization, and he also starts wondering whether he might have killed her himself in a hypnotic state, without being aware of it. This shock drives him into madness (Breaking The Silence, I Don’t Believe In Love). That’s how the long arm of the law arrives at the scene of the crime, arresting Nikki on suspicion of Mary’s murder and, consequently, all the murders he carried out for Dr. X (Waiting For 22). Since Nikki is mentally almost in a state of catatonia, they put him in a hospital, where he begins to remember (My Empty Room, Eyes Of A Stranger). The circle is closed.
Lineup
Geoff Tate – vocals
Chris DeGarmo – guitar, backing vocals
Michael Wilton – guitar, backing vocals
Eddie Jackson – bass guitar, backing vocals
Scott Rockenfield – drums, percussion, keyboards
ROLES:
Pamela Moore – Sister Mary
Anthony Valentine – Dr. X
Debbie Wheeler – Nurse
Mike Snyder – Anchorman
Scott Mateer – Preacher
The Moronic Monks of Morin Heights – choir
Production
Peter Collins
Track List
1. I Remember Now (1:17)
2. Anarchy-X (1:27)
3. Revolution Calling (4:42)
4. Operation: Mindcrime (4:43)
5. Speak (3:42)
6. Spreading The Disease (4:07)
7. The Mission (5:46)
8. Suite Sister Mary (10:41)
9. The Needle Lies (3:08)
10. Electric Requiem (1:22)
11. Breaking The Silence (4:34)
12. I Don’t Believe In Love (4:23)
13. Waiting For 22 (1:05)
14. My Empty Room (1:28)
15. Eyes Of A Stranger (6:39)
Running time: 59:16
BONUS TRACKS FROM THE REISSUE (2003):
16. The Mission* (6:11)
17. My Empty Room* (2:43)
(*)- live versions
Total length: 68:10
