Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Operation: Mindcrime
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2016
Duration: 63:03
Rating: 3.5/5
The second part of Tate’s concept trilogy – the new album from the boss of the »Queensryche faction« known as Operation: Mindcrime – delivers the result you’d (quietly) expect going in. It’s more complex and more fragmented than its predecessor, which means there’s more musical experimentation this time around.
This one is tailor-made for those purists among you who love Geoff Tate across the entire Queensryche discography. So, you’re in the minority. With a crew of top-notch musical collaborators, the man has once again treated himself to an album packed with experimentation, one that never quite manages to pull off the successful blend of progressive rock on one side and pop rock and even alternative rock on the other, with heavy metal as the base premise, into a musical calling card all its own, the way its predecessor »The Key« does.
So. There’s nothing wrong with the album. It grows on you nice and slowly with repeated listens, since it’s complexly structured and tries to mingle across genres too. You just have to make peace, once again, with the fact that it leans toward the »hated« Queensryche albums of the post-Promised Land era. Because a complex story sits behind the concept, that story opens the door for Tate to take on bigger challenges when reaching for the tools of musical experimentation. At the level of basic artistic ambition that’s perfectly healthy and of course good, but it can of course deliver double-edged results, which is where the art metal or art rock label sticks. The album is full of details, added spoken-word bits and dialogues, as is typical of Queensryche work, while Tate and company also dose the arrangements with programmed loops, even saxophone, which he plays himself, and Tate’s vocals are in places deliberately run through distortion effects. Then there’s the fourth pillar, the curtains of synths that hold up the backdrop of dark atmosphere. Everything, once again, is subordinated to building an intensely dark atmosphere. Still, as with his former Queensryche colleagues, Tate’s basic aim is to achieve great musicality. But this time it’s harder to tease out than usual. »Resurrection« comes across as noticeably more fragmented than its predecessor »The Key«. That makes it harder to listen to and harder to win over. This time it’s also harder to pinpoint tracks that would deliberately imitate any arrangement format of the triumphant Queensryche album »Operation: Mindcrine« (which, let’s be honest, Tate hasn’t needed for a long time now).
The second part of the trilogy is pretty stingy when it comes to explaining the concept. The main character of the whole story, named »H« – so presumably not Steve »H« Hogarth (singer of Marillion) – finds themselves at the start of part two in a near-death experience. But H wriggles out of its claws. With a miraculous key in hand, H takes everything needed to finally create their dreams and uses the key to kick-start a different world – a world of new creation that’s supposed to be fairer and better than the one we live in. In short, no deeper message or anything special in the basic premise of this story.
Anyone who listens to everything Tate recorded with Queensryche after Promised Land won’t have any trouble with this album. Hardened followers of the old Queensryche school will of course deftly steer clear. This time Tate opts for more demanding vocal melodies, and so he uses his voice to explore fields he hasn’t explored before. Often these lines are even deliberately dissonant (straying from the ideal line that would fit into the instrumental backing), and his backing vocals deepen that dissonance even further, as if Tate had been listening to a lot of the late David Bowie lately.
Despite it being a very high-quality product, you can’t shake the feeling that the album hasn’t fully ripened idea-wise and is the fruit of a quick turnaround that (probably also because of the label contract) demanded a new album from Tate ASAP. For such an experienced composer that’s of course no big deal, since in these situations he can always deftly paper over things with routine and know-how. The third album in this trilogy is expected as early as next year. »Resurrection« is thus a more demanding listen than its predecessor »The Key«. Musically it also develops in a much more fragmented way, which its opening stretch, built from four shorter tracks, already flags, And it once again boasts excellent production. Yes. The feeling that the album is too long is a bit distracting this time; musically it’s said perfectly decently in a running time twenty minutes shorter.
Operation: Mindcrime – Taking on the World (official video):
Line-up
Geoff Tate – vocals, keyboards, saxophone
Kelly Gray – guitar, bass, backing vocals
Scott Moughton – guitar, keyboards
Randy Gane – keyboards
David Ellefson (Megadeth) – bass
John Moyer (Disturbed) – bass
Simon Wright (AC/DC, Dio) – drums
Scott Mercado – drums
Brian Tichy (Whitesnake) – drums
Tim “Ripper” Owens (Judas Priest, Iced Earth) – vocals on track no. 10
Blaze Bayley (Iron Maiden, Wolfsbane) – vocals on track no. 10
Mark Daily – backing vocals
Nick Greatrex – guitar
Production
Kelly Grey & Geoff Tate
Tracklist
01. Resurrection
02. When All Falls Away
03. A Moment In Time
04. Through the Noize
05. Left For Dead
06. Miles Away
07. Healing My Wounds
08. The Fight
09. Taking On The World
10. Invincible
11. A Smear Campaign
12. Which Side You’re On
13. Into The Hands Of The World
14. Live From My Machine
