Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
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Free Music Notes for Operation: Mindcrime
Free Music Review: 15 years on, still brilliant
Hit: 5 Stars
It's funny to think that circa early 1989 at age 14 I stood in a department store with just enough money to buy one cassette. I often bought cassettes without ever having heard any of the music on them...I'd just buy something whose cover caught my eye. I had a surprisingly good success rate this way, but I digress. On that particular day I had my choices narrowed down to either this one or Milli Vanilli's "Girl You Know It's True". I ended up getting this one and the rest (and MV) is history. Weaned on the likes of Def Leppard's "Hysteria" the previous year this was hardly the bubble gum that I was expecting and I was put off by it, but still intrigued by its ambition. I may have sold off the cassette before this album really grabbed me, but now with an adult understanding of the lyrics I like it more than ever. The remastered version further deepens my appreciation of it by including a stellar 16-page booklet explaining Geoff Tate's original inspiration for the album's storyline. The plot is gripping, and neither the storyline nor the songs come off the least bit contrived. As one reviewer said, turn off the lights and it's like it's all real. The album recently ranked #2 in Classic Rock magazine's top 30 concept albums of all time. It's nice to see it get the accolades it deserves. "Operation: Mindcrime" rewards repeated listening for years and deserves a space in your collection.
Free Music Review: One of the greatest concept albums ever made...
Hit: 5 Stars
There are no punches pulled with this album. Tate and company write a diatribe angry/dogmatic view of a protagonist who is brainwashed to murder certain individuals. The world Queensryche writes is filled with "slime" and once we hear the first lyrics of revolution calling in the words of our new hero, you can't helped to be hooked and find out what happens next.The story arc in this album is incredibly creative. It is litteraly written better than most movies and screenplays you see on TV. That's one of Mindcrimes pleasures, it's story has such a hook that you can't get enough of it.
Secondly it's the music. The band litteraly plays to insane reaches of aggresion on this album and is firing on all cylinders. When the killer tries to abandon the mission, the guitars and band drive faster (Needle Lies), the band and vocals can becoming sweeping and majestic as the assasin falls in love with a nun (Sweet Sister Mary), and how the whole story is set up in the title track, as a "doctor" explains the plans for our new hero. The band put all its strengths together and came up with such a driving force they haven't been able to replicate since. Every single track is litteraly like an exciting chapter in the best novel you ever read. It's that good!
WOW!! Just writing this makes me even appreciate this disc even more. An absolute MUST have for any music fans collection.
Free Music Review: Speak the Word (Revolution)...the Word Is All of Us...
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is in my opinion the best concept album ever made. There's actually no bad songs at all. The songs "Revolution Calling", "Suite Sister Mary", "I Don't Believe in Love", and "Eyes of a Stranger" are the most famous from this album. This is their best and second best-selling album (after Empire). Actually I didn't respect this album as much until I watched the live DVD "Operation: LIVEcrime". It was such a great live album; this album was peremored live song by song...the track listing was like this album. The weakness (or strenght) of this album is that there's no ballads. All the tracks are made just for rebellious teenages and for the people like (you and) me...always wanna rock and never grow up. "I Don't Believe in Love" is the song that makes me think...what is love? Is there love? Was Jesus the Love? How can love be described? Is there love between People? etc... This album is a kick start for the new revolution. This is kind of a catholic story...about Mary and stuff. There is some interludes that disturb me a little bit...the instrumental ones "Anarchy-X" and "Waiting for 22" and the speech songs "I Remember Now", "My Empty Room", and "Electric Requiem". In addition, there's some songs that start with a radio things...I wonder why?
Stars: Eyes of a Stranger, I Don't Believe in Love, Suite Sister Mary
Free Music Review: Pure Greatness
Hit: 5 Stars
To truly recognize the magnitude of Operation:Mindcrime, you must examine the state of popular music at the time this record was released. This reminds me of Permanent Waves by Rush, which entirely blew everything else around it out of the water.How can you equate "Don't Worry be Happy" (Bobby McFerrin) or "Sweet Child O' Mine" (Guns and Roses) with the chorus of Suite Sister Mary?
Forget Nirvana or Alice in Chains; Queensryche is the band that started the Seattle music revolution. Take this from someone who is diametrically opposed to just about any political leaning of this band: The undeniable truth is that Queensryche delivered message, theme, and complexity before it was cool.
Given the climate of today's music, we will probably never see its equal.
With Pink Floyd's The Wall and Rush's Permanent Waves, Operation:Mindcrime completes the holy trinity of 70's- 80's studio achievements.
If you pride yourself as being one who appreciates good music regardless of its airtime or popularity, Operation:Mindcrime is a test. Give it a listen, and you'll ask yourself as I do, where are efforts like this today?
Sadly, they aren't there. VH-1 is too busy praising bands like Metallica for the Black Album.
Free Music Review: Tale Of A Life Ruined
Hit: 5 Stars
This is a special CD. There is plenty to enjoy musically, but there is so much more. It is rare for a CD to be able to tell a compelling story. Set in the late 80s, we hear a tale of an antigovernment revolution led by Doctor X - "The Man With The Cure" - who uses a combination of propaganda and drugs to recruit assassins. The CD focuses on the rise and fall of one such recruit. After getting sucked into the revolution, he falls in love with "Sister Mary", the nun who supplies him with his drugs. However, the order comes down from Doctor X that she is to be his next hit, and this becomes the turning point. He winds up killing the priest, but he and Mary try to escape. Eventually, Mary does wind up dead, but we are not told explicitly how or who did it. All that we do know is that the assassin is arrested and ends up in a mental hospital.From hard hitting metal to driving ballads, every song on the CD is good. You will find yourself listening over and over again, picking up something new each time whether it's a deeper understanding of the story or a layer of the harmony of the rythm section. It seems like a contradiction of terms, but this CD is metal for the intellectual.
The additional live tracks are a nice added bonus.