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Operation: Mindcrime

Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime Audio CD

A fair review of the Queensryche "Operation: Mindcrime" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Queensryche reviews here, or go back to the Queensryche tabs.

Band: Queensryche
Title: Operation: Mindcrime
Rating:

Release Date: 2006-06-20
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: I Remember Now 2: Anarchy-X 3: Revolution Calling 4: Operation:mindcrime 5: Speak 6: Spreading the Disease 7: The Mission 8: Suite Sister Mary 9: The Needle Lies 10: Electric Requiem 11: Breaking the Silence 12: I Don't Believe in Love 13: Waiting for 22 14: My Empty Room 15: Eyes of a Stranger 16: The Mission (Live-bonus track) 17: My Empty Room (Live-bonus track) 18: I Remember Now (Live) 19: Anarchy-X (Live) 20: Revolution Calling (Live) 21: Operation:mindcrime (Live) 22: Speak (Live) 23: Spreading the Disease (Live) 24: The Mission (Live) 25: Suite Sister Mary (Live) 26: The Needle Lies (Live) 27: Electric Requiem (Live) 28: Breaking the Silence (Live) 29: I Don't Believe in Love (Live) 30: Waiting for 22 (Live) 31: My Empty Room (Live) 32: Eyes of a Stranger (Live)

Excellent Album, Poor Mastering
The music is varied in feel and takes the listener along for the ride through the story. I can see why this album is a classic masterpiece of hard rock, with the story it tells and the excellent arrangements. I think it would be a good idea to make it into a film, as Geoff Tate has been considering. This music is a very good example of intelligent hard rock/metal.

I first heard OM many years back when I picked up Empire, but it didn't really grab me for some reason. I revisited it recently and decided to finally pick it up. I found this 'remastered' version with a complete live performance on a second disc. I assumed this would be the best presentation of the album. I was sadly mistaken. The person who mastered this re-release (Everen Goeknar according to the notes) did a poor job in my opinion. The entire set is overmodulated, i. e. the volume level is too high. This results in distortion of the bad kind, which sounds somewhat like static from a poor radio reception. It's not too bad on the studio disc, just a little bit in the more intense sections of the music. But the live disc suffers much more. You can even hear it right at the beginning with the nurse's voice.

Honestly, I'm not sure what you could do to make a late-80's recording sound noticably better. So I don't think it needed a remastering so to speak (it would be interesting to do a side-by-side comparison with the original CD release). It is a real shame that they tried to and made it worse. Quit trying to make the CD's themselves louder! That's what the volume knob is for!

I'd give this set 5 stars if it wasn't for the sub-par mastering.

better than Livecrime
I don't have videocrime so that is cool to have. I read some negative reviews but being a huge QR fan I had to buy it. The live concert however I like better than Livecrime. It is a year earlier and you can tell. Geoff's voice is just better. He sings a much better representation of Mindcrime. Yes Livecrime may be a bit more polished but it is supposed to be. It is from two nights put together. It isn't actually a straight through concert. This one is. One night. A couple missed notes here and there but that's real. Geoff doesn't lower near as many parts vocally. I Don't Believe in Love and Eyes of a Stranger are sung perfectly. You can tell the tour took a little from him if you listen to both this and Livecrime. The sound I thought is also pretty good. I didn't have a problem with it. It didn't sound like a bootleg or anything. I love it.
.

A VERY FINE ALBUM
BUY THIS AND GET RESPECT FROM YOUR PEERS. OPERATION MINDCRIME IS A VERY FINE COLLECTION FROM ONE OF THE GREATEST GREATEST HARD ROCK BANDS WHO ARE MUCH BETTER THAN DISCO BANDS LIKE SCISSOR SISTERS WHO MUST BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS. QUEENSRYCHE ARE GREAT,PLAY GREAT GUITARS AND WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS UNLIKE POP ARTISTS WHO DONT WRITE THEIR OWN SONGS AND LIP SYNCH AT CONCERTS.

Mindcrime is still a masterpiece nearly 20 years on!
Shawn Michaels(mocking Hellraiser): Please buy those cool disco queens Scissor Sisters instead! Triple H: Whoever degraded Queensryche needs a pedigree. Triple H(mocking Fed Up): Queensryche is trash, buy Scissor Sisters. This album rocks especially Revolution Calling, I Don't believe in Love and Eyes of a Stranger. Shawn Michaels: The Heartbreak Kid says you deserve SWEET-CHIN MUSIC if you prefer The Spirit Squad and their off-shoots like Scissor Sisters and Britard to Queensryche. Triple H: You mean Hedgeclipper F*gg*ts! Shawn Michaels: if you are not down with us and Queensryche, we got TWO WORDS FOR YA (crowd yells S*CK IT!!)!.

Queensryche's classic masterwork gets a majestic upgrade!

The prog-tinged metal quintet, which comprised of lead singer Geoff Tate, guitarists Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton, bass player Eddie Jackson and drummer Scott Rockenfield, had released a modest receives self-titled EP and two full length albums(their classic debut The Warning and the equally impressive Rage For Order) which tanked. Seattle based hard rockers Queensryche's third album Operation: Mindcrime was released in April of 1988. Despite opening up for great bands like AC/DC, KISS, Iron Maiden and trash like Ratt and Bon Jovi, commercial success ignored Queensryche until Operation Mindcrime.
Operation: Mindcrime was a concept album, in the vain of other classic concept albums like Pink Floyd's The Wall and The Who's Tommy. Mindcrime tells the story of an anarchist named Nikki whose disillusionment with Reagan-era American society leads him to join a shadowy plot to assassinate corrupt leaders.
I Remember Now begins the album in a hospital ward where Nikki after a pain shot from a nurse who calls him an obscenity and recalls the recent rash of murders he may or may not have committed at the request of Doctor X. Anarchy-X is next and is a killer overture to the album. Revolution Calling gets more into the nitty gritty of our anti-hero Nikki, a psychotic, cynical individual who was recruited and brainwashed by the infamous Dr. X who was a power crazed evangelical preacher, leader of 'The Order', to be his personal assassin. The title track is next and has Nikki addicted to drugs and brainwashed by Dr. X. Next is Speak which is a driving rocker which sends Nikki first out to kill an unnamed corrupt politician. Spreading the Disease is next and is about Mary, a prostitute, whom Nikki tries to save by getting a priest to take her off the streets. This track rocks. The Mission is next and is possibly DeGarmo's best track he ever wrote himself for Queensryche and professed Nikki's love for Mary.
The second half of the album opens with the epic Suite Sister Mary which opens with Dr. X ordering Nikki to go out and kill Mary and the priest after which the track opens with a solo melodic guitar and a Choir which goes on to accompany Tate throughout the song. The number is a wonderful confluence of rock/metal and opera with Pamela Moore singing superbly the role of Mary. Next is another killer rocker The Needle Lies which was about Nikki's love for drugs turning bad. Electric Requiem is next and is the track which has Nikki discover his beloved Mary had been murdered. Breaking the Silence is next and has Nikki seeing and hearing Mary in his head and a great rocker. I Don't Believe in Love is next and is a great rocker which had our character Nikki deny his love for Mary because he cannot face the fact that she died. This track was a major hit on rock radio. Waiting For 22 is a great instrumental with some great guitar work from DeGarmo. My Empty Room is next and has our anti-hero Nikki wondering about what has become of him and what he will do. The album ends with Queensryche's first big rock radio smash Eyes of a Stranger. This track is a great song and what a way to end the album. Some think Nikki dreamed this and some thought he committed suicide but we wouldn't find out his fate until 2006's Operation:Mindcrime II.
The original Operation: Mindcrime peaked at #50 in 1989 and gave Queensryche their first US Gold album(eventually Platinum).
In 2003, the album was re-released in a digitally remastered version with two bonus tracks which were a live version of The Mission recorded in 1990 at The Hammersmith Odeon, London and My Empty Room recorded in October of 1994 in London.
Then in June of 2006, the album was re-released again to cash in on the success of Operation: Mindcrime II as a 2-CD set and a 2-CD and DVD set. This version, the 2-CD version's second disc comprises of the live performance of Operation: Mindcrime that the band performed on November 15, 1990 at The Hammersmith Odeon in London. It slightly differs from 1991's Operation: LIVECrime which was recorded in Wisconsin in May of 1991. The versions here are slightly different to the 1991 performances but an awesome time capsule.
RECOMMENDED!.

You can see a complete list of all Queensryche discography, or go back to the Queensryche tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.