Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime

Every once in a while, albums are released that instantly become what they call “Classics”. These are albums that “everyone” are “supposed” to own, at least if they have plans of entitling themselves proper “fans” of this or that genre. Every genre has such (an) album(s) - to call yourself a Power Metal fan you should own a copy of Helloween’s “Keeper”-albums, if you fancy being known as a Heavy Metal kid you should own at least one version (plus for both CD and LP) of Iron Maiden’s “Number of the Beast” or Judas Priest’s “Painkiller”, if you want to be known as a true music lover and an in general intelligent human being you should already now be sending me an e-mail begging on your knees for a copy of Throne of Thor’s promo CD, if you feel like the opposite you should be checking out the back catalogues of Underground Symphony and Scarlet record companies now!!! and if you are a) a Black Metal maniac or b) a REAL racoon you should sit on a copy of Emperor’s “In the Nightside Eclipse” (if you’re a racoon you should cover it with paper first, as such animals tend to, ahem, fertilise quite spontaneously. That goes for black metallers too, btw, especially halfway drunk in a boiling hot bus heading for Wacken).

Queensrÿche’s “Operation: Mindcrime” is such an album. Ever since the glorious eighties this album has been banged heads to, philosophised around, listened to (!) and most of all praised, by both hardcore Prog Metal heads as well as lots of different other groups of music listeners. This one album namely hit the entire music world straight between the eyes when it first came out back in ’88 - it represented something completely new and fresh, and possessing both marvellous melodies, inventive and crunchy riffage, soaring vocals, energetic drumming, a bass as thumping as the head of Joseph White when I’ve shown him what I think about his review of Dream Theatre’s “Scenes from a Memory” and most of all a highly intelligent background concept, dealing with backside of the 20th century American society - corruption, poverty, war, exaggeration, capitalism and so on, all told through a setting of lost love. The message of the album is quite clear and repeated several times throughout- REVOLUTION. The band itself also knew how to milk this album for what it’s worth (the guys may be against capitalism, but hell knows that they know how to harvest its fruits). They did world tours solely based on the music of this album until far into the 1990s, and when it finally became Queensrÿche’s turn to explore the new DVD-medium, of course this happened with a new version of the 1992 video “Operation: LiveCrime” - a recording from the band’s 1XXX tour which showcased a setlist solely based on the Mindcrime album. In the end this is not that weird, though, as IMO all (yep) their later offerings have sounded either like poor Mindcrime-copy (“Empire”, “Hear in the new Frontier”) or bad copies of something else (the rest). After guitarist Chris DeGarmo left the band and was replaced by Kelly Gray, who (with his two hands AND a “play at double speed”-cassette player), I’m sure, easily will top what DeGarmo did (with his teeth only), they also managed to break up one of the best guitar duets of all time, and now the only trump left is the golden pipes of singer Geoff Tate. He has, surprisingly I’m sure some (including myself) would say, managed to stay almost the same as before. On “Mindcrime”, on the other hand, the playing definitely is at the highest possible level. The musicians may not be the most technically proficient there is, but they weigh this up with an attitude (especially live) that’s definitely of another world. The band, btw, consists of singer Geoff Tate, the guitarists Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton, bassist Eddie Jackson, and drummer Scott Rockenfield. But enough of that, let’s instead dwell more deeply in a marvellous album by a band that was Prog Metal long (uh, well, not that long maybe, but anyway…) before Dream Theater…

1. I Remember - Now This is the first of all in all four short intros/interplays on the album, and this one sets the dark atmosphere that’s present throughout. We get to meet the main character, a man, who’s being drugged down by one of the “bad” characters, a nurse at an American hospital. He’s been under the command of somebody, probably the government, and is now beginning to remember small glimpses of his troubled past.

2. Anarchy - X - The first musical piece on the album is this one, and it’s a really nice one too. After almost a minute of militant snare drums, and punchy guitars and bass, the twin-lead attack of Queensrÿche gets to present itself for the first time on the album, in the highly melodic lead beginning on 0:51. This lasts for half a minute, and fades into…

3. Revolution Calling - …which is a brilliant Prog Metal majesty throughout. Some atmosphere-building clean guitars and drums lead into a marvellous melody in the guitars, which is later repeated as an outro. Geoff Tate gets to really impress us with his terrific voice here, as he, with real, heartfelt, anger, snarls out “I used to think that only America’s way was right/But now the holy dollar rules everybody’s life/Gotta make a million doesn’t matter who dies”. The guitar duo riffs excellently throughout, giving us plenty of the intelligently structured, harmonically complex yet very catchy riffs that can be found throughout. “Revolution calling, revolution calling, revolution calling you”, Tate sings. “Aye aye sir,” I respond.

4. Operation: Mindcrime - The opening/chorus riff of this track was the very first Heavy Metal guitar riff I learned to play, and it hasn’t lost any of the magic since then (of course “then” is only three ½ years ago, but what the hell…). Accompanied by a groovy bass and drum rhythm it rolls gloomingly across the soundscape, creating darker a mood than most BM-band can ever dream of. The verses are standard HM, with powerful guitar-attacks and nice and strong Dickinsonish vocal efforts in between, and the chorus is very catchy. The solos on this track are excellent too, and here both guitarists get to strut their stuff.

5. Speak - The only thing the album has been lacking until this point is some true up-tempo riffing, as both of the openers are more of mid-tempo dirgers than up-tempo wizzers. Therefore is “Speak” just what was needed now, and although there are neither non-rhythmic double-bass attacks nor bad, screamy vocals in here it still is an excellent, up-tempo effort. The opening guitar motif is very typical “guitar show-off”, but it still sounds excellent. The verses showcases more clever riffing, before the chorus which leaves us with no doubt: “Speak the word/The word is all of us”. And if anyone has forgotten what that word is, we also get a reminder in this track. The whispers during the chorus are impossible not to understand: “Revolution…”.

6. Spreading the Disease - More up-tempo magic. The track opens with thundering drums, before a cool dive-bomb with a guitar’s tremolo arm, a nice and jangly riff, before the verse, which indeed is one of the album’s highlights. The riffing here is very Blackmore-ish, and accompanied by very energetic drums this rocks!!! The lyrics deals with prostitution, corrupt politicians, and hypocrite religion (nice mix), and are very well-written: “Father William saved her from the streets/She drank lifeblood from the saviour’s feet/She’s sister Mary now, eyes as cold as ice/He takes her once a week, on the altar like a sacrifice”. The solos are excellent too, by the way,

7. The Mission - This is a masterpiece. From the opening preacher speaking in the background (“I want to reach deep into your hearts and your pocketbooks”) through the calm and mystical verses showcasing a Tate sounding as warm as Father William on the altar, the magical riffing throughout, and the mega-majestic chorus where a simple, yet ingenious vocal line (“My mission - Change the World”) is underlined by a completely brilliantly composed guitar theme. The lead-work is also brilliantly executed as it is both drenched in the deepest of emotions yet at times very technical. The rhythm section also needs to be mentioned here, as the way it grooves (especially in the chorus) gives the track “that little extra”. A legendary epic.

8. Suite Sister Mary - Did I mention the word “legendary” and the word “epic” together? I may have, but now I seriously have to mention them again, as this 10-minute masterpiece is nothing but brilliant. After the opening choirs, whose Latin lyrics unfortunately are not printed in the booklet, Geoff Tate enters in a way only he and very few other could have done. So dramatic, so powerful, but yet so calm. The choir and an “airy” clean guitar fills up the soundscape, before both guitarists enter with the track’s main riff. This, along with some cool drums/bass and marvellous vocals provided by Tate and Pamela Moore (as the character “Sister Mary”) makes for the verse and bridge parts of the track. The chorus is just as good, with tasty drums, arpeggiated guitars and our Geoff singing “Mary, my lady of pain, always alone/Blind you search for the truth”. At 5:50 the choir and clean guitars enter again, and are then joined by drums and distortion axes before the main riff’s repeated for two more verses. Here we get more close-to-orgasmic vocal duets (be sure to check out the “Operation LiveCrime” to see a very theatrical performance of this part, with great interaction between Tate and Moore). The track rounds off like it started, except that some pizzicato violins helps to spice up the soundscape and thus avoid it from becoming boring.

9. The Needle Lies - After two very epic numbers we may need some aggression, and “The Needle Lies” is just that. The shortest and fastest “real” song on the album, but still a marvellous one. “Angry” drums and vocals makes for the verse parts together with several nice lead-breaks, and the chorus is excellent and very catchy. “Don’t ever trust, don’t ever trust the needle. It lies/Don’t ever trust, don’t ever trust the needle when it cries, cries your name”. Geoff Tate is at his most Kiske-ish here, but he still sounds magnificent. After an excellent solo, a repeat of the chorus and some very aggressive E-minor riffing the track ends, and three minutes of True Metal Magic is (unfortunately) over.

10. Electric Requiem - This is basically 1:22 of mysterious keyboards, pain-filled lyrics and dreamy lead guitar melodies. An effective interplay between the two masterpieces “The Needle Lies” and…

11. Breaking the Silence - The opening of this tune is very bombastic with a typical ‘rÿche chord-based riff and some very groovy bass. This makes your headbanging-muscles warm before the completely rocking, yet very sad, chorus “ Breaking the Silence of the night/Can’t you hear me screaming/I look for your face in the neon light/You never answer me”. To make sure the track don’t get one-dimensional, though, the verses are there in between, showcasing some nice chord work and mellow vocals. Other highlights of the track are the galloping solo-section where Wilton and DeGarmo shed licks like two dragons at the edge of a cliff (DADADADA!!! Cliched imagery alert!!!) and the “Can’t look back…”-section at 3:26.

12. I Don’t Believe in Love - If you think the last track opened bombastically, then you haven’t heard this one yet. The opening riff here is pure genius, being as soaring as one of my solos and as majestic as a brave warrior at the Throne of Thor (hah). The verses are filled by some very icy-sounding clean guitar chords (some very complex ones, btw), and the way the track builds from those parts towards the brilliant chorus, showcasing the band at it’s most powerful and metallic, is like being on the back of an eagle on the wings - majestic and triumphantly. It’s tunes like this one that makes you understand why you’re NOT hanging around in shopping malls wearing too big jeans and sweatshirts. The solos on this track are just in the same style - melodic, majestic, and filled to the brim with tasty and screamy pinch harmonics, symbolising the way the sun glitters in the sword of the warrior riding horseback on his way home from another victory at the battlefield. (Notice how I wrote that with the font being bold and ITALLIC. See?)

13. Waiting for 22 - Many bands, while creating concept albums, stuff them full of short, useless ditties just to make everyone see how “complex” and “intricate” their music is. Queensrÿche, on the other hand, also includes several short pieces, but these are true compositions, which have a musical quality. The melodies in “Waiting for 22”, for example, are simply gorgeous, and would not sound out of place as a lead in any of the other tracks on the album.

14. My Empty Room - This one follows in the same tradition, except that the melodies now are provided by the pipes of Tate, not the axes of DeGarmo/Wilton. The latter two are central here too, btw, as they provide the highly powerful chordal attack at 1:10, making the track an excellent introduction to the ending track of the album…

15. Eyes of a Stranger - …which in many ways is a track that sums up everything this album’s about, both lyrically and musically. It dwells in a comfortable mid-tempo throughout, and the riffs, in this case composed by Chris DeGarmo, are absolutely top-notch (as usual). They have an epic quality to them that makes them perfect as an ending to an album like this. We also get a brilliant twin guitar-lead, topping everything Smith/Murray/Gers have done in Iron Maiden. The lyrics, perfectly sung by Tate (again), kinda reflects over everything previously sung on the album through the eyes of the main character presented to us in “I remember now”. This is shown in the way song-titles from the rest of the album is repeated in a distorted voice in the end of the tune, summing it all up in that one word again - REVOLUTION. Another masterpiece.