Classic Music Review: OPERATION: MINDCRIME by Queensryche

Released in 1988, QR's magnum opus concept album, OPERATION: MINDCRIME, has been finding its way into my playlist quite a bit lately.  According to the metal fans of the world, as documented in Martin Popoff's fun TOP 500 METAL ALBUMS OF ALL TIME book, MINDCRIME is the #6 heavy metal album of all time.  I don't think I could argue against that claim.  Whether it's #3, #23 or #103, I don't know, that's a preference thing.  What I do know is that it personally is in my top five or so and unquestionably a great, great album by any standard, metal or otherwise.

I still recall buying the CD back in the spring of '88 and being instantly blown away by the scope, ambition and musicianship of the album.  1988 was a banner year for heavy metal and concept albums what with Metallica releasing ...AND JUSTICE FOR ALL a little later that year.  Being, um, in my early teens at the time and having just picked up the guitar a few years earlier, these albums were awe-inspiring displays of not only killer metal songwriting but musical chops as well.  I can remember air-guitaring to "Speak"...that killer rapid-fire arpeggio riff which sounded unbelievably futuristic with the gated electro-sizzle production/mix.  At this point, the production is considered a little frigid and blocky although it's hard to imagine the album sounding any different so not sure you can really call it a flaw at this point.  Geez, so many great riffs that are now considered classics..."Operation: Mindcrime", "Speak", "Eyes Of A Stranger", "I Don't Believe In Love", and the grand-daddy of them all, possibly one of my top three or four guitar songs ever, "Breaking The Silence".  Awesome intro, pick slide, lyrics, harmony, chorus...just one bad-ass song all the way around.  The opening verse still resonates even after all these years: 

"They told me to run by just how far

can I go wearing the black mask of fear?

The hate in my eyes always give me away

the tension building slowly.

Now I've lost everything I had in you

Nothing we shared means a thing

without you close to me

I can't live without you!"

Those lyrics, as delivered by a soaring Geoff Tate in his prime, coupled with the cyber-electric sustained awesomeness of DeGarmo and Wilton on guitars, always conjures images of Ridley Scott's BLADE RUNNER for me.  If there's any song that could sonically capture the mood of that film, it's "Breaking The Silence".  Man, just so many great songs, riffs, solos...everything.  Looking at the band's catalog after MINDCRIME it's hard to fathom where the band lost it so quickly.  EMPIRE is a great pop metal record and even PROMISED LAND has its moments...but, damn, everything post-1994 just blows when compared to the earlier work.  I guess talent and inspiration can simply run empty.  Ironically, the same fate would befall Metallica to an even greater degree.

Sound quality/production has always been a stickly issue with this album but, again, personally, I believe the mix lends itself well to the story about alienation, corruption, betryal, etc.  But it can sound a bit blocky and opaque, especially considering that CD mastering didn't really mature until the early 90's.  I bought the remastered version in '04 and feel the improvement in quality is pretty substantial with considerably more "air" and deeper blacks being the hallmarks.  On the downside, you can hear obvious distortion in the mix where levels are pushed too far into the red.  It's only noticeable in a few spots though.  Overall the resmastered version is definitely worth the extra coin.  Of course, given the MP3 times we live in, it's a moot point now.

The sum of the matter is that QR produced what is very arguably the greatest concept album of all time and definitely one of the best metal albums ever.  An indispensible classic.

Rating: 10/10