My first experience with Queensryche was seeing them open for Def Leppard back in the late 80s. I booed them off stage. I had no room in my heart for another band. I was in love with Def Leppard and refused to cheat on them. Haha. I've told this story before, I know.

Cut to a few years later, "Empire" is being played on all the radio stations, I absolutely LOVE the song but have no idea who the band is. Finally, I find out. And kick my own ass. Haha.

I worked back from there, and loved all their albums. They quickly became a favorite of mine. The EP was brilliant. The Warning was brilliant. (One of my all-time favorite album covers, by the way.) Rage for Order, however, blew my mind. That album is flat out amazing. Such a weird and creepy collection of songs, you know. It's just got a sound and style that no band, in my opinion, ever touched. And I really dig "Gonna Get Close To You." Another creepy song.

And the tri-ryche, "the famous Queensryche symbol," was on the EP and The Warning. It's on the back cover of the EP, and on the middle card on The Warning cover.

The only songs I can really remember liking from "Rage For Order" was Walk In The Shadows, London, Neue Regal and I Will Remember.

Many other songs had potential but the overabundance of studio gimmickry tended to derail them in progress.

I started with 'Empire' as well, having no clue how something like 'Jet City Woman' was being played alongside Steve Miller and the like on the classic rock station here. Wore out the tape when I was 13, then got 'Mindcrime' on CD and it went from there.

I like this version, too.

'The Whisper' is right up there with 'Breaking the Silence', 'Della Brown', and 'En Force' in the pantheon of the most underrated QR songs..

Queensryche - Operation:Mindcrime
Released May 3, 1988

Through an EP and 2 studio albums, Queensryche had showed themselves as a band that didn't want to make the same album twice (a la AC/DC), but push themselves and grow as musicians. To that end, the band decided to create a concept album. In 1988, the concept album was a long-dead idea. The last successful concept album was Pink Floyd's "The Wall". KISS tried, to commercial failure. I am sure the record company execs probably had a near heart attach when they heard Queensryche was going to record a concept album.

The band hired producer Peter Collins who had recently produced the Rush albums "Hold Your Fire" and "Power Windows", which many consider to be the worst in their discography. He was also primarily a pop producer prior to his work with Rush. The band headed to a studio near Philadelphia, PA to create their most ambitious work yet.

The story, based on an idea from Geoff Tate, is about a heroin addict named Nikki. He falls under the influence of Dr X, who brainwashes him to be his assassin. The idea - Dr. X's gun kills political and religious leaders and replaces them with people under his control in order to facilitate a revolution in America. When Nikki hears "Mindcrime", he goes out to do the bad Dr's bidding.

Along the way, he meets and falls in love with Sister Mary - a former hooker brought into the convent by Father William (another one of Dr X's players and the person who nails Sister Mary once a week on the altar like a sacrifice). Things get rough when Nikki is told to kill Mary (and the priest as well).

Nikki and Mary have sex on the altar and Nikki decides it's time for him and Mary to escape. He confronts Dr. X, but is still under his control. He returns to find Mary dead. He ends up being arrested and in a psych ward.

The album starts at 6:00PM, with Nikki not remembering anything. By 6:01PM, he remembers everything.

At the time, the cause of Sister Mary's death was never revealed. Years later, the band revealed that Sister Mary killed herself - under the influence of Dr X's control. Sister Mary's victim was herself.

Musically, this is another change for the 'Ryche. The guitar tones are so different that what we had heard on the first two full length LP's and the self produced EP. The production didn't sound like the rest of the 80's albums at the time, not so slick. The production fit the material perfectly. Sacred Warrior even attempted to copy the sound of the album on their "Wicked Generation" album - along with making that a concept album.

They really outdid themselves this time, stepping it up a notch. Scott takes his drumming ability up yet another notch. Geoff's vocals are incredible, losing himself in the role of Nikki throughout the album.

The look changed too - looking more "metal" and "tough" - the glam look was all gone. They headed out on tour to support the album by opening for Def Leppard and Metallica. I was unable to get tickets for the Metall/Queensryche show as it was freakin sold out!!!!!!!! But, alas, I was able to see Queesnryche on the next tour, their first headlining tour, where they performed the album in its entirety. More on that when I get to Empire.

Queensryche released a series of videos around the album concept, including a short collection of the songs called "Video:Mindcrime".

I remember the first time I heard the album - I was blown away! This instantly because my favorite Queensryche release (and still my favorite of the first four releases). The had created a masterpiece concept album that belongs along side the greatest in all of rock history. The music, lyrics, story was incredible!

Every track is classic and fits the mood of the story as it moves along at lightning pace. From the opening "Dr. Davis, Telephone please, Dr Blair, Dr Blair, Dr J Hamilton" (which I have heard played in various movies and TV shows through the years) to the "I Remember now" at the end, it just works and works very well. The songs can be played outside of the context of the album and that is why the videos on MTV worked for 'Eyes Of A Stranger" and "I Don't Believe In Love". This album is one of my favorite albums of all time - I just love it and never get tired of it.

The album was their best seller to date, almost hitting platinum at the time (it would after the release and tour of Empire). They were finally starting to get commercial success.

An interesting side note, because of the album the FBI open a file on Queensryche - seems they were worried about the line "educate the masses, we'll burn the whitehouse down"

The next review will be up Monday to give others a chance to catch up on the thread.

Back when the concept of 'liberalism' still actually meant something (that wasn't completely embarrassing), out comes this huge monument of drama and unrest which manages to be effectively political without coming off at all ham-fisted. Closer to the surface, the themes of love and tragedy, and the woes of any major kind of social disease, stand out in a way that absolutely encapsulates the spirit behind much of what makes heavy metal - the anxious, energetic dissatisfaction with "the way things are". My escapism manifested itself in the likes of Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, Helloween, and all the traditional and power metal bands that followed, but my towering unrest with "the way things are" in a modern and practical context could never be aptly harnessed by most of the punk bands or thrash bands. Queensrÿche, however, succeeded, and no more so than with 'Mindcrime'. The state of control, control by the state ("controlled by confusion! confused by control!" to quote another monument that came out that year), love ("was it love? or was it the idea of being in love?" to quote yet ANOTHER monumental release of the same period), everything hits home and becomes more relevant in both a personal and objectively viewed way year after year. Insofar as the performance, you've got the icing on the cake with Geoff Tate giving the performance of his career on EVERY SINGLE SONG - every syllable is sang into utter reality - you've got the mix sounding phenomenal, especially for a pioneering all-digital production...the single snare hits between chords near the verses of 'Revolution Calling' still crush me in their raw dynamic power...... you've got the LYRICS fleshing out the concepts to every logical extreme.......... let's see, lyrics with thought, good lines, the band playing like their life depended on it..............isn't this the way music should be..?...........and metal fans these days are utterly frightened of looking at a sheet of lyrics..................de-evolution is not a good thing, no sir. The troops are lacking morale.

While it is edged out very slightly as my favorite Rÿche by 'Rage For Order', this album still means the world and is one of the closest recordings to perfection I have come across.

Geez, how do you follow up a post like that ? Operation:Mindcrime is a fantastic album. This is a must-have for everyone's collection. As I stated in the King Diamond thread,usually concept albums suffer through the story making themusic somewhat lacking. This isn't the case here. There is not a weak tune on this album.

I like this album alot and I loved it when it first came out.

That being said, I think it is their weakest album of the 80's. The concept overshadows the music, and up to this point Queensryche was always music first. The production is to light, the drums arent the usual heavy hitting and pounding by Scott Rockenfield and the guitars just dont have the bite like the other albums. The pop hooks are more prevalent than ever.

This album reminds me of "The Wall" by Pink Floyd. An incredible listen from start to finish, a great concept album and as intense as a movie but not really a "fun" listen or one I can listen to time and time again, only once in a while. Still, in an era of bubble gum pop metal and sugar coated hair bands of the late 80's, this album went against the grain and Queensryche wins major points for doing "Operation: Mindcrime".

So...who killed Mary?

I know this on by heart. Want to hear me do the vocal parts? I can say bastard like that nurse.

A fine, fine album and the concert was beyond spectacular.

I also want to announce that I shall not be participating in this thread after we get to 'Hear in the Now Frontier'. I suspect I shall not be alone.

Listening to this album right now, and it is a concept album that represents big big ideas but makes them digestible without dumbing down the concept or talking down to their audience.

One of the few metal bands of that era that treated its audience like it had a brain.

Crazy but true story. Back when this came out, O:M was one of those records in my neighborhood that everyone seemed to own a copy of. And seemed to be played all the time. My friend Paul had a few of us over to his place and had this just cranked on his stereo. We were drinking beers, smoking substances and the like while listening, when we got to Suite Sister Mary. When the song reached the part where Mary sings "... the blood of Christ can't heal my wounds..." the turntable just stopped. Not a slow down or anything, just stopped. My buddy James was so freaked out. Paul went to see what was wrong with his turntable and tried to get the record going again. He even tried on another record which caused James to state that if the other record played, he was going to break his copy of Mindcrime. Alas, no other record ever played on Paul's old turntable as it never spun again. Just a very odd and creepy place for the album to stop.

This was a benchmark album for a ton of us in my neighborhood. Like I said, it seemed everyone had their own copy that we were sure it had to be as big as Back In Black as everyone seemed to own their own copy of that as well. You could not visit another pals place without catching their copy sitting out. A ton of my friends will still claim this was THE album for them from the eighties.

Great album! A lot better than Rage for Order imo. There's a couple of filler tracks, but most of it is pretty damn solid.