Queensrÿche
Operation Mindcrime

THE REVIEW

A masterpiece! Actually, A MAS-TER-PIECE! This is THE album of the '80s (and beyond...).
There you go, the review is practically done. Too short, you say? Well, what need is there for words in front of an album like this?! Especially when, as I fear, no words or adjectives, though chosen with the utmost care, can convey even a fraction of the sensations, the magnificence of these 15 tracks? Which, in reality, are 10, skillfully linked by mini-breaks, sometimes only sung/narrated, sometimes instrumental, which are not, mind you, mere fillers, but miraculously tie the songs together, making the work a whole and captivating the listener in immersing in the narrative thread within the approximately 60 minutes of the CD. At the time effectively described by critics as "the The Wall of heavy metal," Operation Mindcrime is the absolute peak of the quintet from Seattle's career (well before Seattle became known to everyone on the emotional wave of Nirvana and the grunge to come?). Of course, it neither has nor could have the historical value and importance of the illustrious point of comparison. But... Listen to believe the magical duets of DeGarmo and Wilton's guitars, the inimitable, simply extraordinary voice of Mr. Geoff Tate, a lyricism that captivates, alluding to very real issues (power struggles, political class corruption, the enslavement to the god dollar and that of drugs...) to set up the representation of Mr. X's (attempted) revolution... Eradicate the fascist, revolution will grow!."

 An album that literally set the standard, taking "heavy" rock beyond the usual mental frameworks, and from the narrow circle of the typical screaming metalhead all studs and chains...(true Manowa... li?) so much so that it coined the amusing definition of "thinking metal" and Queensryche as a cultured band, with a very personal, evolving and mutating HM. The simple truth is that with their sound (and perhaps even more so with the previous and surprising 'for the average metalmaniac' - Rage for Order) the Ryche took metal and ferried it from where it was (that is from Maiden, Metallica & co.) towards the future, namely towards 'boundary' groups (see Fates Warning of APSOG, for example). It is no coincidence that even Steve Harris has always cited OM as one of the epoch-making albums for the genre, or if the very Dream Theater—which indeed are not quite comparable from a strictly musical point of view—have often cited Tate's group as authentic masters, honored to often be mentioned alongside them.

From the martial pace of the instrumental intro Anarchy-X to the concluding Eyes of a Stranger, it's a succession of great songs, with few (almost none) pauses and with a crescendo culminating in the splendid The Mission and in the 10 minutes of the changing Suite Sister Mary, where Tate's voice takes flight painting scenes of pathos and great expressive drama, doubled by the female counterpart Pamela Moore/Sister Mary. Great, great, great!
A must-have. And to be listened to endlessly.