A View From Below: Queensryche: Operation Mindcrime

Track Listing

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

1988 is the year that truly exposed Queensryche to the world. In May of that year Queensryche released "Operation Mindcrime" and unleashed a rock opera unlike any before or after. The story was original and the music was memorable. This album is considered by fans and critics alike as Queensryche's masterpiece and although the follow up album "Empire" may have had more "hits", Queensryche have yet to create another album that contained the magic that "Operation Mindcrime" conjured. On to the story behind the songs:

The story is about a junkie named Nikki that was saved from the streets by Dr. X. Dr. X took Nikki into his secret underground revolution by brainwashing Nikki and suppling him with fixes. The price? Nikki becomes an assassin that through his brainwashing cannot recall his dirty deeds. The secret lies behind the word "Mindcrime". Once Nikki hears this word, the mission begins. Nikki then meets a former prostitute, now nun, Mary, and falls in love with her. This love seems to start to erase the brainwash affect that Dr. X had worked hard at refining. Dr. X becomes suspicious of Mary and a corrupt priest, Father William, and orders Nikki to kill both Mary and Father William. Nikki goes to Mary and both decide to leave Dr. X's organization. Dr. X reminds Nikki that he is an addict and only Dr. X can provide the fix. Nikki leaves and goes back to Mary only to find her dead and then believing that he was the one who had killed her and never realized it. Nikki then submits to his own insanity and runs through the streets crying out Mary's name, only to be subdued by the police. Nikki is then placed into a hospital with a complete memory loss until he see's a news report on the recent murders and this jogs his memory and then he begins his story.

This album is a must have for any metal fan. This needs to be in your collection as this is a timeless album.

Operation Mindcrime