Queensryche - Operation : Mindcrime

\r\nI still remember how much I was impressed, when I heard Steve Harris in an interview, answer with no hesitation: "Which group do you think will star in the 90’s"? and he answered without even think of it : "Queensryche". So simple. Even this huge musician was impressed so much, like every one of us, from the "phenomenon" from Seattle. \r\n

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\r\nHaving released 3 impressive albums, the one better than the other and watching their vast improvement in each one of them, you can only agree with him. What if, a few months earlier than the May of 1988, they had released their fourth album, the awesome Operation: Mindcrime. Leaving behind their progressive sound, together with the also progressive image of Rage For Order, Queensryche, tried a more realistic and direct approach to their music and lyrics. And the results stands for them. While with Rage For Order, you leave your fantasy drifting away, with Mindcrime you are abruptly landed in the tough today’s reality. Being an x-ray of American (and not only) society and offending vital subjects as drugs, the religion, the mass Media, the demagoguery, Mindcrime strikes like a lightning in the musical limelight and shocking everybody. \r\n

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\r\nThe history of Nikki, the young man that is being cheated from the pompous words of Dr.X and his promises for a fair society and get into his organisation, really amuse you. Willingly or not, you become him, and from song to song, you experience the joy, the sorrow, the love, the disappointment, the pain. You laugh, cry, you fall in love, you suffer as if you where him. You close your eyes and you see everything unfolding in front you. \r\n

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\r\nYou feel the excitement when in the homonymous track (Operation:Mindcrime)  you accept his proposal and make dreams, for what you believe that it will be a better future. You feel emotions from your heart when in The Mission you fall in love with Mary. You feel heart-beating when in The Needle Lies, you are trying to escape from drugs. You shout desperate cries when in Breaking The Silence you search to find him in the night. You feel your breath cut from the pain when in I Don’ t Believe In Love you try to forget her, convincing yourself that in fact she never really loved you. You feel the absolute gap, when in Eyes Of A Stranger, you look yourself in the mirror, and you realise what you became in the end. A GREAT album. A COLLOSAL album. A CLASS album. Nothing less. \r\n

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\r\nUnfortunately, for Harris but also for their million fans, the group progress wasn’t that we alla anticipated. The mediocre Empire, is far away to be regarded as metal. As for the rest, they are far away of being characterized in general. But, I am not going to say more, cause it is unfair for this masterpiece to be connected with their nowadays misery image. The only that deserves is the immense admiration and the world-wide recognition as one of the real masterpieces of our music. Nothing less…. \r\n

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\r\nAntonis Alexandropoulos \r\n

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\r\nTranslated by: Manos Maragos \r\n

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