After a series of interludes and the song "I Don't Believe in Love", all with deeply pessimistic lyrics detailing Nikki's loss, his insanity and subsequent hospitalization, the song "Eye of a Stranger" begins. The song is 6 and a half minutes in length, and details Nikki remembering the past and wondering how he got into this particular situation, alone in a mental hospital. It ends as it began, with Nikki saying the words "I remember now..."

This is a concept album, but it takes awhile to realize that for the unknowing listener. It took a summary I found on Wikipedia for me to get the gist of it, and I wish I hadn't. I story is thoroughly depressing, and driven by protagonist Nikki's facepalmingly bad mistake of agreeing to assassinate politicians in exchange for... heroin? However, the poor storyline can be brushed aside because of the incredible instrumental work. So, what does make this album so special to me and thousands of other fans? I guess everyone does have his own explanation of that question, since everyone does experience music in his own way. Throughout the album, I underwent one of the deepest "thinking sessions" in my life, as a result of what I heard. Literally, every single song is a masterpiece, and is written on the absolute highest level of musicianship. There are slightly heavier, more traditional heavy metal songs, such as "Operation Mindcrime", "Spreading the Disease", "I Don't Believe in Love", and more experimental and story-driven songs, like "Suite Sister Mary" and "Eyes of a Stranger". The disc goes through every color of the rainbow that's inside the topic of the album, and there would not have been a better way to pull the songs off. Seriously, every emotion, every change, every mood, every detail is perfectly and beautifully covered in the songs.The compositions on "Operation : Mindcrime" offer almost everything a fan of good music (and i'm not just talking about metal my friends) should like. From faster parts/songs like "Speak" and "The Needle Lies" to songs with balladesque parts "The Mission" on to progressive (almost classical) structures in a song like "Suite Sister Marry" - this album offers everything . Actually i shouldn't have taken out specific songs, since the whole album only works perfect as a union. Of course every song on the album could speak for himself, but only by listening to the whole album, reading through the lyrics you will find out what a fantastic piece of music Queensryche created at the peak of their career. Swedishcharts.com – Queensrÿche – Operation: Mindcrime II". Hung Medien. Retrieved September 7, 2022. Eyes of a Stranger’ and ‘I Don’t Believe in Love’ were released as singles, and became the first by the band to chart in the US, introducing them to a wider audience for the first time. So, as said, the songs stood well on their own, and helped pave the path to success. But it’s the whole album played end to end that really makes everything stand out. It’ s the full Shakespearean story of anarchy, love, and tragedy that makes the songs fully come to life. The Sequel – Truth is Angrier than Fiction

The year is 1988. Ronald Reagan is in the last years of his presidency and the Cold War is nearing its conclusion. Despite rebounding from a severe recession through "Reaganomics", there is still a considerable gap between the rich and poor. Though the Soviet threat seems done for, scandals such as the Iran-Contra Affair have only exacerbated the American public's anger and mistrustfulness of the central government and its leader. Coupled with increased crime stemming from the war on drugs, many Americans are rightfully pissed. With one album, Queensryche encompasses and captures all of these feelings and concepts with the story of a drug-addicted revolutionary part of a conspiracy to clean America of corruption and deceit. Operation: Mindcrime succeeds in not only becoming Queensryche's crowning achievement and a cornerstone in the progressive metal genre, but it may very well be the greatest concept album of all time. Just to give an indication of the popularity of Operation: Livecrime, EMI sold more than 260,000 copies of the original video format before deleting it in 1998 and then transferring it to DVD. Tate admits that the band have even discussed making the concept into a movie.Usually music has a "shelf-life" for me; even if I still appreciate the music, after a certain period of time I lose taste for bands/albums that I used to like. For instance, the album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas was a constant on my playlist circa 2004-2007, and even though I still like the album and the band, I never listen to that album. Nor do I listen to Painkiller anymore, nor Under a Funeral Moon, nor the Keepers of the Seven Keys, nor Imaginations From the Other Side. However, I still listen to Operation: Mindcrime, despite the album having been on my playlists for years. At the time, Leppard were playing their shows ‘in the round’ and still promoting the previous year’s enormous hit album Hysteria. When I ask Geoff Tate which of those tours he enjoyed the most, he fixed me with a gaze that suggests I’ve just asked a complete no-brainer. “Hmmm, let’s consider that one for a moment,” he ponders. Def Leppard: giant stages to play on… sell-out shows… scantily-clad women dancing at the front of the stage and baring their breasts at us. Metallica: sweaty young boys throwing bottles at us. Now let’s see, which of those would be the most fun?” It's not the storyline; on the contrary, the tale that Queensryche has told is one of intrigue and suspense. I even found myself drawing a few parallels to Orwell's 1984, a classic of dystopian fiction that this album surely took some inspiration from. But it's a story that seems like it would have played out much better as a novel, or even as a screenplay. The concept album format almost exclusively makes the storyline of an album a bit difficult to follow, even more so if the listener isn't taking the time to read along with the lyrics in the sleeve. So for an album of this type, it's usually necessary to listen to it several times before one finds that they truly understand and appreciate it the way it was meant to be heard. And for that to be possible, the album (musically) must be compelling enough to warrant a second, a third, or a hundreth listen-through in its entirety, however long it takes before the listener 'gets' it. And that right there is where Queensryche failed me as a listener. Zero compulsion to listen to it again. Operation: Mindcrime in 1988 that they truly proved how wrong early assumptions were of this Seattle Metal band. a b Queensryche sings "Silent Lucidity" at the Arcada Theater!. arcadatheater. May 18, 2013 . Retrieved May 24, 2023– via YouTube.

In late 2014, Tate began working on a new concept album. Planned as a trilogy of albums, he has claimed it as one of his most ambitious works to date. [3] [4] The band signed a worldwide deal with Frontiers Music Srl for its coming releases in December 2014. Operation: Mindcrime was Queensrÿche's breakthrough album, reaching number 50 on the Billboard 200 while its singles " Eyes of a Stranger" and " I Don't Believe in Love" served as the band's first charting hits in the United States. [7] [8] The album was certified by the RIAA as gold in early 1989, and was certified as platinum two years later. [9] A sequel, Operation: Mindcrime II, was released on April 4, 2006. Another of the album’s delicious moments of detail comes when the aforementioned nurse injects Nikki with a sedative, saying: ‘Sweet dreams’ then adding under her breath: ‘You bastard’. “The ‘you bastard’ part was definitely inspired by The Young Ones,” Tate grins unexpectedly. “We used to watch that series all the time.” The production is likely one of the main reasons behind this album's monstrous popularity. Everything sounds very loud, very clear, and absolutely drenched in that echo/reverb effect that was so common in the 80's. There's cutting vocal lines, bombastic drums and a very audible bass tone, which is coupled with lots of catchy hooks to create an album that will stay in your head for a long time. Despite this, the production actually puts the vocals slightly above everything else, which would be a good thing with such a great vocalist, but it's really... not. Queensryche's biggest success is a milestone in metal history, and there are few who would argue with that. It takes music to a whole new level, where it is not just'pleasant sound', but substance and thought-provoking art. It is easy to listen to, yet it is also deep and emotional. Plus, it has one of the best replay values of any CD in my collection. Highly recommended to fans of heavy metal, or fans of almost any branch of metal.By then Queensrÿche were two years older and wiser. Despite the fact that they were now promoting the Empire album (its huge, Michael Kamen-scored Silent Lucidity single had helped the band to secure a spot on the bill at the ’89 Castle Donington festival) the band went the whole hog and filmed a full concert performance of Operation: Mindcrime.