Queensrÿche Operation: Mindcrime EMI America, 1988 amazon

My "Album of the ~Week" section has gotten off to a rocky start, with ~week apparently meaning something like every 2 months. Keep reading, it'll pick up! In keeping with my recent heavy metal renaissance, i've chosen what was one of my favorite albums in high school, Operation: Mindcrime, the 1988 concept album by Seattle hard rockers Queensrÿche. I bought the cassette after seeing the video for "Eyes Of A Stranger" on MTV's Headbangers' Ball. It took a while before i managed to digest the whole thing, but the album's infectious melodies and ominous tones gradually work their way into you. I must admit that even listening to it now, i still don't quite follow the album's story, something about a hitman, the prostitute-turned-nun that he falls in love with and is later instructed to kill, and his descent into drug-fueled madness. I know several people who are turned off by Geoff Tate's high-pitched wail. It is a little prog-rock, but i think that songs like the epic "Suite Sister Mary", "Spreading the Disease" with its "the more things change ..." message, and the instrumental march "Anarchy-X" are so well-conceived that the strengths outweigh the weaknesses. I managed to catch Queensrÿche on their 1991 Operation: Livecrime tour, and the album stood up as well when performed live as it is captured on record. The followup album Empire wasn't quite as powerful, but Queensrÿche remain a bright spot among their hair band and headbanger peers.

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