By STEVE MASCORD
ORWELL’s 1984 is deservedly a classic. The combination of political negativism and personal morbidity creates some of literature’s most movingly depressing scenes.
Singer Geoff Tate and Queensryche seemed to have walked out of the cinema after watching the film adaptation four years ago and decided they could do the soundtrack better than
Eurythmics.
And they have.
Operation: Mindcrime is an epic. It’s hard to examine purely as a record because it’s more like an audio movie, complete with dialogue and sound effects breaking up some heavy metal’s most intelligent music to date in a ground-breaking 60 minute package.
Musically, Queensryche is one of the genre’s few remaining acts that doesn’t sing about parties, drugs and women. Until now they had been erroneously categorised by some as dungeons and dragons band, singing bizarre and irrelevant songs like “Queen Of The Reich”. But here they finally find their niche with a concept record in the vein of War of the Worlds and The Wall.
The storyline is timeless, but tells basically of three characters: Sister Mary, a nun and former prostitute; revolutionary leader Doctor X and Nikki, a street kid who is sucked in by Doctor X’s message. It is not a rip-off of 1984, but the pessimistic atmosphere that dominates the novel is here. Nikki is Winston, Sister Mary is Julia, Doctor X is O’Brien.
As far a musical quality goes, Operation: Mindcrime is devastating. Take away the words and each track has the same effect – the songs are original and heartfelt. Never has a lead guitar communicated such desperation and hopelessness, and Queensryche make brilliant use of synthesisers to embellish the sound of several tracks. But it is the lead axe that puts an acute emotional edge on each song, and no other form of music could set a scene better. Several of the songs may have thundering guitar, but their moods dictate they are unarguably ballads.
Through Queensryche, hard rock must now have proven itself an outstanding medium with integrity. This isn’t “Talk Dirty To Me” or “You Give Love A Bad Name”. It’s heavy metal for grown-ups, tailored not for flashy arena shows but specifically for vinyl. It won’t and can’t be reproduced live but as a recording it has no peer – metal can be art after all.
It may never top charts, but like its inspiration it should be enshrined as a classic. If only Orwell had played guitar.
This review was published in On The Street magazine on September 7, 1988
Get Operation: Mindcrime on vinyl
HEAR OUR INTERVIEWS WITH DOZENS OF ARTISTS VIA OUR PATREON PAGE. EAVESDROP AS WE CHAT TO THE BIGGEST NAMES IN ROCK AND METAL – FROM 1987 TO THE PRESENT!
Features:
Audio interviews:
-
LA Guns – Waking The Dead
-
Bon Jovi – Keep The Faith
$53.74 -
Motley Crue – Cancelled EP (CD)
$30.08 -
Slash – Orgy Of The Damned CD and vinyl
$23.33 -
Skid Row – Subhuman Race vinyl
$57.03 -
Riley’s LA Guns – Renegades
$65.99 -
Motley Crue – Shout At The Devil 40th anniversary boxed set
$271.88 -
KISS – Creatures Of The Night 5CD blue ray boxed set
$317.42
