Review: Operation: Mindcrime – The Key

Frontiers Records (2015)

Reviewer: Aaron Chatfield

The Queensrÿche breakdown saga has been well documented, so without going into details, Queensrÿche continue to operate under that moniker, with Todd LeTorre on the mic, whilst ex-Queensrÿche vocalist, Geoff Tate has adopted the name of Queensrÿche’s biggest album, Operation: Mindcrime. Not sure if that is a good or a bad idea, as it carries a huge amount of responsibility and expectation for Tate to deliver something worthy of that classic album.

For me, I haven’t enjoyed Geoff Tate’s solo work or the QR albums he has been in charge of for the last decade or two, but I am trying my best to keep an open mind, hoping that Geoff can capture some of the glory from the first 4-5 Queensrÿche releases.

The Key opens up (see what I did there!) with ‘Choices’ which acts as an extended intro to the album. It’s a familiar sound to albums such as Tribe or Q2K or Geoff’s last QR release. ‘Burn’ is our first full track…. The first few second hint of something from Rage for Order, but that soon morphs into a more familiar Tate style. Mid-tempo rocker, the track doesn’t really grab you, but the vocals are good and there is some promise in the track.

‘Re-Inventing The Future’ is more like it! Sounding like a modern take on a track from Operation Mindcrime or Empire, it has all the hallmarks of Queensrÿche, including an Empire-eque spoken piece. I am really hoping that this track is the scene setter for the rest of the album. ‘Ready to Fly’ is the litmus test for that hope….. and its, well, it’s not bad. Has a slight Della Brown feel, with a bass driven verse, before an OK chorus.

‘Discussions In A Smoke Filled Room’ is a brief interlude, which gives way to ‘Life or Death’. Geoff shares the vocal duties with Mark Daly, Scott Moughton and Geoff’s partner in crime, Kelly Gray. The track works well, utilising a modern rock/metal sound to good effect

‘The Stranger’ does nothing for me. It’s a heavy down-tuned track, with a pseudo-rap style vocal on the verse and a simple chorus. ‘Hearing Voices’ is more up-tempo, with a driving chugging riff and stomach pounding bass rumble, but the hook never really comes.

‘On Queue’, slows us right down, with some clean guitars and keys providing the backing to the type of melancholic vocals that Geoff does best. It’s quite a quirky track, which includes an almost Gilmour-like guitar solo. Another interlude follows, ‘An Ambush Of Sadness’, which has a slight oriental feel to me

‘Kicking In The Front Door’ is the kind of song title that suggests an up-tempo rocker. I was expecting something like Needle Lies, but instead we have a progressive rock ballad, continuing some of those oriental melodies. Whilst it wasn’t what I was expecting, it’s an enjoyable track.

So we arrive at the final track on the album, ‘The Fall’. The track has some inventive riffing in the chorus, with a feel reminiscent of some of the slower progressive Queensrÿche tracks of the past. It builds nicely throughout, with the strings giving way to sound effects.

This was a tough review for me. I so wanted to hear Geoff deliver something truly worthy of the Operation Mindcrime name and I don’t think he has. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad album, it’s just that it is miles away from the Queensrÿche sound many of us would like to hear. I my opinion, I think Geoff should have chosen a difference name for this release, something unrelated to Queensrÿche. Tate has changed, the music he wants to produce is not the music that is tied to Queensrÿche, it’s something else. It has it’s place and Geoff needs to drop the shackles of his past if he is truly going to embrace his future as an artist