Metal men give dystopia a suitable soundtrack

QueensrØche say time is right to bring back story of ‘Mindcrime’

By John Chandler

The Portland Tribune, Oct 8, 2004, Updated Oct 30, 2009

You can’t keep a good concept album down Ñ especially when elements of its ominous story can be found lurking in current events.

In 1988, Seattle quintet QueensrØche released “Operation: Mindcrime,” a dark record that depicts a dystopian future society driven by charismatic Ñ and sinister Ñ demagogues. The central character is a street kid named Nikki who comes under the thrall of Dr. X and turns into his loyal assassin, eliminating anyone who poses a threat. It’s sort of “1984” meets “The Manchurian Candidate” with a dramatic metal soundtrack welded on.

“It’s a story about a terrorist,” singer Geoff Tate explains. “It sort of fits in with what’s going on in the world right now.”

The band began life in the early ’80s with a sound that owed quite a bit to Iron Maiden, with Tate’s operatic pipes wailing out front. Gradually, more progressive, arty influences found their way into the mix, earning QueensrØche the tag “thinking man’s metal.”

“Operation: Mindcrime” represents the band’s creative pinnacle, selling well over a million copies, though its follow-up record, “Empire” (1990) actually sold a bit better thanks to the top 10 single “Silent Lucidity.”

QueensrØche is revisiting “Mindcrime” on its current tour, with elaborate staging, surround-sound technology, orchestral backing and even actors portraying characters from the album.

Careful, guys, remember what happened to Styx on the “Mr. Roboto” tour.

There’s a story to tell

“I’ve always been interested in dramatic productions,” says Tate, 45. “I’ve always thought of QueensrØche as a very dramatic musical organization, and our music lends itself to that sort of treatment. Especially ‘Mindcrime,’ because it’s a story.

“We started on this route because I was writing a screenplay based on the album,” Tate says. “And I noticed there are a lot of holes on the album that you can’t cover musically. É So in true QueensrØche fashion we started brainstorming and came up with some angles that would make it interesting for us to play it and interesting for an audience to see it.”

Tate says that going back to the old album inspired the band members to work on a sequel, titled (what else?) “Operation: Mindcrime II.” And, he says, there’s definite interest in a “Mindcrime” movie from the Hollywood community.

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