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Spotlights [Issue
#
19 ]
Queensr˙che:
Revisiting a Life of Crime
By
Dean Truitt
In 1988, a relatively obscure progressive metal band from Seattle called Queensrÿche
released Operation: Mindcrime, a monumental concept album immediately compared
to Pink Floyd’s The Wall, The Who’s Quadrophenia, and Rush’s 2112.
Mindcrime’s commercial and critical success launched the quintet into the
forefront of artistic metal and the band’s mainstream popularity culminated
in the ubiquitous hit from the Empire record, “Silent Lucidity.” After
nearly two decades, the band decided to revisit the story that put them on the
musical map.
To complete an idea after an 18-year hiatus could be challenging on a number of
levels. Geoff Tate, Queensrÿche’s lead vocalist and primary songwriter,
was conscious of trying to reclaim the original mood of the first Mindcrime, but
reveals that the second act has a different theme. He explains, “I wrote
a story and then out of the storyline, realized certain subjects that I wanted
to write about. Mostly the record is about a study of revenge: what that does
to the character in the story, Nikki, who is jailed for 20 years. He sits in that
prison and just stews on his life. He thinks about the path he could have taken
in a different direction. The more he thinks about it, the more angry he gets
and the more focused he gets on exacting revenge for his circumstances.”
Once Tate had a story outline in place, the band labored for 18 months in creating
the appropriate music for the epic tale. He recalls, “We wanted the listener
to be able to listen to them [the Mindcrime CDs] and have a familiar experience
because the music is really the engine of the story. We wanted that feeling to
be somewhat familiar to the audience so they felt they were coming back into the
story with the second part. We took musical themes from the first one and wove
them into the second. We followed a very similar way of writing and recording
this record as the first one.”
After writing the material, another daunting task was to recreate the atmosphere
and tone of the first installment. Since recording technology had changed radically
in the time since the original Mindcrime, Tate admits that the band made tremendous
effort to study the equipment and recording techniques of the original CD. He
elaborates, “Jason Slater [Operation: Mindcrime II’s producer] spent
a lot of time analyzing the first Mindcrime. We actually went and got the master
tapes and listened to them in the studio track by track to hear how things were
recorded. One thing about the original Mindcrime is that it was one of the first
digital recordings ever issued on a major label. It was the infancy of digital
recording. In fact, when we recorded the album and the label heard it, they made
us remaster it because it was too harsh to their ears because everyone had grown
up on analog tape recording, which is a much softer, mellow kind of sound. The
digital recording was considered brittle and harsh and nobody could listen to
it (laughs). Jason Slater and I listened to the master tapes and went so far as
to find a rental company that specializes in really old, antique recording equipment.
We rented a roomful of stuff that was state-of-the-art stuff back in the late
‘80s. We brought that into the studio for this album and recorded a lot of
the album through that.”
The climax of the album’s conceptual storyline occurs when Nikki finally
locates and confronts the menacing Dr. X, whose character is performed on the
recording by Ronnie James Dio. “The Chase” opens aggressively with a
condescending Dr. X scorning Nikki’s efforts to seek revenge. The interplay
between the two powerful vocalists perfectly captures the sound of a mentor and
protégé relationship because Dio’s and Tate’s voices resemble
a father and son violently arguing. When asked about the former Black Sabbath
singer’s participation, Tate beams, “In my mind, the sound of Dr. X
was always Ronnie’s voice. He has this unusual, unique sound and it’s
very commanding. The character of Dr. X is very demanding and controlling. He’s
your elder and Ronnie is definitely one of the elder statesman and pioneers of
metal. I was very pleased and honored when he agreed to be involved in the project.”
Sequels are often crass attempts at recapturing the financial rewards of a previous
success, but Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime II was clearly a labor
of love that completes the story arc of an astounding rock opera.
Operation: mindcrime II
Rhino
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