804. Queensrÿche / Operation: Mindcrime II. 2006. 3/5

You could argue that by the time 2004 rolled around Queensrÿche, or the controlling interests of the band at least, had run dry on ideas. The glory days of the late 1980's and early 1990's had well and truly passed, and the band's sound had done a complete 180 from progressive metal superstars to grunge/alternative humdrum. Fans such as myself had pretty much given up on them ever being able to, or wanting to, regain those early days and produce something that we wanted to hear. Of course, my friends and I had been joking for a decade, "why don't they just do a Mindcrime 2?" and then laughing ourselves into a stupor as to the ridiculousness of that idea. So, when it came to pass that it was announced that Queensrÿche's next album would in fact be Operation: Mindcrime II, there was the thought that perhaps this was the final straw, the last gasp, of a once great band. But there is always that small part of you that hopes, in all sincerity, that maybe... just maybe... it would be the kick start to a reboot, the start of a new era... the return of greatness...

Hindsight of course is a marvellous thing. Sometime after this was released, it became clear that the majority of the band, that being drummer Scott Rockenfield, guitarist Michael Wilton and bass guitarist Eddie Jackson had had little to no involvement in either the writing or recording of the album. It had all been through the mind set of Geoff Tate, recent guitar addition Mike Stone, and producer Jason Slater. Even initially the 'band' had a different sound on this, and as a very average drummer, it was pretty obvious to me that this was not Rockenfield drumming on the album. It was a completely different style and sound (and as it turned out, programming). Without delving into the politics of the band as it was at that time (again, with the hindsight of the recent split and ugliness), can this be considered a Queensrÿche album if there was really only one member pulling all the strings?
In the tradition of a sequel, this has been structured so that there are enough little resemblances within the music to make you not only remember the original but to hopefully then bring some of your love for that album into this one. The opening instrumental "Freiheit Ouvertüre" into "I'm American" hopes to invoke "Anarchy X" into "Revolution Calling" no doubt. The major positive of this is that at least it has in "I'm American" dragged out of the writers the most energetic and frenetic song the band has played in 15 years! What a pleasure it is to finally have a fast tempo Queensrÿche song back on the menu! This continues for the most part through the early part of the album, with "One Foot in Hell", "Hostage" and "The Hands" all move along reasonably well and connect both musically and within the framework of the story. "Speed of Light" halts this progress somewhat, though "Signs Say Go" and "Re-Arrange You" kick along again with the kind of energy and drive that has been missing from the band's music for a long, long time. Did it really take going back to see what made Operation: Mindcrime work to realise this is the kind of direction the fans wanted to see the band head?
I can't say I am overly enamored by the story. Nikki goes through a rather clichéd line of leave jail - angry confused - caught again - no 'justice' - escapes - plans to kill Dr X - chases Dr X - kills Dr X - still not satisfied - am I going insane? - suicide will help - commit suicide - live happily ever after in afterlife with murdered prostitute-nun. Really? The only part of that storyline that would really interest anyone would be the eventual confrontation with Dr X, so there is a lot of filler story before and after that.
That confrontation, as portrayed in the album's best track, "The Chase", truly comes to life with the appearance of Ronnie James Dio as Dr X, and his presence immediately brings the story and album to life. His duel with Geoff Tate as Dr X and Nikki here is the absolute highlight of this album. The problem that follows this is that nothing else can match this, and to be honest the remainder of the album slides away from this point. The excitement of this song overshadows everything else, and because the story becomes more reflective and tragic once Dr X has been disposed of, the music and songs move in that direction as well, and away from the hope of mirroring anything as brilliant as was found on the first edition of this story. "A Murderer" works okay, but after this we have songs like "Circles" and "If I Could Change It All" that fall into the morose style that might fit the story but don't befit an album sequence. By the time we get to the closing track, "All The Promises", the album slides away with a whimper rather than an impact, emphasising the difference in the two versions of the Mindcrime albums.

There is little doubt that is was a bold move to go ahead with this concept. It had the potential to not only be bad, but also damage the enormous reputation that the original album had built. I don't think anyone had grandiose visions of this being as good as the original (except maybe the writers and composers, but that's another story), but there was at least one positive. In trying to be faithful to the original album, the writers had to produce heavier and faster songs than they had been in recent years, or else it would not have worked at all as a 'rock opera', which surely was what Tate was after. Thus, we had some reasonable songs come our way closer in style to what the fans of Queensrÿche would have expected. The result of this is that this is certainly a more listenable album than anything they have produced in years previous to its release. Though it does not come close to the original, it at least showed some positive signs, and that maybe all was not lost after all.

Rating:  Without me, you would have learned, nothing!  3/5