Operation: Mindcrime

Operation: Mindcrime is Queensrÿche's third full-length album, which was released on May 3, 1988. It is a concept album about a man becoming disillusioned with American society, and joining in a conspiratorial plot to assassinate its corrupt leaders, with spoken dialogue between songs that advances the story and ties the songs together. The album is generally considered to be the first, and still one of the most important and popular, progressive metal recordings. In January 1989, it ranked #34 on Kerrang! magazine's "100 Greatest Heavy Metal Albums Of All Time".

History
During the tour promoting the 1990 album Empire, Operation: Mindcrime was performed in its entirety. The stage show featured video, animation and guest singer Pamela Moore as Sister Mary. This live show was successful enough that the band released it as a box set called Operation: LIVEcrime. The story was initially explored in a series of video clips for MTV in the 1989 VHS video, Video: Mindcrime.

Before filming Video: Mindcrime, the band shot a one-off promotional video in 1988 for the song "Speak" which only consisted of performance footage and did not include any of the story concepts that dominated the album.

In the United States, the album was certified gold a year after its release and was certified platinum in 1991.

In 2003, a 24-bit remastered version of Operation: Mindcrime was released that included live versions of "The Mission" and "My Empty Room" as bonus tracks.

In 2006, EMI released a deluxe Operation: Mindcrime box set that included the 2003 remaster, as well as an audio disc of a November 15, 1990 Hammersmith Odeon concert, with the band performing the entire album, and a bonus DVD containing Video: Mindcrime and bonus clips.

The sequel, Operation: Mindcrime II, was released on April 4, 2006, with Ronnie James Dio taking over the role of Dr. X. The subsequent tour consisted of the band performing both Operation: Mindcrime and its sequel in their entireties, back-to-back, with actors, props, an elaborate stage set, and a video screen. The live act from that tour also definitively answered the long-asked question, "Who killed Mary?"

Story
The album begins with the protagonist, Nikki, lying in a hospital bed. He lies in a nearly catatonic state, unable to remember anything but snippets from his past. Suddenly, Nikki has a violent flashback in which his memories come flooding back in a torrent ("I Remember Now", "Anarchy-X"). He remembers how, as a heroin addict and would-be political radical frustrated with contemporary society, he was manipulated into joining a supposed secret organization dedicated to revolution ("Revolution Calling"). At the head of this organization is a political and religious demagogue known only as Dr. X, who, manipulating Nikki through a combination of his heroin addiction and brainwashing techniques (à la The Manchurian Candidate), uses Nikki as an assassin. Whenever Dr. X uses the word "mindcrime" Nikki becomes his docile puppet, a state which Dr. X uses to command Nikki to undertake any murder that the Doctor wishes ("Operation: Mindcrime", "Speak"). Through one of Dr. X's probable associates, a corrupt priest named Father William, Nikki is offered the services of a prostitute-turned-nun named Sister Mary. Details are vague whether these services are sexual or simply emotional ("Spreading the Disease"), though the lyrics for "Suite Sister Mary" seem to indicate that is the first time they engage in sex ("Your precious cross is gone. It made me wait so long for what you gave to everyone"). However, through his friendship and growing affection toward Sister Mary, Nikki begins to question the nature of what he is doing ("The Mission"). Dr. X notices this and, seeing a potential threat in Mary, orders Nikki to kill both her and the priest. Nikki goes to Mary's church and kills the priest, but after confronting Mary fails to comply with the command to murder her ("Suite Sister Mary"). He and Mary decided to leave the organization together, and Nikki goes to Dr. X to tell him that they are out. Dr. X, however, reminds Nikki that he is an addict, and that he is the only one who can provide his daily fix ("The Needle Lies"). Nikki leaves conflicted and returns to Mary, only to find her dead ("Electric Requiem"). He cannot cope with the loss, as well as the possibility that he himself may have killed her and not known it, and begins to succumb to insanity ("Breaking the Silence", "I Don't Believe in Love"). The police, arriving on the scene, arrest him for Mary's murder and the murders he committed for Dr. X ("Waiting for 22"). Because he is in a near-catatonic state, he is put into a hospital, where he starts to remember… ("My Empty Room", "Eyes of a Stranger").

Mary's death
Details about this crucial point of the story are ambiguous (in the album itself). The lyrics themselves do not hold clues, and the booklet remains vague about this part of the story.

Four possible situations can be taken into account:

Nikki killed Mary in a brainwashed state under X's command, thus he doesn't remember.
Dr. X realized Nikki won't be able to perform the murder, so he took matters into his own hands and killed Mary himself. (Or perhaps through other mindcrimers.)
Mary committed suicide.
There was a third party involved
There are some possible interpretations on some existing clues:

Chris DeGarmo in an interview has noted that "Electric Requiem" is how "Nikki comes back to the church and finds Mary dead hanging by her rosary", but states that "You don't quite know who killed her. Was it X or Nikki?", excluding her suicide.
The cinematic video snippets shown during the Livecrime concerts and in the "I Don't Believe in Love" and "Eyes of a Stranger" music videos show Dr. X approaching Mary while wrapping a rosary around his fist, likely to strangle her.
The band released a VHS recording called Video: Mindcrime in 1989. At the time of its release, EMI claimed that Video: Mindcrime contained the answer to the question of who killed Mary. It contained videos for several songs on the album, as well as a "hidden" bonus video for the song "I Don't Believe In Love," which appeared after the ending credits. The video featured split-screen images which "match" only once, toward the end of the song, to form the word "suicide."
In the live performances of the Operation: Mindcrime album (An Evening With Queensrÿche) in 2004, Mary was shown sitting down by a telephone and receiving a "Mindcrime!" phone call from Dr. X, similar to Nikki's earlier; he commands her to shoot herself; she is unable to resist and complies.

Feature film
In April 2006, while doing press for sequel Operation: Mindcrime II, vocalist Geoff Tate told MTV.com that there were plans to make feature films out of both Operation: Mindcrime and its sequel. While details since then have been virtually nonexistent, Tate stated in the interview that he had worked on a script with a screenwriter named Mark Shepherd and that the band was shipping the completed script to various Hollywood studios.

Track listing
"I Remember Now" (Chris DeGarmo, Geoff Tate, Michael Wilton ) – 1:17
"Anarchy-X" (DeGarmo) – 1:27
"Revolution Calling" (Tate, Wilton) – 4:42
"Operation: Mindcrime" (DeGarmo, Tate, Wilton) – 4:43
"Speak" (Tate, Wilton) – 3:42
"Spreading the Disease" (Tate, Wilton) – 4:07
"The Mission" (DeGarmo) – 5:46
"Suite Sister Mary" (DeGarmo, Tate) – 10:41
"The Needle Lies" (Tate, Wilton) – 3:08
"Electric Requiem" (Scott Rockenfield, Tate) – 1:22
"Breaking the Silence" (DeGarmo, Tate) – 4:34
"I Don't Believe in Love" (DeGarmo, Tate) – 4:23
"Waiting for 22" (DeGarmo) – 1:05
"My Empty Room" (Tate, Wilton) – 1:28
"Eyes of a Stranger" (DeGarmo, Tate) – 6:39

2003 CD reissue bonus tracks
"The Mission (Live)" (DeGarmo) - 6:11
"My Empty Room (Live)" (Tate, Wilton) -2:43
Personnel
Band
Geoff Tate - Vocals
Chris DeGarmo - Guitar, background vocals
Eddie Jackson - Bass, background vocals
Michael Wilton - Guitar, background vocals
Scott Rockenfield - Drums, percussion, keyboards

Cast
Pamela Moore - as Sister Mary
Anthony Valentine - as Dr. X
Debbie Wheeler - as the Nurse
Mike Snyder - as the Anchorman
Scott Mateer - as the Preacher
The Moronic Monks of Morin Heights - Choir

Credits
Peter Collins - Producer
Michael Kamen - Orchestral arrangement
James Barton - Engineer, Mixing
Jim Campbell - Assistant Engineer
Bob Ludwig - Mastering
Paul Milner - Assistant Engineer
Paul Northfield - Engineer
Ronald Prent - Mixing Assistant
Glen Robinson - Assistant Engineer
Snakemeister - Conductor

Charts

Album
Billboard (North America)

Year Chart Position
1988 The Billboard 200 50

Singles
Year Name Chart Position
1989 "Eyes of a Stranger" US Mainstream Rock Tracks #35
1989 "I Don't Believe in Love" US Mainstream Rock Tracks #41