Operation Mindcrime 2 is Coming!

[Jim]

Probably one of the best and biggest concept albums of all time is making a return.  Queensryches new tour will feature a pretty solid show.  They will be performing an hours worth of greatest hits tunes, followed by Mindcrime in its entirety in surround sound. The first time in about a dozen years, promising to be a bigger stage production then earlier attempts.  Actors and Actresses to perform will be named at a later date.  The tour will be backed by all new footage and the final part of the show will preview the upcoming Operation Mindcrime 2 which will be released in 2005 with another tour to follow.  The show will conclude with Silent Lucidity. And yes we will finally find out who murdered Sister Mary when Mindcrime 2 debuts early next year.  Not sure if anyone else is as big a fan of the Mindcrime story, but dont miss out seeing it in its entirety it is AMAZING.

[jokabofe]

i was never a huge fan of queensryche, but i will admit that mindcrime is a great album, and they are awesome live. i saw them open for metallica a while back and they put on an ass kidking show. but i saw them when they played that mini livecrime tour, the first time they were going around playing the album in it's entirety, and it was amazing. i will definitely have to go and check this out. thanks for the info  

[Jim]

i was never a huge fan of queensryche, but i will admit that mindcrime is a great album, and they are awesome live.

You will hear more and more people who are not fans say this.  I was lucky enough to see the Mindcrime show in its entirety when it first came out and I was blown away with the production.  Adding Surround Sound, actors and new  footage can only do more justice.  Check it out here: http://www.queensryche.com/
Its funny how VH1 classics is sponsering this.  Really shows our age.

[Muftak]

I remember now.

I remember how it started...

[DoctorPadawan]

I'm going to be the dissenting voice here and say that the idea of a sequel to the original "Mindcrime" really disappoints me for various reasons.  Let me preface this by saying that I absolutely adore O:M; it's easily one of my top five albums of all time and is perfect from beginning to end.  And if you don't have the "Operation: LiveCrime" box set (which is now a DVD and CD sold separately, apparently), do yourself a favor and track it down, because it's simply amazing.  Back then, QR were one of the most amazing bands on the planet.  The problem is that they don't seem to have the passion for what they do anymore.

That's one of the main reasons I'm not thrilled about an O:M sequel being done.  "Who Killed Mary?" aside, there isn't anywhere left for the story to go.  Nikki is in a mental hospital, Dr. X has been arrested, Mary is dead, and the story has gone as far as it can go.  QR doesn't have the passion they did when they wrote and recorded the original "Mindcrime" (I have yet to see a review of the "Tribe" tour that does not refer to the listless and lackadaisical performance by Tate), and I have a feeling that given the decrease in album sales since EMI went out of business after HITNF and they lost their long-time label, this is being done less about artistic concerns and more about making an attempt to get the money while the gettin's good.

I've never been fond of "cashing in" when it comes to artistic work.  The whole "selling out" argument has been done to death, and I'm not fond of that side of things anyway, especially when it comes to the definition a lot of people have for bands that do so.  Like I said, the sales for QR's records since HITNF (which went platinum, but still didn't sell nearly as much as "Empire" or "Promised Land") have gotten consistently worse, and arguably, so has the quality of the music.  "Q2K" was simply horrid, and "Tribe" wasn't all that great either (but it did have its moments).  My fear is that a sequel to "Mindcrime" isn't being done because they want to do it, it's that they are doing it because they think it may be the only way to get back to a higher plateau of record sales and popularity.

My other reason for not being interested/thrilled about a sequel to "Mindcrime" is that Chris DeGarmo (yes, I'm one of the die-hard DeGarmo era fans) will more than likely not be involved at all.  If you look at the credits for the original Mindcrime, Chris is involved in the writing of about 70% of the material; if you watch the video of "Livecrime", he's one of the most energetic members of the group in performing the material.  Although many would say that a lot of HITNF suffered from poor quality (I am not one of those people), the stuff they've done since DeGarmo left has been of a significantly lower quality than the stuff before his departure.  Listen to "Promised Land" and then listen to "Q2K" and then tell me that they haven't suffered for his absence.  Sure, he was on "Tribe", and while the majority of the "good" songs (purely subjective opinion, mind you) involved him, Tate and Co. continue to downplay his involvement.  It started with "Chris is working with us on the entire album", went to "he came in for a few days and worked on a few songs", and then is now at "he had very little involvement."  It's only a matter of time before Tate starts denying Chris DeGarmo exists.

The best analogy I can give for my QR fandom of 16 years is this: they're like the "Alien" films in a lot of ways.  I loved the first two "Alien" films very much; "Alien 3" was okay (made much better on the recent DVD Working Print) and I wish I could forget "Alien: Resurrection" even existed; I dread the "Alien Vs. Predator" movie because I am afraid it's going to be mindless sci-fi violence.

QR has been the same way with me: I loved everything up to "Promised Land" (dare I say their best work), HITNF was okay and was unfairly maligned, but I loathed Q2K and I dread an O:M sequel because it seems like a cash-in with no artistic motivation.

Sorry for the rant, but I'm kind of decompressing from work and when I heard about a sequel to "Mindcrime" I couldn't believe my ears.  Maybe I'm just too cynical, who knows.  

But hey, if the sequel sucks, I can start posting on AICN about how "Queensryche Raped my Childhood" or something.  

[Jim]

Being a fan, I too have been disappointed with the last few albums.  Im still a loyal fan though and am holding out hope that it turns around with MC2.  No doubt DeGarmo was a big part of the writing and music.  A good reason why the music has suffered on the last few albums.  While people will insist that this is a marketing ploy to cash in, the fact is that Mindcrime 2 has been talked about ever since the first album was released and has been put on the shelf a few times.  Its not like it just happened.  As for the slide in the music put out, I would tend to think that music tastes have changed greatly over the last 15 years and also the fact that Record Industries just did not want to continue putting out this type of music anymore.  BTW the DVD is a must have and I watched it again last night.  Still fresh to this day.  Now if you want to talk about cashing in, talk to Roger Waters about the Wall coming to broadway  He has not put out a decent album since the Pros and Cons or even Radio Chaos.  With QR I have been waiting for this followup for over 15 years and lets hope that DeGarmo is involved.