Retro Album Spotlight: Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime

Concept albums generally don't play well in today's music world. It was even a risk in 1988 when Queensryche released Operation: Mindcrime.

If you like 80s progressive hard rock and care to follow a story, nobody did it better than Queensryche with this album.

Sex, drugs, religion, politics, anarchy, unrest, brainwashing, redemption. It's all there.

Then there are the characters: The angst-ridden, fix-seeking late teen/early twenties Nikki. The evil mastermind behind the flawed revolution, Dr. X. The "whore from the underground" turned sympathetic sexually abused church-going counter counter culture heroine, Mary. And then the sadistic priest, Father William.

I'm not going to lay out the storyline here. If you are intrigued, listen for yourself and take it in as your own.

Operation: Mindcrime was the fourth output from Queensryche, one EP and two full length albums which never broke them through. So putting out Mindcrime at that juncture in the arc of the band was risky, kind of their 2112.

It didn't hurt that Queensryche landed the opening bill for Metallica's ...And Justice for All tour. All this led to the followup album Empire being a big hit with songs such as "Silent Lucidity" and "Jet City Woman". So the gamble paid off.

The songs on Operation: Mindcrime don't just further the story, they hold up on their own merit. Geoff Tate is a phenomenal vocalist. Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton's twin and/or dueling guitars are some of the best of that era, Scott Rockenfield is a monster on the drums while Eddie Jackson holds it all down with the bass.

I'm not going to embed a video because it's not about one or two songs, it's about the album. If you're reading this, you have a google machine and can listen to the entire album, which is the only way it can be appreciated.

Hard Rock Playlist 1

This is by no means an original idea, but I thought I'd make a hard rock playlist. Not the ultimate hard rock playlist, just a hard rock playlist. That is why I called it "Hard Rock Playlist 1". This is my first and maybe last or maybe the first of many.

Spotify, for me, is the easiest way to make a playlist (and yes, I pay for premium) so I am limited to what is available on that service.

Now let me take you through the process.

1. I wanted it to come in between and hour and an hour and half. 16 songs seems to be a pretty good number, but between 14 and 18 would have worked.
2. I tried to make it semi-cohesive from one song to the next, like listening to an album.
3. I wanted to hit as many decades as possible from the '70's until now (think I did that, although I'm not sure about 2000-2009).
4. I wanted to run the gamut on the fringes of what I consider hard rock (subjective, I know).
5. I wanted it to be something you could put on in your car and drive for an hour and not want to skip anything (again success will be subjective).
6. I didn't want the songs to be obvious.

So here is the playlist with comments. The Spotify link is at the bottom.

1) "Overture/The Temples of Syrinx"  - Rush
I went with this because it is one of the best opening salvos of any record I know. "Overture" sets the mood and then "The Temples of Syrinx" just smashes the listener in the face.

2) "Queen of the Reich" - Queensryche
This continues the full frontal assault from Queensryche's debut EP. Most may know them from "Silent Lucidity" or the Operation:Mindcrime stuff, but before that Queensryche sounded much more like Iron Maiden.

3) "Legend of the Spaceborne Killer" - Crobot
This is the first song from a newer/current band in my attempt to dispel the myth that rock is dead. It's got a vibe that could have fit in '70's but doesn't sound dated. Just a good hard rock song.

4) "Rocket Queen" - Guns N' Roses
From Appetite For Destruction, one of the best hard rock albums ever, this is not an obvious choice. The hits have been overplayed, so I went with an album cut which is one of the best on the record.

5) "Gypsy Road" - Cinderella
Cinderella is one of the best bluesy hard rock bands to come out of the '80's and it's kind of a shame that they got lumped in with the "hair metal" moniker. While I think some of their slower blusier stuff better exemplifies them as a band, this song fits the vibe of this playlist.

6) "Wicked" - Million Dollar Reload
Hailing from Ireland, Million Dollar Reload is another current band with a new record due out in 2015. They would feel right at home among the '80's L.A. sleaze rock scene. Good song with a good hook.

7) "Apocalyptic" - Halestorm
More ammunition to dispel the rock is dead myth, this from the 2015 record Into the Wild Life. If you read this blog regularly, you know my affinity for Lzzy Hale and Halestorm.

8) "Two Minutes to Midnight" - Iron Maiden
Because it's Iron Maiden and you can never go wrong with Iron Maiden when talking about hard rock.

9) "Highway Star" - Deep Purple
The second of three songs from the '70's. Deep Purple was so influential on hard rock artists from the '80's up until today, I had to include them. "Highway Star" keeps the motor running on this playlist.

10) "Slide It In" - Whitesnake
While, again, this is not an obvious choice, this is from the album that preceded Whitesnake's 1987 record that catapulted them (and Tawny Kitaen) to the top of American consciousness.

11) "Rusty Cage" - Soundgarden
I never considered Soundgarden to be a grunge band. To me they were always more hard rock, as this song proves. There has never been any "yarling" in Chris Cornell's vocals and the instrumentation on this track is almost, almost thrash.

12) "Fire Woman" - The Cult
I don't know where The Cult falls in the grand scheme of genres, but "Fire Woman" is an excellent hard rock song.

13) "Heartless" - Heart
Again, if you read this blog at all, you know I love chicks that rock. And nobody did more to break ground for future generations of chick rockers than Ann and Nancy Wilson (apologies to Pat Benatar, but Ann & Nancy were first). While there are more obvious choices, this song fits the playlist.

14) "Rock Me Like The Devil" - Crucified Barbara
This, my first hard rock playlist, may be a little heavy on the female rockers, I think they get overlooked a lot of the time. Crucified Barbara is an all female current Swedish quartet who rock.

15) "I Hate Myself For Loving You" - Joan Jett
Because Joan Jett. That is all. Carry on.

16) "You Can't Stop Rock 'N" Roll" - Twisted Sister
What better song to end on. Rock is not dead.

Check out the Spotify playlist if you're at all intrigued.

Saraya: When the Blackbird Sings

Sometimes stuff gets missed for whatever reason. The second album by the band Saraya was missed by me and apparently 99.99% of the world's population. And that's a shame.

Saraya was a hard rock band named after lead singer Sandi Saraya and had couple of minor hits from their self-titled debut that came out in 1989. I bought the cassette (yeah, I'm that old) for the first album based off "Love Has Taken It's Toll", which I still love. Great hard rock song.



The rest of the record, along with the other single "Back To The Bullet" was even more pop metal than this song and not near as good. One good song, I thought. Therefore, I kind of forgot about the band.

Saraya's second album, When The Blackbird Sings, was released in 1992. Classic case of bad timing. Nirvana and the Seattle grunge movement was in full force. This fantastic record fell through the cracks, and that's unfortunate.

This record is over 25 years old and I just heard it for the first time a few days ago. And I must say, it's one of the best hard rock albums, cover to cover, I've heard in a long time. Sounds fresh and not dated. If you like Lita Ford, Queensryche, Whitesnake, Badlands and Halestorm, then you just might find something here for you.

Unfortunately there are no videos, but here's a youtube audio of what I think is a great representation of the entire album.

12 (ish) Albums That Have Stayed With Me Over the Years

There's a thing going around on facebook right now, not real widespread from what I can tell, but it goes like this:

What 12 albums have stayed with you throughout the years? Not the best albums, not the most popular albums, but one's that have stuck with you.

I saw this and thought it would be hard to come up with 12 because I like to pick and choose my tracks. Then when I started thinking about the albums, 12 wasn't enough. But I'm gonna play and keep it at 12ish.

In no particular order:

1. "Appetite for Destruction" - Guns 'N Roses
Easy choice here. An iconic album of the times. I first heard Paradise City on a trip to the Metroplex on ZRock. Bought the cassette before I left. Made everyone I knew listen to it. The responses were mostly "Meh." Three or four months later, Sweet Child O' Mine was released as a single. Suddenly everyone owned a copy of Appetite. I can still listen to it in its entirety to this day. One of the few albums that I can.

2. "Operation: Mindcrime" - Queensryche
A concept album in the vein of "The Wall" and  "Tommy". By far the best Queensryche ever produced. "Empire" was more commercially successful, but "Mindcrime" was by far the better album. Saw Queensryche on the Empire headlining tour in which they performed the "Mindcrime" album in its entirety. Great listen from start to finish.

3. "Eagles Live" - Eagles
I really don't think it's fair to include any greatest hits or compilation albums on this list, but with this one, I can't help it. It's just that good.

4. "Moving Pictures" and "Rush" - Rush
This is where the "ish" comes in. When I first heard Tom Sawyer, I had to get the album it was from. It was like nothing I had heard before. So I got "Moving Pictures". It also has Red Barchetta, YYZ and Limelight. How can you go wrong with that?
After hearing that, I immediately delved into Rush, and went back to the beginning, which was the self-titled first album. "Rush" included the iconic song Working Man, which led them to getting signed to a major label.

5. "Bat Out of Hell" - Meatloaf
"I'm gonna hit the highway like a battering ram on a silver-black phantom bike"
The opening lyric to Bat Out of Hell. How can you not like that? Not necessarily a concept album, it does tell a story. And sonically, it was way ahead of its time.

6. "High 'n' Dry" - Def Leppard
Okay, I could have easily put "Pyromania" here. "Pyromania" is a great album. But "High 'n' Dry" is more raw and has better songs. Lady Strange and Bringin' On the Heartbreak highlight the album.

7. "Skid Row" -Skid Row
The fist Skid Row album is pure unadulterated glam without apologies. And it's fantastic. 18 and Life, Youth Gone Wild, Big Guns, Sweet Little Sister, I Remember You, etc. Good stuff. After the first album, they kind of lost me. But that first one.........sweet.

9. "Pieces of Eight" - Styx
I know, "Paradise Theater" is more popular. But This album rocked. It included the classics like Renegade and Blue Collar Man, but also had the exquisite album tracks Queen of Spades and Great White Hope.

10. "Mean Streak" - Y&T
No, these guys are not Summertime Girls.Yes, that was their biggest hit, but not in all representative of what they were about. Dave Meniketti along with Cinderella's Tom Keifer are probably the best combo lead vocalist/lead guitarist of the generation. Midnight in Tokyo is one of the best songs never heard. The entire album rocks.

11. "Bella Donna" - Stevie Nicks
Stevie was always good in Fleetwood Mac. A lot of people may beat me up for including this one while excluding Fleetwood Mac's "Rumors". I couldn't argue, but this is all Stevie. From the Edge of Seventeen to the duets with Don Henley (Leather and Lace) and Tom Petty (Stop Dragging My Heart Around) this album is a no skip listen.


12. "Faster Pussycat" - Fatster Pussycat
Could be dismissed as 80's L.A. sleaze/glam rock. But really they were much more than that. The songs were actually good and really blues based. They went off the rails in later albums, but the debut from them is still very listenable after all these years. Some of the stuff from the '80's glam rock scene sound dated. This album holds up.

Honorable Mentions
I have ended the list at 12 as per the original stipulations, but there are more I feel deserve mention.

"Allied Forces" - Triumph
"Powerslave" - Iron Maiden
The first two Boston albums

Those are the one's I grew up with that I still listen to. I may next tackle the current albums I'm enthralled with.