OPERATION: MINDCRIME – Resurrection

Everyone’s aware of the unfortunate split between Geoff Tate and the other members of Queensrÿche, which resulted in a new manifestation of the band and the formation of Operation: Mindcrime headed up by Tate. A year ago, Tate unveiled The Key, which was announced to be the 1st of a trilogy set, the second chapter now entitled Resurrection.  By and large very little from The Key tied into what you’d normally expect from Tate during his Queensrÿche era — much less the iconic Operation: Mindcrime era.  The Key was more Progressive Rock than it was Hard Rock or Metal, and that certainly left fans wondering if Tate still had any Metal left inside of him.

The Resurrection release won’t fully answer those questions, other than to say Tate seems to be “headed back in the right direction”.  Like with The Key, Tate has a number of messages and soul-dumps that he wants to convey — whether you want or care to hear them or not.  With The Key, the messages were pretty consistently meshed together within somber, slow-tempo songs, and many of the lyrics lacked rhythm or catchiness.  With Resurrection, there are still a number of subdued tracks … but there appears to be a bit of optimism and “energy” intermixed within about half of the lyrics, making for a much more listener-friendly album.  Tracks are indeed present that can be considered Progressive Hard Rock, which many may find as a welcome characteristic, however, you’ll be pressed to find edgy Progressive Metal as heard during Queensrÿche’s heyday within Resurrection.

Still, this 2nd release of the trilogy is a marked improvement over its predecessor … and Queensrÿche-era Tate fans will likely enjoy most of what they hear on Resurrection … with the hope that release #3 next year continues the upward trend.

TUNE INTO METALEXPRESSRADIO.COM at NOON & MIDNIGHT (EST) / 6:00 & 18:00 (CET) TO HEAR THE BEST TRACKS FROM THIS UPCOMING RELEASE!!!