Geoff Tate has released a performance video for “The Answer,” a track from his upcoming album Operation: Mindcrime III. The video was filmed May 16 at The Rose Music Center at The Heights in Huber Heights, Ohio, directed by Philipe Rossi of Strak Productions, with audio mixed by Nick Bedrosian. In a recent appearance on the “Let There Be Talk” podcast hosted by comedian Dean Delray, Tate discussed the new record in depth.
Operation: Mindcrime III is released under Tate‘s own name rather than the Queensrÿche banner and serves as the third installment in the saga that began with Queensrÿche‘s 1988 landmark Operation: Mindcrime and continued with Operation: Mindcrime II in 2006. The 13-song concept album shifts perspective from the protagonist Nikki to the antagonist Dr. X. Tate explained: “Dr. X’s perspective is completely different, ’cause he’s not the victim at all. So it’s very aggressive.”
On the lead single “Power,” Tate told Delray: “It’s a cool track… very, very energetic, very up, and kind of says a lot in a very short time, which I like.”
Tate described his approach to the album’s lyrical architecture: “I sort of look at it as a story, and I write the story out first… then I kind of dissect it and create chapters, and those chapters turn into songs… It’s a very methodical, structural process for me.”
Asked whether the new material sounds like Queensrÿche, Tate was direct: “Yeah. Well, part of the whole writing process was keeping the music in the universe of ‘Mindcrime’, writing within that style, I guess you’d say.”
He also described the unconventional recording process: “We recorded… set up in hotel rooms backstage at shows, venues. I think one track was recorded in a church… We recorded one of the songs, parts of it, in this castle in Italy. Do you remember that character Casanova? Well, he was imprisoned in this castle way back when…”
Operation: Mindcrime III was produced by John Moyer, bassist of Disturbed, who has worked with Tate on four consecutive albums beginning with The Key in 2015. The album also marks the recording debut of guitarist Kieran Robertson, a Scottish-born musician who relocated to the United States nearly a decade ago and co-wrote many of the album’s songs.
