Geoff Tate has dropped “Power”, the lead single from Operation: Mindcrime III, due out on 05/03. The track was co-written by Tate and guitarist/producer Kieran Robertson, with a lineup that includes Rich Baur on drums, Disturbed bassist John Moyer — who also co-produced the album — Dario Parente and Amaury Altmayer on guitars, and Tate and Robertson handling synths and strings. Juan Urteaga handled mixing and mastering at Trident Studios in Pacheco, California. Listen to the track below.
The record is released under Tate‘s own name, not the Queensrÿche banner. Like its predecessors, Operation: Mindcrime III is a concept album built around Nikki, Dr. X, and Sister Mary — but this time, the story is told from Dr. X‘s point of view. Tate explained the shift in a recent appearance on the “Let There Be Talk” podcast with host Dean Delray: “We’ve only heard it from Nikki‘s point of view, and he’s been sort of this victim throughout the whole story. And Dr. X‘s perspective is completely different, ’cause he’s not the victim at all. So it’s very aggressive.”
On “Power” itself, Tate was straightforward: “It’s a cool track. ‘Power’ is the first — I don’t know — we call ’em singles nowadays. It’s the first release on the album. And, yeah, it’s a really cool song — very, very energetic, very up, and kind of says a lot in a very short time, which I like.”
When Delray noted that the track “sounds like Queensrÿche“, Tate didn’t dodge it: “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.”
Tate laid out his songwriting approach to Delray in some detail, describing how he plots out the narrative before breaking it into chapters that become individual songs: “I sort of look at it as a story, and I write the story out first of what is happening, and then I kind of dissect it and create chapters, and those chapters turn into songs. And then I kind of work to link them all together and follow a storyline that makes sense. And then you gotta kind of factor in musically how you’re gonna tie it together. Does it make sense musically and melodically to put this song before this song, before this song, before this song? ‘Cause that’s a big thing too, is making it flow, so it doesn’t seem obtrusive and people don’t have to turn the page back to find out what happened, and they’re kind of following along in a chronological order.”
The 13-track album was recorded piecemeal across the globe as Tate toured — hotel rooms, backstage at venues, and at least one church. One highlight: a crumbling Italian castle where Casanova was once held prisoner. “It had this one room that was just incredible,” Tate said. “Big, high ceilings, open environment, big stone walls, and that kind of thing. But it added a really unique sound to the song.”
Speaking to Canada’s The Metal Voice earlier this month, Tate spoke about why he returned to the Mindcrime universe at this stage of his career: “I’m interested in it. It’s a subject I’ve always been interested in, the ‘Mindcrime’ saga, the story of these three characters, really: Nikki, Dr. X, and Sister Mary. A fascinating triangle there of… Oh, it’s an interesting relationship between all three of them. And Nikki‘s story has really been kind of chronicled on ‘Mindcrime I‘ and ‘Mindcrime II’, and nothing has really been written about Dr. X. Like, who is he? What’s he all about? Why is he the way he is? What got him to this place he’s at? And I just found the subject to be interesting. And especially at the age I’m at now, where I’m probably very close to Dr. X‘s age, I’m looking at life differently now, and [I have] different goals, [and I have] a different reason to be, really, which I think probably happens with people as they age and get older.”
He confirmed the album runs parallel to — not after — the original story: “It’s happening in time at the same time as ‘Mindcrime I’. It’s X‘s perspective.”
On the production, Tate was effusive, particularly about the low end: “The sound, especially of the rhythm section — oh, it’s phenomenal. It’s really, really crunchy, punchy, big… I think it’s miles above ‘Mindcrime I’ — absolutely. Especially the bottom end — the bass and drums, rhythm section. It’s so modern, so huge. If you listen back to the ‘Mindcrime I’ album, it sounds like… I think it was one of the first digital recordings made, and so it has a brittleness to it that you just don’t hear anymore, ’cause the technology has gotten so much better now. The analog-to-digital converters are so much more sophisticated now. So, yeah, it sounds miles about that. I’m very happy, very happy with it.”
He also had a clear recommendation for how to hear it: “I just hope everybody can give it a spin, check it out. And especially with headphones. It’s a wonderful headphone album.”
The original Operation: Mindcrime, Queensrÿche‘s third studio album, arrived in May 1988 and was certified platinum in the U.S. by 1991. It landed on “Top 100 Metal Albums Of All Time” lists at both Kerrang! and Billboard, and Rolling Stone later noted that “nearly 30 years after its initial release, ‘Mindcrime’ feels eerily relevant.” Its 2006 follow-up, Operation: Mindcrime II, landed to a more divided reception — seen by many as an unwelcome addition to a near-perfect legacy, despite having its defenders.
