I’ve been listening to this trilogy of records again recently, a group of hard prog-rock concept albums that Geoff Tate recorded shortly after his exit from Queensrÿche:
Operation: Mindcrime - The Key (2015)
Operation: Mindcrime - Resurrection (2016)
Operation: Mindcrime - The New Reality (2017)
Tate collaborated with members of his pre-Queensrÿche band Myth, as well as folks who worked on his previous solo albums, plus new writing partners like Dave Ellefson. Some of the songs sound quite a bit like earlier Queensrÿche, but much of it is like a heavier take on 70s prog-rock, with a fair amount of synth and saxophone in the mix.
A lot of people either overlooked these albums when they came out, or they heard a song or two that rubbed them the wrong way and they ran in the opposite direction, but I think there’s a lot of worthy material here, and the story is pretty interesting.
While revisiting the albums I put together a playlist that strips the trilogy down to a combination of its best tracks and most of its important story beats, which trims everything down to just over 90 minutes of music. If you’ve ever been curious about these albums, or if you blew them off at the time and might want to give them a second chance, check out this condensed version of the trilogy: