OPERATION: MINDCRIME — The Key (review)

OPERATION: MINDCRIME — The Key album cover Album · 2015 · Hard Rock Buy this album from MMA partners
1.5/5 ·
Time Signature
Re-inventing boredom...

Okay, so I figured I'd give Tate's band Operation: Mindcrime a chance.

I shouldn't have done that.

This album is really boring, and, whenever things seem to actually get interesting, everything quickly collapses back into utter blandness. The problem is that the band's style comes across as a pale imitation of 90s alternative rock - injected with a dose of pretentiousness in a failed attempt at invoking a sense of sophistication. There seems to be a lot of looking back to Queensrÿche's subdued and dark classic "The Promised Land" without really managing to replicate the genius of that release.

Most tracks do absolutely nothing for me other than make me thankful for Tate's split with Queensrÿche and the way that it reinvigorated Queensrÿche.

"The Key" has some redeeming features though.

'Re-Inventing the Future' has its moments. I like the use of twin guitars as a vehicle of delivering the main theme, and there are glimpses of a more glorious past every now and then in Tate's singing. 'Ready to Fly' starts out promising with a catchy groovy riff, but quickly devolves into a sub-par attempt at emulating the atmosphere of "The Promised Land". I like the keyboard solo though. Another groovy track 'The Stranger' goes through a very similar journey: a strong groovy opening riff and then a descent into utter boredom. Here, however, rather than emulating a previous Queensrÿche album, it sounds like Tate & co try to sound a bit like a nu metal band. The highlights are 'Hearing Voices', 'An Ambush of Sadness', and 'The Fall' all of which are pretty decent songs. Oh yeah, and while a boring dark ballad, 'On Queue' at least has a nice saxophone solo in it.

There's nothing really interesting about the compositions on the album, although there are some decent moments as mentioned above. The musicianship is solid to be sure. Tate can still sing, but he's merely a shadow of his former self. It's hard to imaging that this is the same vocalist whose voice soared like an eagle on the first four Queensrÿche releases. It's really kinda sad to be honest.

Overall, this is an incredibly boring album. It sounds like run-of-the-mill alternative rock from the 90s and really just reminds me of "Hear in the Now Frontier" which I find to be an incredibly sad and boring album too - but at least that's a 90s album trying to sound like mainstream 90s music. If you like alternative rock, then maybe you'll enjoy this album. I certainly don't enjoy it. It bores me. It makes me sad.
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siLLy puPPy wrote:
more than 2 years ago
I'm so not interested in even checking out a single album from this pathetic excuse for a project ;/

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