Style: Heavy metal, progressive metal, progressive rock (clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Dream Theater, Fates Warning, King’s X
Country: US-WA
Release date: 03 May 2026

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Queensrÿche’s Operation: Mindcrime is and will forever be my favourite metal album. Geoff Tate and Chris DeGarmo wrote a consummate masterpiece back in ‘88, and its complex storyline and arrangements helped cement Queensrÿche’s place in the burgeoning prog metal scene of the era. Truthfully, any attempts to top it were in my opinion entirely fruitless endeavours destined to fail, but Mindcrime II was not the blunder I anticipated it to be, even if it was nothing I return to with regularity. However, with the upcoming release of Operation: Mindcrime III—a retelling of the storyline of the first from the point of view of Dr. X, its eminent antagonist—I suppose I was foolishly hoping for a return to form or at least a pastiche of sorts; an homage. It was not to be.

While the first Mindcrime had a distinct 80s glam metal flair, the only uniquely characteristic sound of Operation: Mindcrime III is Geoff Tate’s voice—and that isn’t enough to rise above the noise floor, or even Mindcrime II. The biggest overall issue with this album, therefore, is its lack of musical identity while running parallel to the original, as most of the release maintains an uninspired hard rock/heavy metal sound. A few small moments attempt to broach new ground, like the short, quasi-symphonic metal moment in the second track “You Know My Fucking Name” and the vaguely jazz leanings of the closing track, “A Monster Like Me,” but these instances are short lived. You may also find ephemeral glimpses of the old Queensrÿche-style songwriting on tracks like “Power” or “The Devil’s Breath”—these are powerful, melodic, anthemic tracks that stand above the rest of the album, but they aren’t enough to elevate the work, even if they are the best of it.

Outside of these brief sections, Mindcrime III doesn’t really manage to fully utilize Tate’s backing band—who I’m sure are reputable musicians in their own right. They were seemingly shackled to a mediocre performance so that Tate could take center stage, and although his vocals are still in top form, they only serve to support a narrative that was just as well bookended by the lyrics of the first album, while the instrumental work ends up taking a backseat. A lot of the riffing is less than memorable; the drumming maintains a midtempo pace (or slower) for practically the entire duration, and the bass meekly rumbles beneath it all. The focus was clearly the name on the front of the album, and the whole idea suffers for it. It seems unlikely Mindcrime III will have any semblance of the lasting impact of the original, and I sense it will be all but forgotten about by the prog sphere within a week of this review being published. 

Ultimately, Operation: Mindcrime III doesn’t serve any purpose but to satisfy Geoff’s desire to try and flesh out a story that needed no addition. If the second Mindcrime was superfluous, a third one is surely redundant. It wasn’t the storyline alone which made the original Operation: Mindcrime so monumental (although I found Nikki to be a much more compelling protagonist); it was the exceptional musicianship, and brilliant, to-the-point songwriting in conjunction with its compelling narrative themes, masterfully woven around biting observations on the socio-political current of the time (to an extent that it still remains relevant today). As such, I’m afraid Operation: Mindcrime III fails to capture the charm either of its predecessors possessed. The album whizzes by mostly uneventfully, afraid to experiment or say anything meaningful; its forgettable track listing leaving scarcely a lasting impression of what the hell Tate/Dr. X thought the world apparently so desperately needed to hear.

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Recommended tracks: Power, The Devil’s Breath, The Answer
You may also like: Threshold, Vanden Plas, Circus Maximus
Final verdict: 4/10

Related links: Official Website | Facebook | Instagram

Label: InsideOut Music

Geoff Tate is:
– Geoff Tate (vocals)
With guests:
– Rich Baur (drums)
– John Moyer (bass)
– Dario Parente (guitars)
– Aumary Altmeyer (guitars)
– Kieran Robertson (synths, strings)