Geoff Tate reveals the release date for the new “Operation: Mindcrime” album

In an interview with Meltdown on Detroit’s WRIF radio station, former Queensrÿche vocalist Geoff Tate discussed his forthcoming third and concluding installment in the band’s seminal “Operation: Mindcrime” album series, as per Blabbermouth.

It’s all recorded. We’re just doing the mixing stage of it right now. With [producer and Disturbed bassist] John [Moyer] touring and me touring, it’s a bit of a challenge to get us in one place so we can actually confer and listen to the music and make mix notes. So we have to kind of line it up where we have several days that we can devote to it. So that’s coming up very soon. So we hope to be finishing it up and releasing it this summer.

He confirmed that “Operation: Mindcrime III” will again be a concept album featuring a narrative centered on Nikki, a drug addict turned assassin manipulated by a clandestine figure known as Dr. X. Tate indicated that, unlike the previous two entries, “Operation: Mindcrime III” will present a different perspective.

… the perspective of Dr. X, how the story happened from his point of view. Which is kind of interesting, I think, because 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, and, yeah, I’m looking forward for people to hear it.

When asked whether he had always envisioned creating three chapters for the “Operation: Mindcrime” saga or if it evolved organically, he addressed the development process.

No, it’s kind of an ongoing story. I am fascinated by social science — why human beings do what we do, and groups of people that seem to have patterns over time, following in the footsteps of their generation. That kind of stuff just is fascinating to me. And so that was the basis for the story of ‘Operation: Mindcrime’. And so I just kind of explored that — human nature and what happens to a guy who gets convicted of murder and sent to an insane asylum and then graduates to a prison and then finally gets out after 20 years in prison. Does he still have the motivation for revenge against the people that put him there? That’s kind of the focus of ‘Mindcrime II’, the revenge aspect of it.”

He also remarked that “Operation: Mindcrime III” can be considered a musical homage to some of the band’s earlier material.

Yeah, I guess so. It’s got some complex arrangements, which Queensrÿche was pretty into during our writing. It’s just very aggressive sound-wise. And stylistically, I would say, it’s very Queensrÿche.