Geoff Tate has shared the full track listing for the long-awaited Operation: Mindcrime III album, which will arrive May 3. The first single, “Power,” will be released this Friday (Mar. 20). Preorders are available now via his official website.
As the title suggests, the legendary hard rock vocalist is finally revealing the next chapter of the Mindcrime saga, 20 years after he released Operation: Mindcrime II with Queensryche. Though he left the group in 2012, as he tells UCR in a new interview, he’s been considering adding a third chapter for years.
“I think it was 2020, actually, when the inspiration really started happening with that and I started thinking in terms of making another [Mindcrime] record.
Dr. X, the shadowy character who has a big, yet mysterious presence on the original Mindcrime, provided an intriguing angle for the music that soon began to emerge.
“He seems to have a lot of power over people and seems very charismatic,” Tate says. “He seems very wealthy and able to pull a lot of strings, but we don’t know how he got to where he got, and we don’t know what makes him tick, so to speak. So I started thinking about that and it led us to where we are now, really.”
What Fans Can Expect From ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’
Operation: Mindcrime III was produced by Disturbed bassist John Moyer, who has been working with Tate for more than a decade, starting with 2015’s The Key. This is the fourth album that the two have worked on together. It’s also the first studio outing for guitarist Kieran Robertson, who moved to America nearly a decade ago from Glasgow to join Tate’s band as one of the guitar players.
Robertson takes on a greater role on Operation: Mindcrime III and cowrote many of the songs on the album with Tate. In a separate conversation with UCR, he said it was a dream come true, to get to work with the singer on a new Mindcrime chapter, as he first heard the original 1988 LP when he was just 12, blasting out of the stereo speakers of his father’s car.
Hear a Sample of Geoff Tate’s ‘Power’ From ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’
The Songs on ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’
The guitarist made it clear also that it was a job and an opportunity that he took very seriously. “I’m totally aware of the sacred ground and pressure of [doing an album like this],” he says. “When I first was asked to do it. I obviously immediately said yes. But then I sat and I was like, do I want to be that guy? Do I want to have that pressure of doing this? The more I thought about it, I realized, there’s a million ways I can come at this.”
“I decided to come at it [in this way]: I grew up with the music of Queensryche and I love the Operation: Mindcrime album,” he explains. “So I go, I”m going to write it, personally, what I would want it to sound like as a fan of that [original] album. So I definitely just wrote [the material in that way].”
READ MORE: How Queensryche Created Their Future With ‘Operation: Mindcrime’
“We’d also been playing the Operation: Mindcrime album on tour for about three years when I first started writing [songs for this new record],” he adds. “So I knew every intricacy, every guitar part, all the songwriting, everything pretty much down to a T in terms of the original album. I think when you’re playing something a lot as well, it influences your writing and influences your style. When I sat down to actually write things were coming to me pretty fast.”
Tate Didn’t Consider Reuniting With His Former Band for ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’
The vocalist replies with just a few words initially, when we ask him the question. “It was never a thought, nope. Why?” He expands further after letting his opening reply hang for a moment.
“Queensryche had a great 30-year career,” he begins, “We made a lot of amazing records, wrote, in my opinion, incredible songs — and it was a really good run. You know, most bands don’t make it five or 10 years — and we went 30, you know, [which is] pretty amazing.”
“We had our run. When it was good, it was really good,” he continues. “It’s just sort of a natural thing, I guess. You know, people end relationships at various times in their life. Every relationship doesn’t have to last forever, and so, you know, they went their way — well, two of them did, or two of them still are — and the rest have gone their way.”
“I’ve gone my way and I’m at peace with that,” he offers. “I’m proud of our legacy and what we’ve done and I’m very grateful that we could continue as long as we did.”
Watch the Making of ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’
He is Releasing ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’ Without a Record Label
While the idea of a new chapter for the Operation: Mindcrime series seems like it could have been an easy payday, Tate opted to take a different route and handle the districution and promotion of Operation: Mindcrime III in a more grassroots and guerrilla fashion.
“Money is not a motivation for this…if that was the motivation that I would have sold it to a record company and just had the money in my pocket and let them do all the work,” he says. “I care about the music and I want to see it presented in a certain way. I want to see the album presented in a certain way and and everybody involved with making the record feels the same way.”
“I’ve been on, I don’t know, 10 different record companies in my career. You hand your record over to somebody, and they just…they don’t care about it, you know? They just throw minimal energy at it,” Tate explains. “I’ve had three record companies that went out of business at just the time I released the records. So they really had no chance of selling anything in the first place. So yeah, I just didn’t feel like I wanted to have the debt of a record company handing me money and expecting me to pay it back.”
“I didn’t want that. I don’t need the money to do what I want to do. It’s just a lot less stress,” he adds. “We can do it at our own pace. We can do interviews at our own pace. We can set up promotions at our own pace. We’re not under any kind of deadline, you know, just a self imposed deadline, really. So it makes the whole experience, I think, much more sweet.”
Tate’s Favorite Songs on ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’
In addition to “Power,” the album’s first single, he shares some other tracks he’s proud of as well — all of them, he jokes initially, before getting serious. “The first song that I sing on on the record is called, ‘You Know My F–king Name,” he tells UCR. “I love that track because it’s really Dr. X saying that to a crowd of people and it’s one of my favorite tracks on the record. There’s also a beautiful, beautiful track called, ‘Do You Still Believe?’ which I think is going to be one that people will always remember. They’ll love it and it’s a gut-wrencher kind of song.”
Fans can preorder Operation: Mindcrime III now at the vocalist’s official website.
Geoff Tate, ‘Operation: Mindcrime III’ Track Listing
1. “The Scene of the Crime”
2. “You Know My F–king Name”
3. “The Answer”
4. “Vulnerable”
5. “I’ll Eat Your Heart Out”
6. “Do You Still Believe?”
7. “The Devil’s Breath”
8. “Ascension”
9. “Set You Free”
10. “Descension”
11. “Power”
12. “You Can’t Walk Away Now”
13. “A Monster Like Me”
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Gallery Credit: UCR Staff
