[SCOTT's PICK] The year 1988 might just be the climax of heavy metal's popularity. With the help of metal-focused music publications such as Kerrang!, regular music video rotation on MTV (culminating in the creation of the show Headbanger's Ball in 1987), and finally breaking into the pop charts with Bon Jovi's hard rock/glam metal album "Slippery When Wet" in 1986, heavy metal was making itself known to the masses. For heavy metal fans, this is the sweet spot between almost a decade of momentum, selling out arenas with larger-than-life pyromaniac rock shows and operatic wailings about fantastical things--and the rise of glam/hair metal and power ballads, eventually leading to the decline of heavy metal in favor of the more stripped down alternative rock in the 90s. Queensryche is a band caught right in the middle of that whirlwind. The original four members started out as fans of the genre, with The Mob, a group that performed covers of bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden, but quickly started making their own tunes with the addition of lead singer Geoff Tate, shortly thereafter changing their name to Queensryche. They spent much of the 80s touring with their heroes and polishing their own sound, with moderate success on the charts, but nothing on the level of Iron Maiden or Metallica. With their 1986 release "Rage for Order," they reluctantly followed managements advice and added glam metal elements. Although the album is considered a failure by Tate, it introduced more complex musical elements and more keyboard, which would prove to be enough to set them apart from their predecessors with their next album... their magnum opus "Operation: Mindcrime." With it's atmospheric production and complex story of heroin, politics, religion, and murder, "Operation: Mindcrime" is still considered to be one of the greatest heavy metal of all time, and proof that fans can rise up and rub shoulders with giants. Join Brad, Scott, Dave, & Jon as they try to unravel this mysterious tale from an ex political assassin in the pysch ward...
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