18 years after the classic "Operation mindcrime" album, Queensryche releases their 10th studio album which also is an album I never thought they would make - "Operation mindcrime II". Chris DeGarmo was back in the band shortly on "Tribe" (2003) but was replaced by Mike Stone who also shares the guitar duties with founding member Michael Wilton on "OM2". So should I and all their fans be jumping high of joy?! Well, dont get too excited because has the band ever managed to record an album as good as the first 5 after "Empire"? No,they havent.
Do they have the same budget today as they had with the first OM?! Not,even close Im afraid and was it really such a good idea to produce the follow up album by themselves?! I wont even answer that question because those who knows the big difference between the early albums compared to the newer self produced efforts knows what Im talking about.
Ronnie James Dio makes a guest appearance on "The chase" but its one of few highlights on OM2, the album has a real weak start the first half just to get a little better on the second half but its not enough to make this a worthy follow up. It wouldve been better if they had given it another title because now, everyone will compare it to the first masterpiece and since the production lacks a bit - this one is doomed to fail. Only a few songs like "Hostage", "Re-arrange you", "A murderer" and "Fear city slide" are good enough to have been featured on the first one. A big disappointment but not that surprising!
Ryan Martin from Hope Republic ( ex Atlantic bands Frankie Machine & The Flying Tigers ) came to the guitar as a pre-teen only because his mother dissuaded him from his first choice for an instrument, the saxophone.
