Album · Queensryche
Operation: Mindcrime by Queensryche
Operation: Mindcrime is an album by Queensryche, released in 1988. 7 songs from it have charted on rock radio countdowns, with 25 countdown appearances in total. The biggest is “I Don't Believe in Love”, on 6 lists with a best position of #92.
Operation: Mindcrime, Queensryche's third album, came out on EMI Manhattan on May 3, 1988, and it's the record where the Bellevue, Washington band stopped being a promising metal act and went for broke: a full-blown concept album, a rock opera with a plot. Peter Collins produced it. The story follows Nikki, a junkie sickened by a rotten society, who gets pulled into a revolutionary underground and turned into an assassin of political leaders.
Geoff Tate sings it like a man narrating his own nervous breakdown, Chris DeGarmo and Michael Wilton cut guitar lines sharp enough to draw blood, and Eddie Jackson and Scott Rockenfield drive the machine underneath. It was their breakthrough, going gold early in 1989 and platinum two years on, with "Eyes of a Stranger" and "I Don't Believe in Love" becoming their first US chart hits. A sequel, Operation: Mindcrime II, followed in 2006.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs from Operation: Mindcrime on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I Don't Believe in Love | 6 | #92 | – | 1990–1999 | |
| 2 | Eyes of a Stranger | 8 | #136 | – | 1990–2021 | |
| 3 | Breaking the Silence | 6 | #671 | – | 1990–1999 | |
| 4 | Revolution Calling | 1 | #239 | – | 1990 | |
| 5 | Operation: Mindcrime | 2 | #466 | – | 1990–2002 | |
| 6 | Speak | 1 | #937 | – | 1990 | |
| 7 | The Mission | 1 | #962 | – | 1990 |
Only songs that appear on at least one countdown are listed. Release data from MusicBrainz.