Operation: Mindcrime

1988
    Perhaps Queensryche's breakthrough album.  It's a concept album, telling the story of a young man that rebels against society, which he sees many problems in.  The man, Nikki, is in a mental hospital recalling the events that lead to his commission there.  Nikki was a young man, using drugs and selling himself to the highest bidder; a true rebel without a cause.  Politics, mass media, religion, and the society they have twisted have alienated him to the point of hatred.  Then he encounters Dr. X, the leader of an underground syndicate, Operation: Mindcrime, bent on overthrowing the US government and sending the nation into anarchy.  It does so by recruiting young, bitter people, like Nikki, that lack direction in their lives.  They are given mind control drugs and turned into killing machines.  Dr. X recruits Nikki and initiates him into the Syndicate.  During his missions for the Syndicate, Nikki encounters a young woman, Mary, who is down and out.  She works as a prostitute to stay alive.  A priest, Father William, takes her into his church and makes her a nun, in exchange for having his way with her.  Nikki falls in love with Mary, who takes him in to live at the church.  X orders Nikki to kill William and Mary.  He dispatches the priest, but cannot kill Mary.  Instead, he asks her to help him bring X down.  He leaves the church to confront X, and when he returns, he finds Mary murdered.  He loses control and runs out of the church, screaming  into the night.  When the police find him, they arrest him for Mary's murder and commit him to a mental hospital.  He tries to cope with the tragedy by denying Mary's existence.  When he finally realizes she's gone, he breaks down.  The story ends as Nikki looks himself in the mirror and realizes he doesn't know who he is anymore.

List of Songs:
I Remeber Now (1:17)
Anarchy-X (1:27)
Revolution Calling (4:42)
Operation: Mindcrime (4:43)
Speak (3:42)
Spreading the Disease (4:07)
The Mission (5:46)
Suite Sister Mary (10:41)
The Needle Lies (3:08)
Electric Requiem (1:22)
Breaking the Silence (4:34)
I Don't Believe in Love (4:23)
Waiting for 22 (1:05)
My Empty Room (1:28)
Eyes of a Stranger (6:39)

Now consider the whole story.