OPERATION: LIVECRIME

Operation: Liveccrime is the audiovisual reproduction of one of the best concepts ever: Operation: Mindcrime. It is the album that its development caused composer/singer Geoff Tate such mental instability for getting into his role very much that he had to spend some time in a psychiatric clinic (imagine that he would only record his vocal parts after he had filled the whole studio with candles). Finally, it is the album that 'Ryche believed so much in it that even though they had just released their big seller "Empire". Think about it. Before "Empire" was released, the band was just a respectable prog metal band. "Empire" is out, more commercial and catchy, it sells millions of copies and they all become superstars. And while it seemed natural to tour for their hit album, they saw it as an opportunity, since they had the money and the name, to reproduce on stage the whole O: M album, like they always wanted to.

This DVD/video is absulotely flawless. The production is great. The musicians perform excellent. I've always considered Rockenfield/Jacskon one of the best rhythm section and seeing them live and watching this gig just endorse my opinion. Chris DeGarmo is just the greatest loss for a band in the history of prog. The spine of the band. An excellent, brilliant guitar player and composer. Passionate and meaningful. What can we say about Tate? Probably his best performance, judging by other DVDs of the band, really living its role on stage, theatrical and also the inspirer of the concept. He's screaming, chanting, crying, rolling over on stage,acting... The example of a perfect frontman. The highlight of the show is without any doubt the Moore/Tate duet for Suite Sister Mary, with both of them spittting lines to one another and me having the goosebumps...

Here we have the most intellectual prog band of the US in its best moment. An audio manifestation, a slap in the face of all who take metal for shallow and mindless. Enjoy...

While I have not watched this in a long time, it is one of the very first musid DVDs I ever purchased (in fact, I had the VHS version released way back in 1991). My live music DVD collection has grown to almost 100....so now that I have a significant library for comparison, I decided to go back and look at it again.

And boy was I impressed. This brings together eveything good that a live music DVD offers. You have outstanding production both visually and aurally. The band both looks and sounds great. The editing is also first-rate, though it does suffer from quick-edit MTV video stylings. The mixing in of the video images helps flesh out the story. Geoff Tate never sounds as good as here. In fact, for something that's almost 20 years old the production here is ahead of its time.

More importantly, this DVD captures QR at the absolute top of their game. Even though OM is what's presented here this was presented during thier EMPIRE tour. So you have outstanding stage presentation, with video screens, lasers and all the usual heavy metal 90's props. But you can also see the band is extremely passionate about what they're doing and also having a hell of a time. You also can't overlook their youth at the time. Most of the QR video library consists of them in their 40's....it's kind of eye- opening to see them when they were young, vibrant and full of energy.

For those who might wonder about the appeal of QR and why they have lasted 20+ years....this shows what they once were and what heights they once achieved.