illusionofjoy | Operation: Mindcrime II

I'm listening to the first single from Queensryche's forthcoming album Operation: Mindcrime II and it's not grabbing me. Perhaps I'll have to listen to the album all the way through to give it a fair shake, but it's not nearly as immediate as "Eyes of a Stranger," "I Don't Believe In Love" or "Spreading The Disease." In fact, it kind of sounds like Queensryche is trying to channel Bad Religion - a bad idea.

It doesn't help that Operation: Mindcrime is a brilliant album and one of my all-time favourite LPs. Sequels - especially sequels that come years after the fact - are rarely as good or compelling as their root stories. Adding to my apprehension is that the band has employed Dio to perform on the album. Dio? Fucking Dio?! If you have a desperate desire to hear me bitch for a couple of hours, do ask me about Dio. Anyone who does a song entitled "We Rock" without a hint of irony should be bitchslapped, at the very least.

Operation: Mindcrime II comes out on April 4^th. I don't know that I'll buy it new, but I probably will buy it out of curiosity; I do want to hear the album. I do want to like it too...but that's a "we'll see..."