Operation : Mindcrime  by Queensrÿche

In 1988, Queensrÿche, with their third album, create a reality, the reality of Nikki, who tries to find the truth in the world while being addicted to drugs. All of this unfolds in the concept album titled Operation: Mindcrime. The group from Washington essentially creates a rock opera, which took two years to complete.

The idea for the album came from the singer and composer of the group, Geoff Tate. At the time before writing Operation: Mindcrime, he was living in Montreal, where he had met some people who dreamed of the armed secession of Quebec from Canada. Tate combined this story with the stories of some other acquaintances of his in the U.S. who were addicted to drugs and were at the mercy of everyone, thus the subject of Operation: Mindcrime emerged.

The initial response from the public was lukewarm. Today, its sales have exceeded 1,000,000 copies. It is one of the most interesting and noteworthy heavy metal albums of the 1980s.