Ronnie James Dio is Dr. X!

You know, everyone has their list of "desert island" albums. Ones they'd take with them if they could only have them and no others. Back in 1988, one of these albums came out. It's called Operation: Mindcrime by Queensryche. This album is by far one of the best things I've ever heard. I knew it when it was new in 1988, and it's still just as awesome in 2005. I saw Queensryche do the entire album live back in 1991, as well as in 2004. I cannot say how strongly I like this album. How it doesn't rank higher on the all time list of metal albums is beyond me.

If you do not own Operation: Mindcrime, I strongly urge you to buy a copy. You will not be disappointed. Long time fans of my website should be aware of my musical tastes, and I don't make this recommendation lightly.

Anyway, over the years, Queensryche fans have asked if there ever will be a sequel album. The story is great, and the music on it is awesome, so it lends itself to "sequel" quite easily. The long awaited sequel has been under production now for a year or so, maybe a little more. One of the strenghts of the original album was the characters on it. Thing is, most of the vocalisations of them in the songs (except for Sister Mary, obviously) were Geoff himself. This time around, the characters are supposed to be vocalised by others. And that brings me to the reason why I'm covering this on my Black Sabbath site.

Ronnie James Dio will be Dr. X! Without going into the entire Mindcrime story, Dr. X is the guy who gets Nikki (the main character) into what he's into. The fact that Ronnie James Dio will be Dr. X on Operation Mindcrime II is a major MAJOR bonus. I would have bought Mindcrime 2 even if it was Geoff Tate farting for an hour, but the fact that Ronnie Dio is on here is a major bonus.

Now, we can only hope that when Queensryche tours for Mindcrime 2 that they play with Dio, as the story is that Queensryche is going to play both the original Mindcrime and the sequel in their entirety - that will be seriously badass. Would love to see Ronnie in those shows, too. :)

Here's a picture of Ronnie James Dio & Geoff Tate together. Was taken from the Queensryche Website, which has this to say about the announcement..

SOURCE:
http://www.black-sabbath.com/news/archives/2005/12/ronnie_james_dio_is_dr_x_1.html