It’s been almost a year since we heard about Geoff Tate’s new project Operation: Mindcrime after losing the legal right to keep naming himself after any variation of his former band Queensryche, but if you have been waiting eagerly to know what Tate has been working on, wait no more and enjoy a sneak peek of his new upcoming album The Key scheduled to be out this September 18th via Frontiers Music Srl. This record is the first one out of the trilogy the band started recording back in 2014. Tate declared about the record:

I think it’s gonna be one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. I’m very excited about the music. It’s very intense and very progressive, very heavy, very light… It kind of covers a lot of ground, which I think a story should. I mean, a story shouldn’t be static; it should have different movements to it, and it should have different shades of color, so that’s what this hasm and it’s written with that in mind.

Operation: Mindcrime features Kelly Gray on guitars (Queensrÿche), Scott Moughton on guitars, John Moyer on bass (Disturbed, Adrenaline Mob) Randy Gane on keyboards, Simon Wright on drums (AC/DC, Ronnie James Dio), Brian Tichy on Drums (Whitesnake/David Coverdale, Billy Idol) with special appearances from David Ellefson (Megadeth), Mark Daily, and Scott Mercado. The Key will be a concept album with a single storyline, following the same path of Tate’s previous work with Queensryche. I am pretty sure no one has ever thought about a concept album titled The Key in the past. You can probably call Mike Browning and ask him yourself.   [youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOEL6Ic1XsI[/youtube]   [via blabbermouth.com]