Geoff Tate — born in Stuttgart, Germany, on 14 January 1959 — was Queensrÿche's singer between 1982 and 2012, and one of the voices that defined what American progressive metal could be. His register comes from opera: wide range, clean timbre and a control of sustain that practically no metal singer of the time possessed. That allowed the band something rare — to build sung narratives with distinct characters instead of merely stacking choruses. Operation: Mindcrime (1988) depends entirely on it. The album tells the story of an addict recruited as an assassin by a radical group, with dialogue, shifts of perspective and a complete dramatic arc, and Tate plays the roles by alternating delivery and vocal character. It is one of the best-realised concept albums in the genre, and one of the few in which the narrative really holds. Empire (1990) took the band to a wide audience: "Silent Lucidity" reached the American top 10 and earned a Grammy nomination, an unusual feat for a band from that world. His departure in 2012 was litigious. The court dispute over the band's name ended in a settlement: the other members kept the name Queensrÿche, and Tate began performing as Operation: Mindcrime.
Bands they were part of and guest appearances (feat.) on other bands.
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