Editing Queensrÿche (section)

===1988–1993: ''Operation: Mindcrime'', ''Empire'', and mainstream success===
{{Listen
 |filename=Queensryche - I Don't Believe In Love.ogg
 |title="I Don't Believe in Love" (1988)
 |description=Sample of "I Don't Believe in Love" from the concept album ''Operation: Mindcrime''. This song was nominated for a Grammy.
 |format=[[Ogg]]
 |filename2=Queensryche - Silent Lucidity.ogg
 |title2="Silent Lucidity" (1990)
 |description2=Sample of the power ballad "Silent Lucidity" from the album ''Empire''. It is the most successful song in Queensrÿche's career, and received two Grammy nominations, five VMA nominations, and one VMA award.
 |format2=[[Ogg]]}}

In 1988, Queensrÿche released ''[[Operation: Mindcrime]]'', a narrative [[concept album]] that proved a massive critical and commercial success. The album's story revolved around a junkie named Nikki, who is brainwashed into performing assassinations for an underground movement. Nikki is torn over his [[misplaced loyalty]] to the cause and his love for Mary, a reformed hooker-turned-nun (vocals by [[Pamela Moore]]), who gets in the way. The band's [[progressive metal]] style was fully developed on this album.<ref>Huey, Steve. [http://www.allmusic.com/album/operation-mindcrime-mw0000652301 AMG review of ''Operation: Mindcrime'']. AllMusic. Retrieved October 12, 2015.</ref> The band toured through much of 1988 and 1989 with several bands, including [[Def Leppard]], [[Guns N' Roses]] and [[Metallica]]. The album gained critical acclaim and achieved gold status,<ref name=":0" /> while its singles "[[Eyes of a Stranger (song)|Eyes of a Stranger]]" and "[[I Don't Believe in Love]]" gave Queensrÿche their first charting hits in America.<ref name="US" >{{cite web |url=https://www.billboard.com/artist/queensryche/chart-history/rtt/ |title=Queensrÿche Chart History: Mainstream Rock |work=Billboard.com |publisher=[[Billboard (magazine)|Billboard]] |access-date=March 31, 2021 }}</ref>

The release of ''[[Empire (Queensrÿche album)|Empire]]'' (1990) brought Queensrÿche to the height of their commercial popularity.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title = Brick by Brick|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=3-gWSBgA8sEC&pg=PA56|publisher = SPIN Media LLC|date = June 1, 1991|language = en|first = Daina|last = Darzin|pages = 52–54}}</ref> It peaked at No.&nbsp;7 and sold more than three million copies in the United States, more than their previous four releases combined (it was also certified silver in the UK). The [[power ballad]] "[[Silent Lucidity]]", which featured an orchestra, became the band's first Top 10 single. The arrangements on ''Empire'' were more straightforward than the band's previous efforts.<ref name=":0" />

The subsequent "Building Empires" tour was the first full-fledged tour to feature Queensrÿche as a headlining act (the band had previously headlined a tour in Japan in support of ''Operation: Mindcrime'', and had headlined a handful of club and theater shows in the U.S. between 1984 and 1988, and the UK in 1988). The group used its headlining status to perform ''Operation: Mindcrime'' in its entirety, as well as songs from ''Empire''. The tour lasted 18 months, longer than any tour the band had undertaken before or has since. The tour also added a black page to the band's history, when during a show in a sports hall in [[Ichtegem]], Belgium on November 20, 1990, a scuffle in the audience resulted in an American fan stabbing a Belgian fan fatally in the chest. Tour manager Howard Ungerleider immediately stopped the show as the band was only playing the seventh song on the set list, "Roads to Madness".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://anybodylistening.net/11-20-90.html |title=11/20/'90 |publisher=AnybodyListening.net |access-date=April 11, 2013 |archive-date=October 11, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111011121537/http://anybodylistening.net/11-20-90.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> A live album, recorded May 10–12, 1991, was released later that year as ''[[Operation: Livecrime]]''. The tour also included an [[MTV Unplugged]] appearance at Warner Hollywood Studios in Los Angeles on April 27, 1992.