BLUE ÖYSTER CULT

The occult and psychedelic branch of Blue Öyster Cult's prog-tinted heavy rock culminates early on with 1974's 'Secret Treaties', the band's third LP, and one of the most commercially successful and overall most consistent releases of the band; This album takes the adventurous nature of their two preceding albums as well as the group's fascinating psychedelic inclinations, and offers a collection of eight tracks bolstering some stunning riffs and excellent hooks, with many of the songs becoming BÖC classics. Still, it is well-known that the band did not write any of the lyrics and Buck Dharma did not sing on any of the album's songs, which kind of gives 'Secret Treaties' a supernatural aura, almost like the "black sheep" of the catalogue, as the record explores power, politics, and sexuality.

And while this album anticipates the heavy rock explosion of the late 70s with its nasty licks and ferocious energy, there is also the radio-friendly flair that has always been an asset of BÖC's very own branch of rock music. With the sing-along choruses and the Vanilla Fudge-like keyboard leads, 'Secret Treaties' probably owes a lot of its success to the brilliant combination of the occult and the adventurous with the accessible and the memorable, an album that is charged up and driven as well as punctual and polished, there are many qualities to observe and appreciate within this bold 1974 release. The first side is virtually perfect, with classic tunes like 'Career of Evil' and 'Dominance and Submission', together with the moody and elegant 'Subhuman' and the powerful 'ME 262'. At the same time, with the four songs on side two, the album loses some of its steam - tracks like 'Harvester of Eyes' and 'Astronomy' do meander a little, but this surely does not undermine the cult status of the album, which is by any standard one of the great hard rock releases of the early 70s, with its self-aware mixture of commerciality and power.

Secret Treaties (1974) definitely reminds me of the best of Deep Purple's early albums, with engaging riffs and diversity between the tracks. It's hard to believe this album was released just before the more pop rock Agents of Fortune (1976).

The first track, Career of Evil, is an excellent introduction to the album, allowing each instrument to shine. Through a catchy chorus and more virtuosic passages, the band creates a captivating dynamic that highlights the complementarity of the different members. Next comes Subhuman, with more restrained riffs, which serve as an excellent transition into one of the album's best tracks, Dominance and Submission. In this piece, you can truly feel the band's intensity. The song is evolving, speeding up, and features the voice of Eric Bloom, which is used almost like an instrument of its own. Then, ME 262 is a very fast track with little respite in terms of pace. I see an interesting connection with Highway Star, which relates to a frenzied car race, while ME 262 focuses on the intensity of a fighter jet in mid-battle. Cagey Cretins is certainly a change in style, with a more pop vocal approach and a very progressive sound. Then, we return to a more jagged and symphonic rhythm, even psychedelic, with Harvester of Eyes. It's worth noting that the title is as mysterious as the end of the track, which directly bridges into the superb Flaming Telepaths, featuring a great chorus and riffs that fill the entire musical space.

Finally, the masterpiece that is Astronomy. I'm one of those who first heard this track through Metallica's cover. Metallica's version succeeds in capturing the essence of the original while adding much more bite. It results in a solid version with a hint of progressive rock. As for the original, the balance between all the instruments is emphasized with a lot of subtlety, creating a mysterious atmosphere that perfectly sums up the complexity of the album. The crescendo in this track brings the album to a powerful conclusion. An excellent album, with no real low points, offering an interesting blend of riffs, solos, and, above all, an incredible voice from start to finish.

Nadir of the First Nine

I've noticed that the most common critical view of the mighty BOC holds that Secret Treaties was their masterpiece, Agents of Fortune and Spectres were commercial sellout, Mirrors was the collapse, and Cultosaurus was some sort of musical redemption. In a word---poppycock. My admittedly in-the-minority assessment is that Agents of Fortune is their true masterpiece, Spectres was wonderful, Mirrors, while more commercially-oriented and radio-friendly, was at least still fun, Cultosaurus was the collapse, and Unknown Origin/Revolution by Night were the musical redemption of the First Nine albums.

Cultosaurus is one of the greatest examples of a band completely out of creative gas, a title it would hold for just over five years until Club Ninja wrestled that title away from it. Club Ninja and Cultosaurus have tons in common, actually, despite their surface-level differences in production and sound-sheen: both are stacked front to back with lifeless, monotonous, utter-generic template hard rock numbers that begged me to martyr them as "parking lot" albums (an immature outcome we subjected vinyls to as teenagers when we were displeased with their content---essentially a contest to see who could launch them highest over the empty church parking lot by my friend's house and then produce the most glorious results on impact. Immature, for sure, but at the time, hilarious late-summer-night drinking antics.) For Martin Birch, bless his heart, this was not a collection of material he was going to save with a producer's magic.

The jazz interlude in "Monsters" was a welcome parlor trick that harkened the sense of playfulness this band used to possess, but it's a brief respite. "Divine Wind" is anything but divine, five minutes of relentlessly repetitive plodding. While Buck Dharma could be counted on for a surprise mid-inning stand-up triple as on "I Love the Night" or "The Vigil" elsewhere, here that at-bat would be "Deadline," and he goes down swinging as well. "The Marshall Plan," oh dear, where is that skip button? "Hungry Boys" sounds like a Joe Jackson throwaway. "Fallen Angel" is a nice break from Eric Bloom with Joe B delivering a solid vocal. If I had to come up with one song from this album to place on a BOC retrospective, it would ironically be the last number, "Unknown Tongue," rather than everybody's sweetheart, "Black Blade." "Tongue" has a sinister and playful vibe that would have been right at home on Agents of Fortune, and it has some fine piano playing (by Lanier, I assume.) It has been noted elsewhere that Allen was largely absent from creative input on this album, perhaps another clue into the band dynamic of the moment.

But far too much of Cultosaurus is utterly forgettable, repetitive, and with a sad, performative passion as opposed to music that truly moves you or surprises you. Yes, they are certainly heavier and harder-rocking songs than Mirrors, but you'd never convince me that they're more interesting or ear-pleasing in any way. Members of BOC were trying to find their way back to their first three albums, a spiritual home in their mind, but they lacked the basic quality material and the "early band magic" to pull off such a trick at this point. Mind you, few will agree with my assessment of Cultosaurus, so you'd best check it out yourself. Although, actually, there is one prominent BOC insider who did happen to agree with me, the late great Sandy Pearlman, who noted, "Cultosaurus, I don't like it; some people do. I just don't like it. It doesn't do much for me."

A final point before I exit my soap box is to consider how poorly this album compares to peer albums from other legacy rock acts of the same era---does anyone seriously contend with a straight face that Cultosaurus can stand up to Permanent Waves or Heaven and Hell? Fortunately for our beloved Cult, a more convincingly authentic musical redemption was just around the corner, the one-two punch of Fire of Unknown Origin and The Revolution by Night.

I think this is a better album than "Agents of Fortune". For one thing, it's a lot more diverse. Secondly, the band's sense of humor comes forward. "Godzilla" is an obvious goof, but I find it hard to believe that "R. U. Ready to Rock" and the "Born to Be Wild" rewrite "Golden Age of Leather" were meant to be taken too seriously. I don't find "Death Valley Nights" and "Fireworks" too memorable, but everything else works. My two favorites were the non-hit singles, although why they didn't score is beyond me: the proto-New Wave pop of "Going Through the Motions" and the beautiful ballad "I Love the Night". I don't think it's a vampire anthem, any more than Joan Armatrading's "Back to the Night" is. The woman just likes hanging out after dark, that's all. There are four bonus tracks on the remaster. They're not all that interesting, except for the strange decision to cover the Ronettes' "Be My Baby". At least Eric Bloom sings it well enough. This was is peak vocally in my opinion.

Superb, unique, extraordinary band and so is the debut album - many would follow. If I'm right Secret Treaties is considered as the highlight of the Black n' White era, but I can't put my finger on what this album is falling short. There is not a single note that could be omitted, absolutely genius rock and surely none of its cliches are in here. Every time I listen to it I feel pure bliss surge in me. As everyone knows Then Came the Last Days of May and Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll are the only ones that still are part of the set-list and they are true stone-cold classics. The flow of the album is perfect. Some have said that BOC were the answer of the USA to Black Sabbath, but these guys are a universe on their own. Countless bands tried (and still do) to copy or play like the absolute Gods Black Sabbath. I don't know any that tried to sound remotely like BOC. The lyrics, Buck Dharma's playing, the whole concept are unrepeatable.

Do take the time and read the wikipedia section, there is some useful information about the songs.

And with their third studio album released in 1974 following right after their previous album "Tyranny and Mutation"Blue Oyster Cult strikes gold in this fantastic album. Keeping their original lineup from previous albums B.O.C hits their peak in my opinion bringing in even more prog elements. This is probably one of the most well respected albums by B.O.C for it being sought after by both classic rock fans, prog rock fans, and even metal fans its a very versatile album. Something to appreciate is the guitar solos by Donald Roeser and Eric Bloom even though he hasn't gained the iconic voice yet. Career of evil was minor hit even getting a single version. For the people of prog listening, Flaming Telepaths is where to look. on YouTube there is a version of Flaming Telepaths transitioning into the conclduing track "astronomy i highly recommend listening to that. This album was thier absolute peak and puts the band on track for thier 1976 album "Agents of Fortune".

Ah, things could have been so much better! The band seems determined to explore a variety of musical styles on the first side. It kicks off with Black Blade a brilliant rocker. Monsters that comes next, is simply a summit and one of the best Cult tunes, ever, and justifies why BOC are a talk in our prog circles. It balances between jazz/rock so craftily, a sign of the musical IQ that exists in this band. Divine Wind is more on the blues side, whereas the keyboards in Deadline provide a more 80s, commercial approach, but still interesting. Unfortunately, the first three tracks of side B (especially Hungry Boys and Fallen Angel) are, in my opinion, way below the usual quality the band delivers. Did they run out of ideas? Did they want to keep open the commercial doors? Who knows. The thing is that they sound two-a- penny. But the final two songs bring back the edge of the band. Lips in the Hills rocks hard and Unknown Tongues features (among the rest stuff) some awesome piano playing too and it is a really great track. All in all, a good album, though it could have been so much better!

There is no doubt that since signing with Frontiers Music that there has been a real outpouring of B'C material, and here we have a collection of songs which were originally recorded between 1978 and 1983, except for one track from 2016, "If I Fell." This includes the only known studio recording of their concert classic 'Kick Out the Jams' (MC5 cover). Some of the material is from sessions workshopping material for an album, some is from performance rehearsals, and while this is not a 'proper' album which is going to be sought out by the general punter, there is a consistency here which comes with a band who were both consistently recording and touring. They released four albums between 1978 and 1983, then just two more in the Eighties, and only three in the last 35 years, so these songs come from a very busy period as they revelled in the success not only of albums but also "(Don't Fear) The Reaper".

The version of 'We Gotta Get Out of Place' is full of fun and joy, sounding very much like a live performance, and I prefer this to the version which appeared on 'Some Enchanted Evening', while 'Kick Out The Jams' seems somewhat muted even though it is high octane stuff, as that is a song which very much belongs in the live environment bouncing off the energy coming from the crowd. Apart from the later track, which has wisely been put at the end of the album, they all feature the classic line-up of Eric Bloom (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Albert Bouchard (drums, vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, guitar, keyboards, percussion, vocals), Allen Lanier (guitar, keyboards) and Donald 'Buck Dharma' Roeser (guitar, vocals), while George Geranios, the band's original audio engineer and an integral part of the band's golden years, co-produced the original 1978-83 recordings along with B'C. Aimed for fans of the band, this is actually an interesting set which is worthy of investigation, and I am sure many will be pleased these songs have finally been made available.

Recorded in 1973 following their debut album recorded in the year of 1972 before B.O.C keeps the starting lineup and keeps the Hard rock elements and even add more on this album. Considered their heaviest tracks B.O.C uses sounds that heavily resemble Deep Purples "Fireball" released in July of 1971. tracks 1-4 are all classic rock gems that start off the album. track 4 on the other hand brings in prog elements that resembled Pink Floyd s "echoes" The red side of the album starts off with "Baby Ice Dog" which brings in softer rock themes. The rest of the album sort of match's the rock formula from their debut. Slight copy paste of their debut but would bring in prog elements for the album and would allow B.O.C to build the foundation for later albums.

Emerging from the psychedelic era of music with other hard rock groups such as Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, and Led Zeppelin The Blue Oyster Cult Originally formed as "Soft White Underbelly" in the year of 1968 they created a new sound that resembled the hard rock craze in the early 70's. To analyse the lineup: Eric Bloom and Donald Roeser at vocals and lead guitar and Eric Bloom also at keyboard. Alan lanier playing rhythm guitar and keyboard and the brothers Bouchard, Joseph playing bass and backing vocals and Albert playing drums. B.O.C amplified the classic hard rock theme being created at the time and this debut album really gave the group a good start. Their former band under the alias "Soft White Underbelly" created 60's demos that would be implemented later on the Columbia remaster of the album.