Fire Of Unknown Origin is the most consistent album Blue Oyster Cult released in many years, and a fitting last work for the original line-up. The title track is a progressive hard rock tune that ranks among BOC’s greatest, although I prefer the demo version that appears on the re-release of Agents Of Fortune. It is overshadowed by the second track, AOR staple “Burnin’ For You”. It should come as no surprise that “Burnin’ For You” became their second Top 40 single, as it is built with all of the same elements that made “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” popular. The verse, fueled by a subdued bassline, clean guitar offbeats, and Dharma’s vocals, draws in the pop listeners while the chorus is heavy enough to satisfy the metal fans but bright enough to avoid alienating the rest of the population.

“Veteran Of The Psychic Wars” is among the darkest, most depressing songs BOC ever wrote, and the dreary arrangement captures the mood of the exhausted apocalpytic warrior perfectly. “Heavy Metal: The Black And Silver” is one of few BOC songs that can fairly be called metal, although it is fairly simple. “Joan Crawford” is a bizarre but enjoyable rocker, although the sound effect-laden interlude hurts it. “Soul Survivor” and “Vengeance (The Pact)” are also good hard rock songs, while “After Dark” and “Don’t Turn Your Back” are funky pop-rock that work better than most of the band’s forays into that genre.

Cultosaurus Erectus sounds like an attempt to return to the band’s pseduo hard rock roots from the arena rock they had been producing for the last several years. It succeeds more often than it fails and contains some of the more unique tracks Blue Oyster Cult has ever cut.

“Black Blade” is a straightforward hard rock song at heart, but it ends with a strange section of what sounds like poorly sequenced video game music. These sound effects may have sounded fresh and interesting in 1980, but they definitely do not now. “Monsters” appears to be a simple hard rock song, but segues into and out of a swing tune several times. This change is so abrupt and unexpected but well executed that it makes an entertaining track. “Divine Wind” is fairly unique within the Blue Oyster Cult canon both because of its uber-heavy dirge-like arrangement and the rare choice to address current events in decipherable lyrics. (In this case, it is about US relations with Iran.)

The funky groove of “Deadline” is effective, and “The Marshall Plan” works despite lyrics about a young man who becomes a musician to attract the attention of women. Actually, its vocal line may be the most powerful hook BOC ever wrote, although the song is a bit too long and unfocused to have been a successful single. The frenetic keyboard-led “Hungry Boys”, with disco-like effects and irritating vocals, is the only truly bad track on the album. “Lips In The Hills” is a great uptempo hard rock song, perhaps like “Buck’s Boogie” if it had been given lyrics. “Fallen Angel” and “Unknown Tongue” are sound rockers as well.

Although it did not achieve the same success as earlier efforts, Cultosaurus Erectus should be owned by every Blue Oyster Cult fan and fans of experimental hard rock as well.

Mirrors is another fairly disappointing Blue Oyster Cult release. “Dr. Music” has some interesting riffs, but is ruined by the sophomoric lyrics and awful background vocals, and “Mirrors” suffers from the same flaws. “The Great Sun Jester” is an ok ballad. Lanier’s “In Thee” does not sound much like a BOC song, but some tasty lead lines make this chordy arena rock track enjoyable.

“Moon Crazy” is a mediocre mid-tempo rocker that similarly is saved by Buck Dharma’s inspired lead playing and a double-time section in which he quotes the jazz standard “Caravan”. “Lonely Teardrops”, another Lanier composition, is unique enough in its funk arrangement to be worth a listen, but the remaining three tracks are unnotable poppy hard rock.

Spectres is clearly an attempt to capitalize on the success of Agents Of Fortune in the pop charts, and it sacrifices much of what characterized the Blue Oyster Cult sound in pursuit of this goal. “Godzilla” is a riff-driven hard rock tune not unlike “Cities On Flame” with better production, but is the only great rock song on the album. The vocal harmony introduction to “Golden Age Of Leather” is compelling, and the meat of the song works pretty well also. The ballad “I Love The Night” is delightful, with surprisingly interesting guitar parts and a chorus that you cannot help but sing along with.

“Goin’ Through The Motions” is inexcusably awful ‘80s pop-rock, and would fit better on a Journey album. “Death Valley Nights” has some redeeming qualities and “R. U. Ready 2 Rock” is listenable despite the awful name, but the other four tracks are unremarkable.

On Tyranny And Mutation, side one held the classics and side two the filler. This is also quite true of Agents Of Fortune. The pop flavorings that first appeared on Secret Treaties are in full bloom here.

“This Ain’t The Summer Of Love” opens the disc with a throbbing pulse in the bass and rhythm guitar with bright lead guitar chords and a catchy vocal melody above, then ends after a radio-friendly 2 minutes and 20 seconds. Lanier’s piano and unpleasantly high-pitched vocals dominate “True Confessions”, the moderately forgettable second track. The third track is Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser’s AOR masterpiece “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”, which combines a soothing repeated arpeggio line, swirling guitars, and laid-back vocal delivery with that infamous cowbell. It’s follower, “E. T. I. (Extra Terrestrial Intelligence)” is less famous, but just as enticing. It combines a great guitar riff with piano chords and an equally poppy vocal hook. The first side closes with “The Revenge Of Vera Gemini”, on which Bloom trades gruffer vocal lines with Patti Smith over a syncopated bass line and spare guitar chords ascending chromatically through the chorus.

Side two begins with “Sinful Love”, another attempt at mixing hard rock accompaniment with pop vocals that does not work as well as anything on the first side. “Tattoo Vampire” is simply strange. The riffs are interesting, but the vocalists screaming “vampire” through an effects chain ruin the song. “Morning Final” starts with a nice slow guitar solo over shimmering piano, but the heart of the chord-driven rock song is forgettable. The bass riff and simple chord progression that make up “Tenderloin” work surprisingly well and a few short but well-placed solo save the song from obscurity. The album ends with a ballad, “Debbie Denise”, that might have been passable if it had stayed within Eric Bloom’s comfortable voice range.

The CD reissue includes four bonus tracks, two of which are worth having. The first is a demo of “Fire Of Unknown Origin”. A very different version would be released on the album of the same name 5 years later, but the demo is better. The second bonus is an unreleased rock & roll song, “Sally”, which is at least as good as some of the album cuts. There is also an early demo of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper”, which is only interesting for those who would like to see how easily one of the great songs of the ‘70s could have been terrible. The final bonus track is “Dance The Night Away”, a terrible plodding ballad.

The strength of this album is its well-known single, but listeners who enjoy “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” will find several tracks with similar merits. As with previous Blue Oyster Cult releases, pure metalheads will be disappointed.

On Secret Treaties, Blue Oyster Cult added a bit of pop sensibility to the hard-edged rock of Tyranny And Mutation. The results are 6 enduring tracks and 2 throwaways, a significant improvement over earlier efforts.

“Career Of Evil” starts off the album with a memorable verse riff and singalong chorus, although it would sound more impressive just a few ticks faster. The bass-driven “Subhuman” has nothing to hold my interest. “Dominance And Submission” is the first BOC song with a legitimate chance at radio success, with a catchy riff and call-and-response vocals. “ME 262” is an effective rave-up. “Cagey Cretins” is a throwback to the dark boogie of the first album, and fails to make an impression.

“Harvester Of Eyes” is a straight-up rock tune based on a simply 4-note riff filled in with jangly piano, although the ending music-box section can only be described as odd. The piano continues insistently pounding every downbeat through the introduction and bridge of “Flaming Telepaths”, which is chord-based and features an unusual organ solo. The epic “Astronomy” closes out the disc with confusingly apocalyptic lyrics sung over a slowly building piano line, eventually expanding to a middle section built on a guitar / organ riff, and ending with a laid-back guitar solo followed by a full-band workout.

Many people consider Secret Treaties the ultimate Blue Oyster Cult album, and they may be right. It is certainly the most consistently good album they would release in their first 25 years of recording.

On Tyranny and Mutation, Blue Oyster Cult begin to harden up the sound from their debut album. It is still a stretch to call most of these tracks heavy metal, but these songs rock much more than they roll.

The first side of the LP (“The Black”) is the heavier of the two. “The Red & The Black”, which kicks it off, is a souped up and retitled version of “I’m On The Lamb But I Ain’t No Sheep” from the first release, and this version is much more powerful. The second track, “O. D.’d On Life Itself” makes good use of a laid-back bluesy rhythm guitar riff with stop-time vocals and a clashingly frenetic solo. The gem of this side is “Hot Rails To Hell”, which chugs along at a driving pace that evokes the image of such a runaway train “speeding along like dynamite.” This side is closed out by “7 Screaming Diz-Busters”, a 7-minute romp through several tempos and styles.

The second side (“The Red”) may be the softer of the two, but these songs still rock harder than most of the tracks on Blue Oyster Cult. “Baby Ice Dog” is not the rap song its name might imply, but is a piano-driven psychadelic rock tune. The remaining three tracks, “Wings Wetted Down”, “Teen Archer”, and “Mistress Of The Salmon Salt” continue in a similar vein.

The CD reissue adds a bonus of four live tracks. The live versions of “Cities On Flame”, “7 Screaming Diz-Busters”, and “O. D.’d On Life Itself” are not especially interesting, but this is the first opportunity to hear the impressive instrumental “Buck’s Boogie”, for which no studio take has ever been released.

All four of the side one tracks are classics, and remain in the BOC live set rotation to this day. The songs released on side two never made much of an impression, and have (not unjustly) faded into obscurity.

Blue Oyster Cult is a strange debut album for a heavy metal band, but BOC have been difficult to pigeonhole throughout their career. The only real metal track is “Cities On Flame”, and even it includes a break from meaty riffing for a boogie-esque bridge. “Then Came The Last Days Of May” is a delightful ballad, and the rest of the album is straight-up rock & roll, if a bit heavier than is typical of the genre. In spite of this unusual choice, the characteristics that would define BOC are apparent throughout: a complexity that belies all traditional song structure and nearly undecipherable lyrics. The CD reissue includes four demos as bonus tracks, which are quite similar in style to the album proper.

Serious Blue Oyster Cult fans will want to own this album, and fans of heavy rock & roll of the early 1970s might want to give it a listen. For casual listeners, a compilation that includes standout tracks “Cities On Flame”, “Then Came The Last Days Of May”, “Stairway To The Stars”, and “Before The Kiss, A Redcap” will probably be sufficient. Hardcore headbangers would be wise to look later in the band’s catalog.

The genius of Ride The Lightning is not in any individual song, although it contains several fabulous ones. Rather, its remarkable characteristic is a complete lack of a weak point. From the opening acoustic balladry of “Fight Fire With Fire” to the rising bassline that ends “The Call Of Ktulu”, everything works amazingly well.

“Fight Fire With Fire”, “Ride The Lightning”, “Trapped Under Ice”, and “Escape” are prime examples of the nascent thrash metal genre. “For Whom The Bell Tolls” and “Creeping Death” are simpler but no less enjoyable. “Fade To Black” is, in my mind, easily the greatest metal ballad ever written. The achingly beautiful guitar solo that closes the piece could bring me to tears, if I were in the proper mindset. The instrumental closer, “The Call Of Ktulu”, demonstrates what can happen when four highly talented musicians have the opportunity to tell a story unhindered by vocals and typical song structure: section after section where no instrument is merely accompanying the other, but all four are weaving a tapestry of sound.

This was the first album on which James Hetfield displayed his talents as a serious lyricist, with songs inspired by literature (“For Whom The Bell Tolls”, “The Call Of Ktulu”), religion (“Creeping Death”), and social justice (“Ride The Lightning”).Ride The Lightning is a masterpiece, and should be part of the collection of any fan of heavy metal music.

The Toasters celebrated their 25th anniversary by releasing their 9th studio album, 2007’s One More Bullet, which demonstrates that their 2-tone sound is just as fresh and relevant as it was when the band was formed in ‘82. The most significant change from their previous work is that “Bucket” Hingley decided to split vocal duties with bassist Jason Nwagbaraocha. The combination of Buck’s straightforward singing style and Jason’s toasting works quite well.

For the most part the album showcases the usual Toasters sound: crisp bass lines, guitar hits about as thick as the blade of a knife, tight, punchy horn licks, Dave Barry’s organ filling in the sound at every hole, and a fair number of pop hooks. About half of the songs are mid or uptempo ska (“What A Gwan”, “Nighttrain To Moscow”, “You’re Gonna Pay”, “Step Up”, and “El Chopo”) while the rest borrow heavily from reggae.

For me, the standout track is “El Chopo”, which is based around ska beats at a furious tempo but includes a half-time interlude. More than anywhere else, Buck showcases his guitar work on this song, craftily weaving jazz licks into his staccato rhythm playing. A stop-time vocal section is used at just the right moment to enhance the skanking excitement. The fading outro section is, however, quite strange.

Lyrically Hingley continues his tradition of angry rants against injustice. Three of the songs compare life in the United States unfavorably to Orwell’s “1984” and encourage the citizenry to reclaim their rights (“What A Gwan”, “Where’s The Freedom?”, and “Life In A Bubble”). Another two rail against unsrupulous record labels and bootleggers (“You’re Gonna Pay” and “El Chopo”). The title track tells the story of a man pursued but unwilling to give up without a fight.

While there are a few truly excellent tracks, the album is rather light on material. Of the 12 tracks, one is a rearrangement of a previous Toasters recording (“Run Rudy Run Redux”), two are covers that do not really work (“Bits And Pieces” and “When Will I Be Loved”) and one is simply the names of the band members toasted over a familiar vamp (“Blues Bros. Outro”). This leaves 8 tracks of original compositions, for roughly 24 minutes of music.

A good album, but disappointingly short for the first new release in 5 years. I paid $10 to buy it directly from the band at a show, and that seems to be about the right price point.