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Blue Öyster Cult - Curse Of The Hidden Mirror CD (album) cover

CURSE OF THE HIDDEN MIRROR

Blue Öyster Cult

 

Prog Related

3.07 | 87 ratings

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ZowieZiggy
Prog Reviewer
3 stars If you would except ''Club Ninja'', the Cult has never released a poor album during their 30 years long career. Which is quite a performance.

Now, to tell you that this one is a masterpiece would be rather optimistic. Three of the founding members are still present but times have changed. The music presented here has little to share with their best albums (''Secret Treaties'', ''Imaginos'').

A good rocking opener, an easy listening heavy rock (''Showtime''), a good old juicy hard- rock beat for ''The Old Gods Return'': this album offers a pretty decent level of music, but nothing memorable. Still, I have to recognize that some songs are plenty of dynamism and sound quite alright like the excellent ''Pocket'': great beat, fine riff, pleasant vocal melody and very good guitar work. The best song from this album IMO.

At some moment though, I have the impression that the band remained stuck into the middle seventies like during the heavy ''One Step Ahead Of The Devil''. Very Purple-ish. Again, there is nothing wrong with this track (although the high pitched vocals are not my cup of tea). I could say the same about ''I Just Like To Be Bad'' (which I won't here). Average pop-rock; nothing else.

I have some problems with the rating of this album: on the one hand it is superior to ''Heaven Forbid'' which I have rated with two stars, but it is really limit to rate it with three stars. I guess that five out of ten would have been ideal, but since a more accurate rating is not available on PA I will update this album to three stars.

One of the reason being the excellent and very catchy ''Here Comes That Feeling''. A very enjoyable moment of optimistic rock (whatever it might mean) as well as an emotional moment with the good ''Out Of The Darkness''. A moving track which combines some elements of a rock ballad with a great guitar break.

As you might have understood, prog moments are scarce to none on this album (but I guess that it is no surprise). We are in front of some good rock moments: nothing less than that. Excellent guitar parts throughout this CD (''Stone Of Love'' is another fine example) and probably a good way to remain remembered amongst their fan database. It is only a pity that the band is now almost only touring in the US. I would have liked to see them live over here?

ZowieZiggy | 3/5 |

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