CULTÖSAURUS ERECTUS

A mixed bag as BÖC adopts the talents of new, more hard rock oriented producer. The band seems to be struggling to balance a variety of influences, from their more traditional sci-fi rockers (the excellent Black Blade) to self referential stadium rock (the equally fine The Marshall Plan) to more jazzy territory (the disappointing Monsters) and even 80's synth-rock (the embarrassing Hungry Boys.) As a result, the album is a schizophrenic experience, divided equally between glorious rockers and utter stinkers. I think the good outweighs the bad, but this is definitely a transitional album, paving the way for their much more accomplished "Fire of Unknown Origin," to be released the following year.

After the poppy Mirrors, the band changed completely their direction with the help of a certain Martin Birch on production. The result is a great revirement to their hard roots. This is evident since the very first minute of the opener "Black Blade" which is part of their classic repertoire, reminding me, a little bit, of "7 Screaming Diz-Busters" from Tyranny and Mutation. And generally the comparisons between the two albums can be found in the sound, a little more mature now but also less original.

What really shocks the listener is the unespected proggy nature of some tracks as "Monsters" which features jazzy interludes and fast tempo. Well, very good. Another highlight is "The Mashall Plan" with its live rendition.

The other tracks are more conventional in either structure and metal sound so I couldn't say "Cultosaurus Erectus" is one of my favourite from Blue Oyster Cult. That will come later. For now we have a very good return here.

This is an album which, while much better than its current rating suggests, doesn't quite live up to the promise delivered by its first three tracks. After having veered towards a definitely poppier sound in their previous three albums, which gave them a hit in "Don't Fear the Reaper", but at the same time alienated many of their earlier fans, BOC enlisted the help of legendary hard rock producer Martin Birch - exactly as the same time as Black Sabbath did. The result is an album which is distinctly harder-edged than its predecessors, but also somewhat schizophrenic - torn between songs harking back to the glory days of "Tyranny and Mutation" and "Secret Treaties", and AOR-tinged. radio-friendly compositions.

Anyway, "Cultosaurus Erectus" starts with a bang, with the Michael-Moorcock penned Black Blade, a spacey, dramatic tour-de-force inspired by the saga of Elric of Menilboné and his eponymous sword, Stormbringer, eater of souls. The following track, "Monsters", is probably one of the most progressive things ever written by the band, with its blaring sax interludes, manic riffing and wild, jazzy time signature changes. It's a pity BOC chose to go the easy way, instead of exploring the avenues opened by this brilliant song. The initial triple-whammy closes with the haunting, vaguely sinister "Divine Wind" (incidentally, this is what the Japanese word kamikaze means), which features a superb guitar solo by the one and only Buck Dharma at the end.

The rest of the tracks, as already stated, is not completely on a par with these three. Some, like Hungry Boys, are nondescript filler, while "Lips in the Hills" is somewhat reminiscent of some of the material on the band's first three albums. Album closer "Unknown Tongue" is deceptively easy on the ear, though not as clearly radio-oriented as "The Marshall Plan" - a very well-crafted, catchy song with an intriguing storyline, which also references Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water", and would sound great performed in a crowded stadium.

Even if not as good as its follow-up, the mighty "Fire of Unknown Origin", "Cultosaurus Erectus" is a fine return to form for one of the greatest bands of the Seventies. Definitely prog-related, and warmly recommended to all lovers of classic rock music.

This album keeps calling me it's master, but I feel like it's slave...

After a trio of very commercial albums that each successfully won less and less attention from fans of the band's black and white era Blue Oyster Cult [BOC] decided it was like to stop being what they were expected to be and, ''just be BOC again''. Under the production power of heavy metal master Martin Birch the band here takes the best of what they've managed to make in recent years (slick and intelligent heavy rock) and merge it with their early, heavier and rawer material to create something that is very unique in their discography. Gone is the more friendly leanings of an album like Mirrors and not yet present are the 80s synths which the band would abuse on later albums. Also notable is that this is likely one of BOC's most progressive outings with a lot of experimentation into jazz noodling, longer songs and more tempo changes along the way.

As others have noted, the best three tracks here are the first three. This is slightly unfortunate because the first three set an amazing stage, but to call the rest of the album disappointing would be very far from the truth. It's the first three that see that band at a zenith not unlike an album like their opus Secret Treaties. Intelligent lyrics, allusions and amazing guitar licks that press heavily into the listener's mind make these tracks among the best in the band's discography. The opening Black Blade tells such a tale behind it's heavy metal that it's hard to ignore. The jazzy and incredibly scary Monsters just keeps going on and on (in a good way) as Bloom delivers some killer vocals between an excellent riff and jazzy sax solos. The best part of the song coming, of course, at the spine chilling harmonized scream of ''Monsters!'' that could have been done very tackily but winds up being excellent. Divine Wind ends the stellar trio of opening tracks with a brooding look at human kind and wars - very well done.

The other tracks on the album may not have been to the same caliber, but they're all unfortunately overlooked. Deadline ends off side 1 with a prominent bass while The Marshall Plan opens up side 2 with a mini rock opera that has the energy of a live performance - even a nice Deep Purple reference in there. Hungry Boys is a seemingly thin sounding song thanks to the fact that the high end piano drives the track like a steam engine but it works surprisingly well. Vocals are unusual for the band but work out well. Lips In The Hills is an excellent track with it's pressing chorus and rocking, frantic riff and Unknown Tongue manages to make the best of a more commercial sound by making the track rock but still having it be catchy.

Fallen Angel is astounding. This is a heavy metal masterpiece unfortunately lost in the shrouds of time. The gruff vocals make for a stellar delivery on an unforgettable chorus while the rest of the track simply shakes your speakers to their core. Excellent song.

In the end this is one of the more appealing BOC albums for the prog head. A very strong come back for the band after what was turning into commercial death. Unfortunately they'd soon fall into the trap of the 80s, but for now we have a very solid effort for the band not topped until the end of the 80s on their first ''reunion'' album. Highly recommended, this one gets 4 stars!

The least I can say is that the Cult entered into the eighties quite remarkably. While many ''dinosaurs'' changed their style while this decade begun, the Cult got back to where they belonged: a good hard to heavy-rock oriented music.

It is quite a relief after some weak albums (''Spectres'' and ''Mirrors''). Compositions here have a definite harder edge which is to be noticed as soon as the album starts. ''Black Blade'' is a great opener which sets the pace for almost the whole of this effort.

Maybe that the sax part during ''Monsters'' wasn't that all necessary, but the damages aren't that important. Needless to say that I prefer the heavy ''Divine World'' to the pop-rock ''Deadline'' which reminds me more of their previous two albums.

Some wink to the mighty Purple during ''The Marshall Plan'': not only the style but also the short inclusion of the ''Smoke On The Water'' riff is a pleasant tribute to this band. Buck Dharma is again on top form here (but he is mostly on each track from ''Cultösaurus Erectus'').

The hopping ''Hungry Boys'' reminds us that the new wave has passed here as well. Some feel of the hilarious ''Gruppo Sportivo'' (from The Netherlands in '78). It conveys a fun accent to this work.

The last section of the album leans more on a pure hard-rock styled music (''Fallen Angel'', ''Lips In The Hills''). But this is still much better than their prior releases even if not grandiose.

In all, this a good album and a pleasant come back from this band. Three stars.

3.5 stars really!!

After the ground-grinding Mirrors in 79, the group took quite a bit of time to reassess themselves and it would not be until 81 and a whole musical scene that BOC came back with the much much much-improved Cultosaurus Erectus. While the group retained its line- )up, they got rid of long-time collab Pearlman and asked Martin Birch (of Deep Purple fame a.o.) to produce what should be called a comeback album, , since their last worthy album Spectres dated from 77. This proved not only salutary, but that BOC had brains and will to survive. Indeed Birch was the man of the situation, since he was responsible of Iron Maiden's reign over the NWOBHMB after producing that groups second and third album, giving them a Purple sound that helped launch the movement. Now don't get me wrong, I didn't say that BOC would now be called Purple Oyster Cult, or even Black Oyster Cult (since Birch also assisted Black Sabbath's resurrection the previous year with Heaven And Hell.

He result of Birch's taking over the control booth is clearly seen on the album's first side where the brilliant Black Blade (with lyrics penned again by Moorcock) gave them a much deserved exposition over the airwaves, then the awesome jazz-inflected Monsters with its poly-rhythms and plenty of sax madness; and the dark and haunting Divine Wind would make an implausible excellent first, if it wasn't for the weaker Deadline and its killer bass line, but reminiscent of Agents or Mirrors.. Obviously this fine return to form is partly due to producer martin birch and starting the flipside, Marshall Plan obvious' wink at Purple (and therefore Martin) in the middle of a very "strange" track where multi-vocals bound. But after that, the album (or group) seems to run out of steam. Hungry Boys and Unknown Tongues are definitely reminding of the later 70's BOC and everything bad it implies and have written filler all over them, while Lips On The Hill heads back to their first two albums, but only half- convincingly, leaving Fallen Angel (not KC or UH) as the only relatively strong track in the album's closing third part.

Clearly Cultosaurus Erectus was a fine return to form, mainly due to Martin Birch and BOC opened the 80's as America's answer to the British second wave of metal groups (although that included Sabbath and Priest); CE might be one of the Cult's proggier album with Treaties, but it's schizophrenic personality hurts its cohesiveness. Split between heavy metal (both their early stuff and the 80's version) and the "radio-friendly" AOR of the later 70's. Fortunately the latter trait is in a minority and we're left with quite a good album and certainly of of BOC's top three.

First of all, that Cultasaurus on the cover is one cool looking dinosaur. That's a lot of teeth.

As for the album itself, this album basically brought them out of their doldrums. Apparently they thought they could jump on the Foreigner / Journey bandwagon, and when that didn't work out, they were smart enough to realize that they needed to travel in a new completely direction or they would sputter out. Although that did sort of happen later in their career, it didn't happen in 1980 thanks to this effort.

A much louder beast than their previous efforts, the album kicks off with a killer track in Black Blade with its wonderfully nightmarish lyrics and musical tension. The actual "Black Blade" speaking towards the song's finale was a nice touch. Monsters is one of the band's "proggiest" songs with its jazz breaks, frequent tempo changes and transitions from heavy guitar riffs to softer passages. The lyrics themselves are quite bizarre and add to the overall effect, making this one of their best songs in my opinion. Divine Wind continues the quality run of tracks with its heavy blues base combined with a bit of space rock. Great guitar playing too. Deadline is somewhat of a prelude to what BOC would become in the 80s with its dancy beat, funky bass and atmospheric synths, not necessarily a good thing, but it does work in this case. The Marshall Plan is hilarious, both intentionally and unintentionally, but either way its a fun track. Hungry Boys and Fallen Angel never did much for me...they are interesting I will admit, but their strange take on new-wave and straight arena rock respectively doesn't gel with me for some reason. Lips In The Hills, despite the awkward song title, is a scorcher, with producer Martin Birch fully displaying his NWOBHM sensabilities here. The album ends on a high note with another good track in the creepy Unknown Tongue.

So, as far as BOC albums are concerned, it may not be the most essential of their works, but I find it to be one of their best, maybe their most enjoyable, and an important album in re- establishing BOC as a band to be reckoned with, at least through the early 80s. For prog- heads not convinced the band belongs here, seriously, listen to Monsters. That's some heavy prog-heaven right there.

After three discs charting a more pop-influenced style, Cultosaurus Erectus finds Blue Oyster Cult steering back towards the murky, mysterious spirit of their early years on some of the songs (Unknown Tongue, Black Blade, Monsters) whilst retaining their radio-friendly AOR sound on others (Hungry Boys, the slightly overlong narrative song The Marshall Plan, or Lips In the Hills for instance).

Unknown Tongue, the album closer, seems to prefigure the sound of the better parts of Fire of Unknown Origin, the following album - and indeed both this album and that one were produced by Martin Birch, whose hard rock approach probably helped make this the most hard-edged and heavy Cult release since Secret Treaties. It's not on a par with that album, mind, but it's a decent stab at turning the weirdness dial back up.

Blue Oyster Cult's "Cultosaurus Erectus" caught my attention because it was inspired by the science fiction author Michael Moorcock, and it sports a mighty artistic cover with a dinosaur with a mouthful of razor teeth. Not knowing what the music would be like was quite a bonus for me as I was delighted when the first heavy chords of 'Black Blade' strike. This is heavy stuff, and it has a great melody and competent clean singing with a spacey echo. The riffs are simple but dynamic and the organ layers are great. It powers along brilliantly with some awesome lead guitar work and an overall solid structure.

'Monsters' is quite proggy with those jazz sax interludes and overall time sig shifts. It really hits home with all the blazing riffs and outbursts of jazz. The heavier side of BOC returns on the blistering rock of 'Divine World' and then it gets into more AOR territory on 'Deadline' though it sounds great and is a nice diversion.

I was quite astonished at the creativity of 'The Marshall Plan' as we hear a live crowd roaring in places and even the Deep Purple monster riff from 'Smoke On The Water' rears it's head. 'Hungry Boys' takes us into a driving rock sound that just hammers along with anthemic chorus and fast paced drumming. 'Fallen Angel' is a hard rock belter and is followed by even heavier guitars on headbanger 'Lips in the Hills'. The last track is a moderate tempo riffing thing called 'Unknown Tongue' that finishes the album off on a fairly strong note, though a very AOR one at that.

In my opinion this is a solid album and one that will please fans of BOC. It is not a perfect album, though it starts with three exceptional songs, but still has enough melodic rock and innovation to make it worth a listen.

I have always loved the cover of this album since I was a kid. My friend's older brother had this on vinyl, and my interest in dinosaurs and science fiction art made this an easy eye-catcher.

Blue Oyster Cult were often said to be the American answer to Black Sabbath but I have never been able to hear that in the music. For this album here, they got Martin Birch as producer, who was already known for his work with Sabbath and Deep Purple's 'Machine Head' and who would go on to produce albums for Iron Maiden. BOC and Black Sabbath toured together, too, on what was called the Black and Blue tour. Still, the band doesn't sound at all like Black Sabbath. But they don't have to.

I'll admit it took me some time to get into this album. Having been sufficiently impressed with their first three albums and having a greatest hits album plus formerly owning two other later albums on cassette, I had more expectations from this one. I kept adding it to a playlist of albums to review and then taking it off again. Finally I decided to give it my full attention and I was pleasantly surprised in parts.

'Black Blade' is a song based on the writings of Michael Moorcock. It's hard rock pop with punk edge in parts and tells the story about an evil blade that possesses its bearer to kill. The story is a bit similar to the Heavy Metal movie theme where a mysterious green orb also causes otherwise gentle people to behave in a bloodthirsty manner. Incidentally, BOC were closely involved in the music soundtrack of Heavy Metal, and some of the songs would end up on their next release. There's some nice eerie music with creepy sound effects in the middle. One of BOC's classic fantasy sci fi type story telling songs, Eric Bloom's vocals are as usual full of passion. This is a great theatrical hard rock number with rhythm changes and synthesizer; like prog hard rock almost. The blade speaks at the end in metallic voice.

'Monsters' is next, and why didn't I notice this one right away? A hard rock track with an almost seventies danceable intro then suddenly goes jazz with sax and piano drums bass and no guitars. That fast boogie part contrasts great with the hard n' heavy part and then another jazz break. What are these guys trying to prove? Then an almost boogie rock prog section, after which the song slows down with some nice piano. A new melody is introduced. The chorus fast with piano bass drums and lead guitar. Seemingly seamless and well- crafted, the song wraps up with heavy hard rock bit but with added sax and groove. Great song!

'Divine Wind' is slow with piano, guitar and a hard bass but has a menacing pace almost. 'If he really thinks we're the devil / then let's send him to hell'. The music is steady and not varied like the first two tracks. Track three is a good spot for it. The backing female vocals sound a bit like heavier Pink Floyd.

'Deadline' is more pop with hard strummed guitar and synthesizer. Donald 'Buck Dharma' Roeser takes the vocals. Again, the music is minimalistic but the lead guitar adds colour.

'The Marshall Plan' is a story about young Johnny who goes to rock show with Suzie but sees her leaving with the band. Johnny decides to take up the guitar and become a rock star. The 'Smoke on the Water' riff sneaks in at one point, the original song recorded by producer Martin Birch. There's a spoken part which sounds a bit cheesy as Johnny talks about his plan to play heavy music. Don Kirshner's voice introduces the now successful Johnny. There's a fast, upbeat hard rock instrumental with lead guitar. The music has become more varied again. The story is a bit trite but it's a fun song.

'Hungry Boys' is a fast paced hard rock with piano and an electric drum break. It's a typical BOC fast boogie rock number. Drummer Albert Bouchard takes the vocals.

'Fallen Angel' features bassist Joe Bouchard on vocals. His singing is rough, almost a shout, but possess a very pop rock / hard rock sound. The synth-led melody is catchy, and the guitar solo like pop-sounding Kansas. The music reminds me of the Canadian pop-rock band, Prism.

'Lips in the Hills' brings us back to the exciting rocker ability of BOC and it was the first song to really grab my attention. Eric Bloom is back on vocals again. This is hard rock BOC! Nothing complex or overly simple, just guitar rock energy and fury with a one of the band's typical suspense story tales.

'Unknown Tongue' concludes the album. It's hard rock with piano and yet another almost horror suspense style story piece about what sounds like a slightly twisted young lady. There's a bit of pretty but horror movie- type piano. A good track though less involved than the first two.

While this is not my favourite Blue Oyster Cult album, it does typify what a BOC album sounds like: essentially a rock band with hard rock and heavy rock up front and occasional meanderings into traditional heavy metal and progressive trim where suitable. What is to be admired and liked is the band's ability to produce exciting and at times very interesting songs about aliens, ghosts, science fiction and the super natural. It's almost as if the members know not to take themselves seriously about their taking their work seriously, if that makes any sense. There's a tongue in cheek quality to the genuine sincerity they put into their entertainment. For that, I like them. But I wish this album had a few more memorable tracks for my taste.

"Cultosaurus Erectus" was Blue Oyster Cult's 7th album. Released in 1980, it followed the very slick and polished album "Mirrors" which saw the band take a backward step towards strict commercialism. However, this album saw a return of BOC to their previous sound, which was a quick save for the band. Even with the more lackluster Mirrors album, after the release of Cultosaurus, the band continued to fill up the stadiums, and this album definitely helped to continue BOC's staying power. The first side of the album was much more progressive while the 2nd side leans toward the heavy rock anthems that the crowds were demanding, but there were really no big hits off of this album.

Starting with the amazing "Black Blade", we hear BOC at their progressive best. The track tells the story of one of Michael Moorcock's most famous characters Elric of Meinibone and his black sword Stormbringer. The lyrics are written from the point of view of the main character and boasts a track written in the style of a suite, with several main melodies, meter changes and styles. The track is one of the band's best and shows off their talents in a big way. "Monsters" continues this style with a track that also changes meter and style throughout, and this one-two punch of great album openers had the fans and the prog-heads excited.

The next track was a bit of a surprise, because it was the first time BOC had a flat out hard rocking blues track with a beat that sounded more like something from Black Sabbath or Led Zeppelin than it did BOC, but that was okay because the band got to prove that they deserved to be in the same class. After this, the album starts to sound more like the heavy rock sound of "Agents of Fortune" and "Spectres" with the heavy yet melodic tracks "Deadline", and "The Marshall Plan". Then "Hungry Boys", "Fallen Angel" and "Lips in the Hills" all have infectious rhythms and strong guitar and keyboard riffs that get into your head and stay there, the sound the public loved and demanded, and what they were famous for, giving their own unique brand of heavy rock that no one else seemed to be able to copy. The last track "Unknown Tongue" however, seems to follow the same rut that the band always falls into, most of their last tracks on their albums are quite weak, and this one also follows that pattern. However, with the liveliness returning and their memorable riffs and themes, the band came back to life with this album.

Maybe they might not be the heaviest metal band out there, and they may not also be the most progressive all the time, but I still love this band. They were always unique, a little off kilter, and the songs always tended to get stuck in your head. I always loved their strange darkness that was present in their lyrics, yet their music was catchy nonetheless. I remember being elated when this album came out, and they returned to their unpolished sound again, because that was always when they were at their best.