CURSE OF THE HIDDEN MIRROR

As with most bands that don't break up and continue playing into their 50s, Blue Öyster Cult spends most of its studio time trying to recapture their glory days. The big surprise here is that they almost succeed. Indeed, most of the album is pretty good. Dance On Stilts, Pocket, Stone Of Love, and Here Comes That Feeling (note, all Buck Dharma penned) are all very fine rock songs. Why then, do I feel so reluctant to give this album even three stars? I guess it's because for all its strengths, the album still feels like it tries too hard to reach into the past. Nowhere is this more apparent than the embarrassing "The Old Gods Return" and the painfully trite "I Just Like To Be Bad." If this were a new band, with their whole careers ahead of them to develop, I think I would be more generous. That may be unfair, but a band's history cannot help but influence how we perceive their music. In any case, they should be lauded for still being able to write such catchy tunes, even if they will never regain their stardom of days gone by. Three stars it is!

The old guys return.

After a long and ill-fated career of (evil... and) ups and downs Blue Oyster Cult has arrived at this destination. While it's impossible to say at this point if the band will release another studio effort or not I do have this to say: if they stop here they will have ended on a high note. After a very heavy previous album only 3 years prior (Heaven Forbid), this album turns and looks in the direction that the band had always been more familiar with -- 70s metal. Perhaps lighter in tone than some of their older stuff, this album still has some classic BOC moments on here. This may not be an album with quite the same glory as their black and white days or Imaginos, but it's still a good album none-the-less that brings back fond memories (for me anyways) of their commercial era (Agents through to Mirrors).

Opening with an almost progressive first track, DANCE ON STILTS starts the album very promisingly. A smooth riff from Buck notifies the audience immediately that this is not the ''Heaven Forbid'' era of the band. Catchy and interesting, DANCE ON STILTS is one of the album's biggest highlights. That is slightly unfortunate, however, as the bar is set very high by the first song and the album will never really deliver to it. SHOWTIME is a cool song whose main attraction is the story told behind it -- about a guy who's out for revenge after being betrayed and sent to jail -- unfortunately, the repetition of 'showtime' wears on the nerves and takes down the overall effectiveness of the song, even if it does have a very cool bridge and bass riff. THE OLD GOD RETURN is a track reminiscent of the BOC of old. With evil lyrics and a heavy foundation, this song becomes another standout on the album. If you're into very down to earth lyrics, however, beware... the lyrics here might come of as very cheesy. ONE STEP AHEAD OF THE DEVIL is very much in the same vein, and if you liked 'Old Gods..' then you're sure to love this one. Fast and gritty, this is another track that shows BOC trying to be their old selves. Nearing the end EYE OF THE HURRICANE and GOOD TO FEEL HUNGRY are again tracks that show BOCs old heavy side. Nothing remarkable to state here, but good tracks none the less.

The there's the ups and the downs.

A couple of very good tracks to be had on this album. Ironically, they're the songs where BOC tries to explore new grounds. Songs that sound completely unique to this album are the ones that really make their mark. POCKET, HERE COME THAT FEELING and STONE OF LOVE are the tracks that I'm talking about. Kind of a mixture of Mirrors and Imaginos era BOC, these are a group of songs who are both light hearted and heavy at the same time. Slightly pop-rockish, these songs hooks and catches are good enough to get even the mightiest head-banger.

However, like may of BOC's albums, this one is plagued with a couple sub par tracks. I JUST LIKE TO BE BAD... just likes to be bad. Cheesy lyrics and hooks that miss their mark make this song one of BOCs least exciting tracks. OUT OF THE DARKNESS -- well.... -- there's nothing really wrong with this track, it's actually quite good. Unfortunately, it's hideously out of place on this alum and would likely have better served its life as a b-side.

Low 3 or high 2 for this album. Really, since it's more for the fans, this one gets a two. Quite good but not at all essential for the prog-head. However, there is still a multitude of music to catch your ear here, the best of which is likely the opener as well as a couple others littered throughout the album. This one is really recommended for BOC fans and fans of some good hard rock. A very enjoyable (if flawed) album.

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?

At the time that Blue Oyster Cult released their 14th album 'Curse of the Hidden Mirror', there were only three long-standing members left; Eric Bloom on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, who even though he wasn't with the band at the very beginning, he was on all of the albums; Buck Dharma who also shared vocals, but was known as the lead guitarist; and Allen Lanier on keys and rhythm guitar. The rest of the band saw a lot of line up changes. BOC also never really expected their 14th album to be their last one either, but, even though it was a decent album, it just didn't perform well, and they were dumped by their label.

The band, however, continued to tour and still continued to draw huge crowds. So, even though there hasn't been any new albums since this one, released in 2001, the band has been active. Unfortunately, Allen Lanier died in 2013, but Dharma and Bloom have remained in the band. Dharma and Bloom also co-wrote much of the music on the album, thus the general sound of BOC is there, but they also had help from Danny Miranda, who is the current bass player, and cyberpunk author John Shirley.

The album starts out with what is probably the best song on the album 'Dance on Stilts', which has the attitude and feel of some of the best BOC tracks, and the 3rd track also shows some promise with 'The Old Gods Return'. 'Pocket' was supposed to be the single, but it didn't sell very well even though the track is a really good song, in the same style as one of my favorites from the 'Club Ninja' album, 'Perfect Water'. The guitar solo in 'Pocket' is also really good, it's just too short. 'One Step Ahead of the Devil' is also one of the heavier BOC tracks, and was placed very well on the album as it served as a wake up call after the mellower 'Pocket'.

The problem is, is that after the first excellent track, the rest of the album tends to go down in quality, and the heart of the band just doesn't seem to be there. The tracks start to sound more and more alike as the album moves on, descending to a more MOR sound. There were some promising things happening on the first half of the album, but the downward spiral seems to continue on the 2nd half, where, except for a few great guitar solos, we are only left with mediocre and 'too perfect sounding' tracks. The spirit just doesn't seem to be there. The ideas seemed to be running dry, and the proof of that is the addition of older tracks like 'Out of the Darkness' which was written for the 1992 movie 'Bad Channels', but was never used, and 'Showtime' which was another unused track written and recorded for the album 'Cultosaurus Erectus', but was also unused then.

So, the album isn't too bad, it's just a bit too polished for me since I love the rougher sound of BOC the best. At the time of this release, many fans still expected that one album that would come out that would really recall the glory days of the band, maybe they could still pull off another 'Spectres', 'Secret Treaties' or even ''Imaginos'. But, with the label getting rid of the band, it didn't seem like we would ever really get a chance to find out for sure. But then . . . in 2019, it was announced that a new label had finally signed on for a new album. It won't be released until sometime in 2020, but maybe, just maybe, this will be the chance for the band to come back with a vengeance. We could only hope, and time will tell. After almost 20 years, my own personal hopes aren't up too much, but, you never know. I really want to be proven wrong on this one!