TYRANNY AND MUTATION

This is Blue Öyster Cult's second album and it follows very closely in the footsteps of the first. To my ears, the two first albums by Blue Öyster Cult are pure Rock 'N' Roll and Hard Rock, plain and simple. I find no Heavy Metal or Prog (Related) in these albums. They are often compared to Black Sabbath which I find altogether out of place as they have more in common with fellow Americans Alice Cooper than with British Heavy Metal or progressive rock.

One interesting feature of the album is that they call its first side The Black and the second side The Red similar to what Queen would do on their masterpiece second album with The Black side and The White side. Overall, the second vinyl side, the Red, is better than the first.

Compared to the debut, some songs on Tyranny And Mutation are a bit longer. 7 Screaming Diz-Busters is the longest track with a running time of just over seven minutes. The band uses this extra time to develop this composition slightly more than usual and adds piano and some slower passages. However, the riffs and melodies do not hold up very well and the song tends to drag towards the end. There is nothing really progressive about this music. The rest of the songs are all between four and five minutes in length and leave very little room for any interesting chord progressions or interesting musical ideas. An exception from this is the very good Wings Wetted Down which has a piano driven verse that alternates with a heavy riff and a melodic chorus. In addition it has a heavy bass guitar sound and a great guitar solo. This is easily the best number on this album and the only one that stands out for me. This song could be seen as a precursor to Astronomy and (Don't Fear) The Reaper from subsequent albums. Had only the whole of Tyranny And Mutation sounded like this.

Teen Archer is also a quite acceptable song with a cool bass line and riff with a decent organ solo. But the rest of The Red side is as generic and Rock 'N' Roll oriented as The Black side. The same problem that plagued their first album, namely mostly weak melodies and riffs, also plagues this album. Things would improve greatly with their next album, however.

Overall, there is little to distinguish Tyranny And Mutation from the self-titled debut. I therefore give it the same rating. The few good moments do not quite manage to push this album up to two stars for me (even if I would give this half a star more).

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