CULTÖSAURUS ERECTUS

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.