BLUE ÖYSTER CULT

First album from this Midwest guitar quintet that were one of the more influential group for metal and progmetal bands of the 80's along with Sabbath (Zep and Purple being hard rock rather than heavy metal). The triple guitar attack Cult of the Blue Oyster (keyboardis Lanier also played a lot of guitar.)put out a series of interesting albums until the 80's, but none were really absolutely essential (IMHO), despite healthy sales throughout their career. Produced by their long-time collab Sandy Pearlman and released on their long-time label Columbia, this first album went by without much notice and acclaim, but it started a loyal following across the US and Canada. Their sound was instantly recognizable due to Pearlman's production, and here he contributes to six tracks, which is more than any BOC musicians.

10 short songs (max 5 mins) make up this almost-classic debut album with its intriguing B&W labyrinth, with some rather interesting songs like the opening Ttansmaniacom, Cities On Flame (a classic concert fave), Screams and Telescope Workshop but there are few spots for the instruments to blow the steam away and interact more loosely than on the tight arrangements of the songs. Only Redcap (the longest track) offers a little breath with a middle section and a welcome organ sound. If some lyrics are sometimes interesting, discussing the future and sci-fi issues, some are simply dreadful, and not just in this album. Despite ballad s like Last Days Of May, th e mood is macho guitar-oriented heavy metal rock with some light spacey moments, somewhat due to the music, but mainly through the lyrics

Hardly prog, very "riffy", sometimes repetitive, BOC's debut is a normal run-of-the-mill rock album that enjoyed the hard and heavy moods of their triple guitar forefront, but it may be a bit difficult today to see nowadays how they might have been groundbreaking or even