In the late 1960's at a Long Island college, a band called "Soft White Underbelly" was formed. After recording one shelved album on Elektra Records, the group would form into Blue Oyster Cult several years later. Thanks to manager Sandy Pearlman, the band got a deal with CBS Records, and their debut album was released in early 1972.


This self-titled album would prove to be a hard rock classic, and an album that became very influential in the creation of heavy metal. The album's best known song, "Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll" featured a guitar riff inspired by Black Sabbath's "The Wizard", surreal lyrics, and several awesome guitar solos by the virtuosic Donald Roeser (Also known as Buck Dharma). Other classics include "Stairway to the Stars", "Transmaniacon MC", and the epic and trippy as hell "Workshop of the Telescopes". Each song hints at psychadelia, but this in no way takes away from the more hard-rocking songs found here. "Before the Kiss, a Redcap" is an early heavy metal song that kind of sounds like something Deep Purple would do. "I'm on the Lamb, but I Ain't no Sheep" is an early version of "The Red and the Black" which would appear on BOC's next album.

Despite the whole album being a good listen, it sounds rather unfocused, and sounds to me like they can't decide if they want to be a straight-forward heavy metal band or a Cream-esque psychadelic blues-rock band. Of course, this problem would be for the most part, remedied on their next release. Still, BOC's debut is a great hard rock album, and shows the very humble beginnings of the band.

I haven't heard this album (apart from Cities on Flame) but I'm interested in this thread and hopefully end up enjoying it.

In my mind, Blue Öyster Cult is the first American heavy metal band.

A very bizarre band to be sure. For every great rockin'/heavy metal song song,there's some weird psychedelic trippy stuff. I like BOC alot but always flet they were an acquired taste. Nonetheless, a very cool classic band.

Even though I had most of their 70's albums a long time ago, I probably can't give an honest review of any of their albums before "Agents Of Fortune" except for maybe the live album "On Your Feet...". So, I'll see ya'll somewhere around '75 or '76.
I agree with 007 in that they were kinda hit n miss early on with some great early heavy metal stuff and some other stuff that was way out in left field, alot of tracks I would fast forward over and alot I would play and rewind and play again for my middle-of-the-road AC/DC or Ted Nugent type hard rock friends.

I have this on vinyl
havn't listened to it for years
BOC was a band that when they were great, they were great.
The cover art was something I used to always draw in pencil and often add my own lil flavors here and there.

think I may go dig it out and toss it on the turntable

Blue Oyster Cult one of the few metal bands from this era that was loved by both fans and critics, often referred to as a 'thinking man's metal band'. It is hard to believe that this band became as large as they did, since most metal fans and documentaries, books and magazine articles think of them more as an after thought, which is a shame they were one of the first and best American metal bands.

This debut is somewhat different albums that followed it. It has a hard rock/metal album that flirts with psychedelic influences and even bluesy overtones. 'She's As A Beautiful as Foot' being a good example of their flirtation with psychedelia, and the concert favorite 'Then Came the Last Days of May' has that bluesy overtone and great guitar tone from the very underrated Buck Dharma.

Early examples of their heavier side are hinted on, tracks like 'Transmaniacon MC' and 'I'm On the Lamb But I Aint No Sheep'. Also includes their first radio friendly type of song and anthem of sorts 'Cities On Flame With Rock n Roll' this type of songs that band would excel in the upcoming years.

Great beginning to this thread Schbebopalula, looking forward to see your thoughts as this thread progresses.

I had actually never heard this album before, so I checked it out on Lala last night. It is a tad uneven but there's some really cool tracks on there.

My favorite track was "Before The Kiss, A Redcap", especially that hip little jazz guitar comping section in the middle. Cool stuff.

The next album is my favorite BOC....

On to their sophomore release, "Tyranny and Mutation".

Released in 1973 on CBS records, Blue Oyster Cult's second album was a departure from the sound of their debut. The space-rock of their self-titled album has been replaced by a much more hard rocking approach. Most of the songs found on "Tyranny and Mutation" are raw, heavy, and fast.

The most well known track is the album opener "The Red and the Black", which sounds like a very early speed metal song.

"O.D.'d on Life Itself" is a cool blues rocker with a riff very similar to another song...I'm just not sure what song it is.

"Hot Rails to Hell" is a classic BOC tune. Joe Bouchard utters some of the coolest lyrics the band ever wrote, and Buck Dharma lays down some of the best lead guitar work in rock history.

"7 Screaming Diz-Busters" is a verry surreal space-rock song with some severely creepy imagery, lightning fast guitar solos, and a drum beat and bass line that sound like rejects from Funkadelic. This is one of the few songs on "TaM" where the psychadelic aspects of the debut can be heard.

"Baby Ice Dog" is another song that seems caught between psychedelic rock and heavy metal. Still, it's tight and catchy, with a great bassline and some cool synthesizer effects. The guitar is very low in the mix on this song for some reason, particularly evident on Buck's 3 second guitar solo near the end.

"Wings Wetted Down" is my favorite song on the album. The guitar riff sounds like Tony Iommi could have come up with it. I also love the poetic lyrics, even if I have no idea what they mean. Albert Bouchard does the vocals on this track. He has a very eerie voice that fits the song perfectly, and he's able to do this while still drumming very tightly. The guitar solo is bone-chillingly awesome. It's a shame that Buck Dharma isn't more well known than he is. The man plays a mean guitar!

"Teen Archer" is probably the best guitar showcase on the album. The vocals are kind of muffled and the rhythm section is pushed a little too far back, but the guitar is awesome. The chords, the riffs, and of course...the dualing guitar solos.

And the final track, "Mistress of the Salmon Suit (Quicktime Girl)". How do you end an album of raw, kickass rock n' roll? With a raw, kickass rock n' roll song of course! It's a chunky heavy metal song with cool vocal harmonies and an awesomely heavy drum sound.

Anyway, "Tyranny and Mutation" is a great BOC album, and one of the first and finest American heavy metal albums.

And of course the cover and especially the back cover are hella awesome. :metal:

Tyranny & Mutation is a pretty solid follow-up album. It has 2 great tracks-The Red & the Black and Hot Rails to Hell. The rest are not up to par with those 2 but still pretty good.

The Bouchard brothers are the forgotten sibling duo of rock n roll. Alan (I think that's his name ?), the drummer is very talnted and adds lots of flavor to the songs. This is like the debut. Have it on vinyl and havn;t listened to it much in a lot of years.

Like detuned, 'Tyranny and Mutation' maybe my favorite B.O.C. release. This album is a natural progression from their debut album.

The Red and the Black opens the album in fine form and could be classified as an early speed metal song as Schbop points out. Love the little bass run toward the end of the track.

'Od'd on Life Itself' B.O.C. besides writing some catchiest non commerical songs of their era, also always had some of the coolest song titles in rock history. Just a great tune.

'Hot Rails to Hell' , No one other then Ten Years After guitarist Alvin Lee was playing faster leads during this era than Buck Dhrama and this is an excellent example of Dhrama fast but melodic style.

'7 Scraming Diz Busters' and 'Wings Wetted Down' are great songs and 'Wings Wetted Down' shows the bands use of three strong vocalist they had in their arsenal. As a matter fact 'Wings Wetted Down' sounds like the type of songs Alice Cooper was writting during this era, and B.O.C. did open a few few shows for Alice Cooper band during this era so maybe some of Alice's influence seeped into the song writing.

'Teen Archer' another great song in a poppier direction and closing track 'Mistress of the Salmon Salt (Quick Lime Girl)' which features great leads and another great example of B.O.C.'s use of the strong vocalist they had.

I purchased a BOC greatest hits comp a few years ago to get a taste for the band. It didn't happen. Too weird and not enough rock for me. Have fun with this one boys. I'm out, yo!

What I really love about Tyranny & Mutation (and BOC in general) is there is a ton of subtext going on underneath the surface. Plus it's tongue in cheek as hell. Every tune is performed with a little "wink", so the listener is never quite sure how seriously to take it. But whether it's completely serious...or a huge rock "inside joke" doesn't really matter when the songs are this entertaining.

The Red & The Black is about as infectious as you can get, that riff gets in my head and jangles around for hours. BOC's "heavy" tracks are really just old school rock 'n' roll amped up on speed and attitude (kind of a pre-cursor to the Motorhead attitude).

7 Screaming Diz-Busters is a total underground classic, mixing together jazz rhythms & chord progressions with a biker rock attitude, sci-fi/cult lyrics, and amazing guitar from Buck Dharma.

Teen Archer is another favorite track, Buck Dharma is one of the most interesting guitarists from this era of heavy rock. He has a complete handle on how to mix in fusion elements with their heavy attack, which adds a ton of color and shading not heard in the majority of other early American hard rock bands.

Mistress Of The Salt is a proto-doom track, with a truly eerie mood...yet punctuated with catchy vocal harmonies. It kind of sounds like Black Sabbath meets Queen on the way to a Velvet Underground concert.

There's not a bad song on the album. BOC would become more accomplished and polished later, but this early "devil may care" sound is what I really love.

Let me know when we get to Agents of Fortune.

BOC is one of those rare instances where I don't like the early releases. Usually I prefer a band's early output but not here.

BOC's third album, "Secret Treaties" was released in 1974, and was their first album to gain mainstream attention and commercial success.


After the more straight forward rock of "Tyranny and Mutation", Blue Oyster Cult revert largely back to the psychedelic rock sound of their debut. The dueling guitar assaults of the previous album are still apparent, but much less prominent. Still, "Secret Treaties" has a few moments of heaviness and contains some of the band's best songwriting.

The album opener is "Career of Evil", a catchy little song built around a simplistic keyboard-guitar riff. The lyrics are exactly what you's expect by the title. Still, Buck gets some cool guitar fills near the end, and Eric Bloom's vocals are great.Certainly not a classic, but a decent way to start the album.

"Subhuman" is quite trippy, and probably my personal favorite song on the album. It's got a very haunting melody, which complement the vocals fantastically. This song, for me, transcends beyond a "normal" listening experience. There's something about this one that 'gets' me in a way no other song here can. Everything just seems to work on this one. It's almost like prog, as it's constantly switching between being a heavy, take-no-prisoners rocker and a wonderfully creepy ballad.

"Dominance and Submission" is the hardest rocking of the songs here. Albert Bouchard lends his voice to this one, which gives the song a lot of diversity. The guitar riff is pure 1970's rock n' rol! I also like the background vocals by the rest of the band, especially the really low voice. But by far the best part is the chaotic build up to the guitar solo. It sounds like Albert Bouchard is slowly going insane, like he's "submitting" to the "dominance", while the band eggs him on. Anyway, it's just a great song and a welcome injection of energy into Secret Treaties.

On the front cover, the band is standing next to a German ME 262, which was inspired by the song "ME 262". A cool, almost bluesy guitar riff is the centerpiece of this song, but the lyrics are very cool, describing a WWII aerial battle. Air-raid sound effects and great guitar solos make this one of the best songs on the album, and a classic BOC track.

"Cagey Cretins" is a cool and complex song. With shrill background harmonies, a stop-start guitar rhythm, a subtle but awesome keyboard section, and one of Buck Dharma's best solos ever, how can this not be awesome?

"Harvester of Eyes" sounds like a cross between George Thorogood and West Side Story. That's all I care to say.

"Flaming Telepaths" is a rock classic. Starting with an awesomely dark guitar riff before going into a very hauntingly heavy vocal section. Eric Bloom gives the performance of his life here. This song just sounds epic. The rhythms are complex, and there's so many little subtle ingredients present that you practically notice something new everytime you hear it. Once again, an amazing guitar solo,and when the synth solo comes in....orgasm.

"Astronomy" closes the album on a much mellower note. The lyrics, a poem by Sandy Pearlman, the band's manager, are very cool, with lots of fantasy imagery that really make a connection with the song. This one is a lot more progressive than many of the songs here, but it's still very structured. The song opens with a piano riff and a soft drum beat, leading up to Eric Bloom's vocal section. This song is probably the best example of Eric Bloom's vocals. The vocal melody is very memorable and kind of dark. Then, practically out of nowhere, this monstrous keyboard-guitar riff shatters the serenity, before slowly slowing down to the original melody. This song is like a hurricane, constantly building up force before kicking your ass, slowly lulling you into a false sense of security, all culminating in a sublime invasion of your brain when Eric screams "ASTRONOMYYYYYYY!!!!" at the end while Buck viciously molests his guitar. No wonder Metallica covered it. After all, who's better at molesting guitars than Metallica?

So, that's "Secret Treaties". It may not be my favorite Blue Oyster Cult, but it's still a great album and one of the best rock platters to come out of the 1970's.

My fave of the first 3 by a smidge.
They stepped up a bit on the album artwork as well.

some great solos

Keep going...

Once you get to Agents Of Fortune, I'll be in here all the time because I have everything from then on.

As a kid I was a "hits and rockers" BOC fan like so many people were. That's fine, but reading these reviews makes me wonder if I didn't blow off a lot of interesting songs those 35 years or more ago now. I think I have a better attention span for wierdness and psychedelia at 50 than I did at 15; so I'd better give these albums another try I think.

Secret Treaties is just okay in my book. I really only like Dominance and Submission and Astronomy (I suppose Career of Evil is okay as well). I'm with Toho though. Once Agents of Fortune came out, B.O.C. really knocked the next few in a row out of the park.

And I like the reworking of Astronomy on the Imaginos album better than the original version.

I have the best of - I never really got into BOC. I like the "hits", but I may have to check out the back catalogue one of these days!