By the time the "More Cowbell" sketch aired on Saturday Night Live in April 2000, Blue Öyster Cult were long past their heyday. 1981's Fire of Unknown Origin marked their commercial peak and was a great album to boot. Line-up changes and a couple hit-or-miss albums followed. Imaginos, which was released in 1988, was intended to be a solo album from drummer Albert Bouchard but the record company balked at something that didn't involve the whole group. Some contributions from his fellow band members were slapped onto the recordings and we had a new BÖC album - in name, anyway.
Ten years later another less than stellar album was released, Heaven Forbid. With only 3 of the original members, the old magic was gone and most of the album seemed a pale imitation of the days when the band was at the height of its powers.
And then in 2001 Blue Öyster Cult loosed Curse of the Hidden Mirror. I recall its release and also ignoring it. Nineteen years later with Covid raging, I gave it a listen and discovered that the band had come up with a classic. It is full of wonderfully melodic hard rock that hearkens back to the glory days of Fire of Unknown Origin. The band are tight with Bobby Rondinelli's drumming propelling the songs ahead with muscular precision as Eric Bloom and Buck Dharma crank out catchy riffs.
I absolutely adore "The Old Gods Return" which Bloom and Buck Dharma co-wrote with sci-fi author John Shirley. It has a great, tense riff that perfectly evokes B-horror movie dramatics as Bloom screams that humanity is blessedly lost "forever and ever". The lyrics have a definite Lovecraftian bent that mention "a six eyed god whose wings beat/In a time so odd, so very odd".
This is classic Blue Öyster Cult that is as good as anything they did during their classic period.
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