From New York City, the amazing Blue Oyster Cult return with the Symbol Remains. Their first new studio album since 2001. It’s been a long nineteen years coming, but how it’s been worth the wait. A towering monster of an album right up there against the best Cult has ever done.
All the classic BOC trademarks are here. Crushing riffs, dark, brooding, menacing stuff, the melodic hard rockers which Buck has always written so well, tremendous guitar work, Eric’s snarling vocals and all the rest of it.
Heck – there’s even a bit of pub rock blue boogie (Train True) and a bit of a funk edge to Florida Man. And for me the unsung hero is Richie Castellano who writes arguably the finest two songs here in the Machine and (especially) the Alchemist. More on that slightly later.
Basically – the Blue Oyster Cult remains a powerful force and all the evidence you need is here throughout the Symbol Remains.
The opener – That Was Me is heavy, heavy, heavy with a crunching riff. That weird solo in the middle surprises and works well. A forceful three minute opener of intent. Box in my Head a typical Buck song a-la Harvest Moon, Dancing in the Ruins etc. Excellent stuff. Melodic, rocking and sublime guitar as only he can.
Tainted Blood (a joint Eric and Richie effort) takes us in to that mystical/dark territory. A sort of a heavied up I Love the Night. Haunting with an undertone of menace. Atmospheric. Edge of the World brings another fine song written by Richie quickly followed by another one – the Machine – which zooms along nicely telling the tale of the over-reliance on certain modern gadgetry. Northing not to enjoy. So dammed good. Does anyone do this stuff better than BOC. No they do not….!
The Return of St. Cecilia takes us back to the Stalk Forrest Group style and could have come straight from those old days or perhaps of Tyranny and Mutation. Proper “old school” Cult. Stand and Fight is another huge heavy one. Crushing rifferama all the way up to eleven and beyond. Check out the Richie/Buck guitar interplay too. Who needs Iron Maiden?
After the earlier mentioned Florida Man comes the jewel in the crown. The absolute epic of the Alchemist. It’s very hard to come up with adjectives to say how good this song it. Somewhere along the lines of a mixture of Flaming Telepaths and Nosferatu. Epic, atmospheric, dark, brooding, chilling. Best you give it a listen:
Then the closing trio play out very nicely with a couple of fine Buck rockers (Secret Road and Fight) providing the bookends to There’s a Crime. The guitar works in Secret Road and Fight again sublime.
Sure, the Blue Oyster Cult may have taken nineteen years between studio albums though have remained “on tour forever” and can be rightly proud of how great the Symbol Remains is. Fifty years or so in the business, massively influential and most certainly still have “it”.
There’s no band quite like BOC. And this albums demonstrates why. To paraphrase a certain sporting-related company: “just buy it”.
>> BLUE OYSTER CULT THE SYMBOL REMAINS ON AMAZON HERE <<
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