Customer Reviews

Blue Oyster Cult /Tyranny & Mutation / Secret Treaties (3CD)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

la plus grande trilogie du heavy-metal qui allait tout bouleverser dans l'ésotérisme métallique. Et quelles harmonies ! Il fallait s'appeler Fougeray pour ne pas percevoir la grandiosité de ces opus en Black Sabbath majeur. C'est toujours un bonheur que d'entendre "cities on flame with rnr". Quant à "the last days of may", si vous n'comprenez pas après çà qu'elle ne reviendra plus jamais, cette salope, allez vous faire pendre ailleurs !

The "Tyranny" CD is, to some, merely a compilation of the band's initial three albums, but to a true BOC historian,there's alot more going on here. The 'Cult isgenerally recognized as the first true American Heavy Metal Band. I stress "American", because their self-titled album of 1971 came after British Metal counterparts such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple etc. In that regard, they are not just a great band--they are an historic band.

But you've got to offer something to earn the "historic" moniker. And Blue Oyster Cult has plenty to offer. The three albums represented in "Tyranny" provide a tremendous example of the band's progression from the years 1972 through 1974, the years that I feel produced the bands most satisfying sounds. The band truly has a sound unique to itself. Consider:

Eric Bloom's rasp, as lead singer, has no rival, although some would correctly argue that many of the lyrics are hard to decipher. Details, details. He has the perfect look of a lead singer--big afro, mirror shades ,black leather. For a 17 year old in 1973, trust me, that was cool!

The perfect complement for instrumentation is Buck Dharma. (He apparently has done away with his prior name, Donald Roeser). Take out your "Tyranny" disc right now, and cue it up to "I'm on the lamb, but I ain't no sheep". Focus your attention on the lead guitar work in that song. I rest my case. Buck Dharma is among the top guitarists I have ever heard. He writes much of the band's material, and although his singing voice is, to this writer, merely average, it's easy to look past that to the bigger picture.

As you enjoy the "Tyranny" CD, take notice of another item: The 'Cult's third album, "Secret Treaties" from 1974, is represented on this disc, and starts with the song, "Career of Evil". This is the beginning of the Patti Smith influence (she co-wrote the song), and it is remarkable what an influence it was! It's actually a whole different sound from the album of only one year earlier. Patti would go on to influence BOC music up through the late 70's.

Most importantly, remember as you listen that you are hearing the best material from a truly historic American band. Don't let the occult themes and the quasi-violent lyrics fool you. These guys don't take themselves too seriously--they just sound awesome.

This box set is a handy collection of Blue Oyster Cult's first three albums, collectively known as the "black-and-white period", when the band was a cult attraction nevertheless drawing increasing attention. These three records, which contain standards like 'Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll', 'The Red and the Black' and 'Career of Evil', form the core of the evidence for BOC's being the ultimate "thinking man's metal band". The only thing is that, since this box was released, all three of these albums have been remastered and re-released with bonus tracks and new liner notes, so this collection is a bit outdated. By all means, however, it is worth checking out these classic albums in practically any form.

You can't go wrong with this deal. These are three of the most important early metal/hard rock albums that an enthusiast could/should own. They rock, they can be,cerebral, spooky, at times not very well produced, but are all exciting and creative. This is when metal still had that great psychedelic influence(check out the spacey lyrics when you can understand them! ). Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser plays some of the best hard rock (Jeff Beck influenced) guitar of the 70's. All three releases are phenomenal, but "Secret Treaties" is the best. That record just flows so smoothly and ends with "Astronomy" possibly my all time favorite song.In eleventh grade (1979) I was turned on to these guys by my bandmates, and believe me my original vinyl copies of these got worn out from weekly play. All are well mastered on CD, especially the debut, which always sounded the worst on vinyl, benefits the most.I snatched all three the first time I saw them on disc.

Sometimes you get so tunnel-visioned into scanning for obscure and hidden trees that you miss the Stalk-Forrest (one of this band's earlier tags). This commendably low-priced set represents the black-and-white-covers era when , true to their final choice for band name, these guys mainly WERE a cult item. At this early stage, BOC were short on marketing strategies but long on creativity and experimentation, thus the songs off these first three lps -while nominally "metal"- have a je nai sais quai (my apologies to outraged French grammarians) that sets these tracks apart from their later, slicker, post-AGENTS OF FORTUNE output. Odd touches and surreal moments abound, with just enough pedal-to-the-metal applied to remind you that these guys are primarily a hard rock band, albeit one with enough craft and smarts to not get bogged down in formula. The self-titled first features such rave-ups as "Transmaniacon MC", "Cities On Flame With Rock & Roll" and "Stairway to the Stars", but the album's real treasures are its unclassifiable cross-genre hybrids: "Before the Kiss, A Redcap" (wonderfully strange jazzy blues), "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep" (an early version of "The Red and the Black" best described as progressive bluegrass), and the haunting and otherworldly "Then Came The Last Days of May" (a classic of subtle, idyllic menace presaging "Don't Fear The Reaper" years later). Only the album's inferior mix annoys - thus this overall set only nabs four stars from me. TYRANNY & MUTATION fixes the sound problems and steps up the intensity besides - it was around this time that the band's ambient liner notes started to backfire on them (believe it or don't, there was some scuttlebutt at the time that BOC were neo-Nazis - despite the fact that most of the band's Jewish! Of course, in those days, there were a lot of such silly urban legends afoot regarding longhaired heavy-rockers) and highlights on the album include at least three stone-classics: "Hot Rails to Hell", "OD'd On Life Itself" and "7 Screaming Diz-Busters". The last album collected, SECRET TREATIES, is probably the apogee of this early, eclectic BOC style, a way-out blend of mysticism, pop-culture science fiction imagery and highly tasty melodic metal which resulted in one great song after another: "Career of Evil", "Subhuman", "Flaming Telepaths", "Harvester of Eyes", etc. After this slam-dunk of seductive strangeness, the influence of producers Pearlman & Krugman and creative consultant Richard Meltzer -which had been considerable- lessened somewhat (but paved the way for Michael Moorcock's later work with the band). If you're waiting for me to add "and they were never this good again", well, that's a bit harsh. They remained a quality band - just a lot less unpredictable and bizarre, though there's always a little more than meets the ear on all of their subsequent albums.

Alors que Deep Purple en avait terminé avec l'écriture des plus beaux fleurons du hard rock ; pendant que Led Zeppelin gérait les bénéfices amassés par Peter Grant et alors qu'Aerosmith n'avait pas encore officiellement vu le jour, surgissant de nulle part la rythmique des frères Bouchard, les claviers d'Allan Lanier étoffent les textes et soli de Donald Roeser et Eric Bloom, pour le moins saignants. "Carreer of Evil", "Harvester of eyes", "ME 262" voilà de quoi être accro à la Cult-mania qui n'a pas encore vu le jour mais il n'est pas trop tard...

20 years ago, when I was turned on to BOC, I didn't like these albums. They sounded "different". Well, all I have to say to that is damn, did I miss out! These are really GREAT albums. About '98 are realized I was hungry for more BOC. I remembered I didn't care much for their "early" work but they are my favorite band, bar none. What a shock I got. Now I know why they are so highly rated among others even more so. This stuff is fantastic. I'd also like to get across the fact that these albums did not "grow" on me. The last time I heard these albums was back in '79/80. I just didn't get it then. As soon as I played these CDs I was blown away and amazed that I waited this long. DAMN! The plus is, this is like new music to me. Its all very fresh. You can say I returned to old gods. 5 stars be damned! 10+ stars! Excellent price too! Enjoy.

I'm only 18, and discovered Blue Oyster Cult last year, havingbought "Workshop of the Telescopes" on a whim. I wasimpressed by that, and now I am impressed by these three CD's, conveniently available for one low price. My fave of the three is probably the self-titled debut album, because the songwriting is catchy, and the singer has that drugged out rasp I like so much. Secret Treaties runs a VERY close second. The songs are just as good, a little closer to a traditional hard rock sound, but the production is lacking, and sometimes an annoying feedback keeps coming through that kind of annoys me. Still, this is a great album. I'm not that hot on "Tyranny and Mutation", but since you're essentially getting it for free, it's worth it for Hot Rails to Hell, and Baby Ice Dog. Anyway, BOC are an amazing band, and this is a good way to get exposed to a good chunk of their work. For new fans, I strongly reccomend Workshop of the Telescopes.

This is an awesome collecton. All three of these albumns get '5 stars' in my book. Every song is great! I assume if your into B.O.C., you'll have these already, so if your interested in this group, I recommend starting here! This IS classic Blue Oyster Cult!

You can't go wrong with this set of the first three classic BOC albums!

The perfect place to start and hear what all the fans were raving about. No "Don't Fear The Reaper",no,no that was far into the future. This is the stuff that punk bands loved!

Yes,it's dated...but damn it great!

You need this!