This is a difficult one for me to review, steeped as I am in the lore and music of the mighty BOC. This is an album generally reviled by the BOC fraternity and actually dismissed by Sandy Pearlman – their producer & manager. It is a product of a certain time – 1985 – when the music world was going through changes, and in fact Blue Oyster Cult were bedding in a new drummer (Jimmy Wilcox) and keyboards player (Tommy Zvoncheck – Flo & Eddie, Dream Syndicate, Patrick Moraz). Music was being produced for MTV and there were new types of electronics and polyphonic synths that were all over the rock scene.
However, there are good tracks on the album. Tracks such as the superb ‘Perfect Water’, ‘Spy In The House Of The Night’, ‘When The War Comes’, ‘Shadow Warrior’ all bear up under scrutiny as well as the mammoth ‘Madness To The Method’.
Tracks to avoid are ‘Make Rock Not War’ & ‘White Flags’.
Not the best Blue Oyster Cult album but Eric Bloom & Buck Dharma’s vocals and guitar are as perfectly sync’ed as ever.
