Masters of what used to be called metal (known these days as melodic hard rock), Long Island, New York’s Blue Öyster Cult have been making records and touring since the late 1960s. BÖC have a well-earned reputation for crafting intelligent, witty lyrics, wedding those to hard-as-nails yet catchy melodies. The group scored their first major commercial break with a live document, 1975’s On Your Feet or on Your Knees. The next year, the band broke through in a big way with the mega-hit album Agents of Fortune, propelled by its single, the now-classic “Don’t Fear the Reaper.” Many more live and studio albums followed.
The group enjoyed a sustained creative peak in the late ’70s and early 1980s. And it was during that period that BÖC let tape roll during various rehearsal sessions. But with no plans to release the songs they had recorded, those tapes were all but forgotten. Yet recently, BÖC rescued that unheard material from obscurity, and through the wonders of artificial-intelligence technology, they sought to bring the audio up to releasable standards. Though the resulting tracks feature some 21st- century tweaks, the songs on likely represent the final set of previously unheard material from Blue Öyster Cult’s original lineup. spoke with guitarist Buck Dharma and lead singer Eric Bloom about the new record.
