Blue Öyster Cult – The Symbol Remains
Label: Frontiers Music
release date: October 9th, 2020
Website: www.blueoystercult.com
2020 may be a year with only a little amount of real Classic Rock highlights – BLUE ÖYSTER CULT’s first album since 19 years is a nice surprise though and belongs to the better releases from this genre released during the past months. Especially the 3 opening 3 tracks “That Was Me”, “Box In My Head” & “Tainted Blood” set real highlights here with the catchy, almost AORish “Tainted Nation” being my personal favorite track on this record.
The quintet around original memmbers Eric Bloom (guitars, vocals) and Buck Dharma (guitars vocals) may not ivent anything new here but their traditional and luckily ‘experiment free’ Classic Rock will please any die-hard fan for sure as the 14 songs offer a lot to discover and prove why this group has been so influential on maybe hundreds of Classic Rock bands coming from the US during the past 40 years. Maybe, the album overall comes a bit less progressive than usual with a bigger AOR approach compared to their previous releases – especially in relation to their efforts from the 1970’s. The warm, adequate production though also helps to create a vintage feel here.
7,5/10
Birgitt Schwanke
Track list:
1. That Was Me 3:18
2. Box In My Head 3:45
3. Tainted Blood 4:17
4. Nightmare Epiphany 5:30
5. Edge Of The World 4:52
6. The Machine 4:14
7. Train True (Lennie’s Song) 3:57
8. The Return Of St. Cecilia 4:12
9. Stand And Fight 4:48
10. Florida Man 4:08
11. The Alchemist 6:00
12. Secret Road 5:24
13. There’s A Crime 3:37 14. Fight 3:12
