Fire of Unknown Origin

 

 

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'Fire of Unknown Origin' is quite possibly Blue Oyster Cult's finest album. Past albums had flirted with the band's eclectic mix of progressive hard rock, campy lyrics and unusual song structures, but 'Fires' really is the culmination of all that hard work. Released in 1981, the album contains everything you'd expect from a rock album of that particular time period. As such, it suffers from sounding fixed in time to that particular year when synthesizers had begun creeping into mainstream music genres. Only a fool would pass it by based on such a trivial thing, though. This is the sort of rock album that should be mandatory listening for future musicians and music lovers.

The title track opens the album with a steady drum beat reminiscent of 'Billie Jean' with some dreamy keyboards and a catchy guitar riff to boot. Boasting a few odd time signatures, it sets the stage for the rambunctious tone of the album, driven hard by Eric Bloom's stellar vocal delivery. 'Burnin' For You' is a straight up classic rock anthem that harkens back to 'Reaper' days without sourcing out the same mold. Donald Roeser takes over lead vocal duties for the track, while the band assists him in leaping back and forth between psychedelic bliss and full-on rhythm guitar grit in equal measure. No wonder it was such a hit! 'Veteran of the Psychic Wars' relies heavily on synthesizer effects to deliver the slow chugging, thought-provoking sound and start/stop time signatures. 'Sole Survivor' and 'Heavy Metal: Black and Silver' test different grounds; the former a darkly haunting descent into mystery and the latter a sci-fi romp through sonic exercise. 'Vengeance: The Pact' continues the album's journey into a nifty darkness, while 'After Dark' layers on the campy 80s synthesizer again in more direct measure to craft what is perhaps one of the catchiest and most rock-ish songs on the album. The band goes ridiculous with 'Joan Crawford,' a slightly offensive song with a hilarious chorus that must have ruffled a few feathers. Like 'Godzilla' before it, 'Joan Crawford' demonstrates how lenient the band can be with lyricism and tongue-in-cheek delivery. The album finishes with 'Don't Turn Your Back,' a paranoia anthem that cools down the listener with typical early 80's light rock flair.

At 39 minutes, 'Fire of Unknown Origin' is a brisk album that doesn't waste much time getting to the end. However, the album was designed specifically for repeated listens. It's a grand, glorious example of well-crafted hard rock music with just a taste of metal and some glitzy sci-fi/fantasy themes to attract the weird as well as the normal. It may swim in 1980s electronic synthesizers at times, but it would be irresponsible to shelve the album because of the style of the time period. One can describe it until the cows come home, but it takes a dedicated listen to truly experience just how wonderful, unique, and (unfortunately) terribly underrated Blue Oyster Cult really is. They are definitely one of the great pioneers of classic rock.

I bought this version due to pricing. The option has a higher
price tag. To my dismay there is no clear info about the other
pressing. Only the word "import". That says nothing at all....
The album cover image is sharper on the website...but what about
the sonics? This needs more investigation....Ya think!

I love this album a lot, and consider it to be an almost perfect representative of all that was worthwile in early-80s AOR. This was a time when the biggest arena act was Journey followed closely by synth-laden "Subdivisions"-era Rush. It is no suprise, then, that this album has a certain slickness in the production, combined with a smattering of the calculation and cynicism that had come to dominate the artists of the era (think "Spinal Tap"). Gone are the experimental composition and oddball arrangements of the uncommercial masterpiece Cultosaurus Erectus (not to mention a few umlauts, of course), replaced by pop hooks so catchy that the primary single is still getting airplay ("Burnin' For You"). This band is so uncanny that even a deliberate quest for mainstream appeal produced enduring art.

Beneath a treacly sea of early-80s synth (courtesty of Allen Lanier) resides a lyrical landscape that is both phantasmagorical and campy, often concurrently ("Joan Crawford"). Here Eric Bloom is at his lyrical apex -- "Sole Survivor" for instance links seemingly disparate cliches (post-Apocalyptic collapse and alien abduction) with a sensibility so unusual that the song works as both campy parody and haunting ode. Even more notable is the culmination of Bloom's Moorcock fascination in "Veteran of the Psychic Wars," one of the best BOC songs ever written.

Buck Dharma continues to work his guitar magic, holding the album together with equal parts flash and rhythm. The emphasis is composition rather than total guitar domination, and Buck adds just the right touches to any number of tracks -- including some audience-saavy winks of uber-distortion on "Heavy Metal: The Black and the Silver", before letting it flow on the low key yet intensely paranoid "Don't Turn Your Back." Joe and Albert Bouchard also provide signature backing on this last album to feature the original lineup of the band.

In some respects, this is the last true BOC album -- after its release, several underlying bad trends came quickly to the foreground. The exit of Al Bouchard and all he represented (the "Imaginos" project) resulted in a definitive break with the themes of the Sandy Pearlman period (though Pearlman returned later to produce the Club Ninja album, in an attempt to recapture lost magic), which significantly changed the dynamic of the band. On a related front, the band's fatigue with signature thematic and musical elements juxtaposed with the pressure of commercial formula to produce an increasingly hollow farce. Bloom's quirky lyrical sense degenerated into calculated self-indulgence on The Revolution By Night (amid flashes of brilliance, of course), which was quickly followed by a sudden dearth of original compositions by the band. Also Buck's graceful riffing began to atrophy into macho bombast through the Club Ninja period (though even the bombast is executed with breathtaking aplomb). The inspiration appears to have been flagging.

One comes to perceive a band trapped by distant art-rock pretensions and a ludicrous name, living an unintended farce authored by people long departed, without a strong sense of identity or confidence. Or, to look at it another way, the band's animating sensibilities were in fundamental conflict with the bellicose and humorless zeitgeist of mid-80s rock. It is thus small wonder that a long period of disintegration followed this album. What is remarkable is that the band managed to stay together in some form and eventually reinvent itself with its recent (very good) music. Rock on gents.

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1.0 out of 5 stars Can't Review cuz we never got it
I ordered this Blue Oyster Cult CD from Amazon on April 22, 2011 for my son's 20th birthday.
It is now July 20, 2011...and still nothing. Read more

Published 10 months ago by xendrix

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent album from an underrated band
Many people think BOC wrote a "few" good songs and then they disappeared. This could not be farther from the truth. Read more

Published on Jun 23 2004 by Christopher Fryer

5.0 out of 5 stars By Using Their Strengths, BOC Got Their 2nd Biggest Hit
Blue Oyster Cult's two previous studio albums had been quite different from one another; "Mirrors" was a mostly light metal collection of pop attempts and the following... Read more

Published on Jun 13 2004 by Bud

5.0 out of 5 stars Yes, that's right, 5 out of 5 Stars!
While I had never been a really big fan of the band, I was quite taken with BOC's contribution to the "Heavy Metal" soundtrack, "Veteran of The Psychic Wars"... Read more

Published on April 27 2004 by Darren Robbins

4.0 out of 5 stars No Mystery Of The Origin Here
I have been a BOC Fan since day one..If you are new to BOC and are looking to read a review about this particular album, then I can tell you it is very good.. Read more

Published on April 19 2004 by Kevin S. Stailey

5.0 out of 5 stars The original and still the best.
If you approach Blue Oyster Cult in any one of the three ways they have been typically treated over the last thirty years, 'Fire ... Read more

Published on Nov 10 2003 by Johnny S Geddes

4.0 out of 5 stars Quality Cult
This is probably the best post '70s BOC album and it still features the god-like guitar work of Buck Dharma, only now mixed in with more 80's synth. Read more

Published on Sep 14 2003 by Vilbs

3.0 out of 5 stars Solid production
This is album is really pleasant to listen, first-class hard rock music. Maybe that's why older BOC fans despise it somehow. Read more

Published on Sep 2 2003 by Kael

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT! (not to sound like Tony Tiger)
If you even pretend to like rock and have diverse tastes, don't be without this album.

Ok, take your irony hat off and put it in the closet. Read more

Published on Jun 22 2003 by S. Aiken

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid if slightly uninspired
One of BOCs more commercial albums, this spotty effort features some true high points and a few low ones too. Read more

Published on April 23 2003 by RMurray847

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