Who would have thought that in 1981, after a pair of limp, unfocused studio offerings, and two mixed -- at best -- live outings, that the once mighty
Blue Öyster Cult would come back with such a fierce, creative, and uncompromising effort as
Fire of Unknown Origin. Here was their finest moment since
Agents of Fortune five years earlier, and one of their finest ever. Bringing back into the fold the faithful team who helped articulate their earlier vision, producer
Sandy Pearlman, Richard Meltzer, and
Patti Smith all helped in the lyric department, as did science-fiction and dark-fantasy writer Michael Moorcock. The band's sound was augmented by a plethora of keyboards courtesy of
Allen Lanier, but nonetheless retained a modicum of its heaviness, and the sheer songwriting craft that had helped separate the band form its peers early on was everywhere evident here -- especially the gloriously noir-ish Top 40 single "Burning for You," written by Meltzer and guitarist
Buck Dharma. Other standouts on the set include the plodding, über-riff pyrotechnics of "Heavy Metal: The Black and the Silver," and the
Mott the Hoople- and
Queen-influenced glammed up roots rock of "Joan Crawford." The terrifying images of desecration and apocalyptic war in "Veteran of Psychic Wars," with words by Moorcock, feature huge synth lines, dual leads by
Dharma and
Eric Bloom -- as well as a tom-tom orgy from
Albert Bouchard -- offered a new pathway through the eternal night of the
Cult's best work.
Fire of Unknown Origin has aged well, and deserves to be remastered in the 21st century. ~ Thom Jurek