BOC: Rolling Stone on "Curse"

[Nick English]

Here's what Rolling Stone.com had to say about Curse of
the Hidden Mirror.  I meant to send this in about a
week ago. . .

Blue Oyster Cult Curse of the Hidden Mirror (CMC
International-Sanctuary)

At this point, remakes, repackages and live albums
outpace new material in the land of Blue Oyster Cult.
But as they enter their fourth decade of service, BOC
are still trying to tap the hot rail to relevancy.
Curse of the Hidden Mirror follows up 1998's Heaven
Forbid with plenty of utilitarian riffage from the hard
rock troika of Eric Bloom, Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser
and Allen Lanier. BOC's trademarks - over-amped boogie
riffs, squealing high-note guitar solos and vibrato-
torqued lead vocals wrapped around lyrics of gothic
origin -- are all lodged firmly in place. As is the
band's schizophrenia. Resigned to walking the tightrope
between hard rock and full-on heavy metal, the band one
minute traps itself in the dungeon of darkness ("One
Step Ahead of the Devil") only to work its way back to
the power-chord surface for the radio-friendly "Here
Comes That Feeling." Surely, at this late date, any
similarities to Spinal Tap (the organ solo in "Good to
Be Hungry," for starters) are purely coincidental . . .
and ultimately unavoidable. (ROB O'CONNOR)