Blue Öyster Cult - Secret Treaties


I'm told Secret Treaties by Blue Öyster Cult is one of the best proto-metal albums of all time, but my ears are like "whaaaa?" Agree or not, this is Punk. Original, old-school, impossible to differentiate from New Wave, undeniably evolved from Psych/Garage Rock Punk, with a splash of Glam. This has way more in common with The Tube's or Boomtown Rats or New York Dolls or the Stooges than Uriah Heep or Black Sabbath or Deep Purple. If you wanted to call Steppenwolf or Iron Butterfly Proto Heavy Metal i wouldn't bat an eyelash, but not this. I'm batting all of them with my "do critics even listen to albums before deciding what to write about them" face.

I will give you the fact that it's a stellar album that delves into the darker side of human mundanity, but not really in a metal way. For starters, it's too intentionally weird. Less horror and evil, more really bad acid trip. No monsters or psychopaths or demons, just standard people suck stuff in a metaphorically elaborate manner. Patti Smith wrote most of the lyrics, Buck Dharma doesn't sing lead vocals at all, it's kind of barely a Blue Öyster Cult album, if I'm being honest. It's almost too thematically coherent and musically consistent. Usually BÖC sounds like 4 different bands all taking turns. Regardless, it kicks a lot of ass, and you should definitely check it out if you've never heard it before.

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