Blue Öyster Cult - Cult Classic FLAC download

You know you like a band when you plan months in advance to get an album of them covering their own songs they wrote over a decade beforehand without your having to be tricked into it. Yes, I've got this one. Cult Classic provides a studio update on the band, with the versions of songs contained here more-or-less being how they were performing them live in 1994 and, in many cases, how they'd been performing the songs live since a few months into originally touring them. It also serves the purpose of giving the Secret Treaties tracks contained a thicker, heavier sound in contrast with the intriguing-but-thin garage psych production they'd gotten on their first three albums. This succeeds to an extent, though overall the production is hit-and-miss.What's more, it features Chuck Burgi. He's not as creative as Albert was (who is?), but he's a helluva drummer and knows his way around a kick pedal... always a good thing in this business. "M.E. 262" is one of the most successful re-recordings here, particularly in highlighting the killer guitar work of the tune. "Flaming Telepaths" is probably the most successful overall, both providing a look at how the song is performed live and putting a lot more emphasis on its heavier aspects than the original recording did with a beefier production job."Astronomy" hits and misses pretty hard in ways. This version is probably the most imaginative rendition on the album, adding in a few small details. It absolutely benefits from the depth of the production, but at the same time they missed an opportunity by giving the rhythm guitar parts a pretty low mix, here. They're actually less punchy than the original, I think. "Cities on Flame" is just alright. They had to have a studio version with Eric on lead vocals, so here it is. Save for the better guitar solo here, I think I prefer the ETL version. This tries to reproduce the '72 original's sound, but without Albert's roguish wailing it lacks the raw sludge-psych vibe of the original."Harvester of Eyes" adds punch to the general sound, but at the same time has such a distinct '90s sleaze rock-and-alt. metal polish to it that it loses the sinister vibe of the main riff and starts sounding a little like a Living Colour song. But whatever. It's definitely a good rendition, so I'm not complaining. And "Buck's Boogie" is pretty great, too.Overall, it is what it is. I like it, and I wouldn't really say much bad about it as it'd be hard to find an example of a band updating already great material and doing better than this after this much time. A job well done.

Please look at the booklet and add the artists involved in this record! Thanks in advance and friendly greetings!