Also available in a 3-pack with TYRANNY & MUTATION and SECRET TREATIES. Blue Oyster Cult: Eric Bloom (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser (vocals, guitar); Joe Bouchard (vocals, bass); Albert Bouchard (vocals, drums); Allan Lanier (guitar, keyboards). Producers: Murray Krugman, Sandy Pearlman. Reissue producer: Bruce Dickinson. Recorded at The Warehouse, New York, New York in October 1971. Originally released on Columbia (31063). Includes liner notes by Lenny Kaye. Digitally remastered by Vic Anesini (Sony Music, New York, New York). Although Long Island, N.Y.’s Blue Oyster Cult would become one of the top rock bands of the ’70s with such metallic radio hits as “Don’t Fear the Reaper” and “Godzilla,” the band began as a spacey psychedelic band, as evidenced on the group’s self-titled debut from 1972. While distorted guitar riffs hint at the band’s future hard-rocking direction, the songs have a dreamy quality and sport such mysterious titles as “Before the Kiss, a Redcap” and “She’s as Beautiful as a Foot.” But Blue Oyster Cult’s first three releases, (1973’s TYRANNY AND MUTATION, 1974’s SECRET TREATIES, and their self-titled debut), proved to be an important influence on a wide range of future bands, such as punkers the Minutemen and headbangers Metallica. While several tracks are well known to most B.O.C. fans (such as the rockers “Transmaniacon MC” and “Cities on Flame With Rock and Roll”), the more obscure selections are just as exceptional. The aforementioned “She’s as Beautiful as a Foot” is downright eerie, while “I’m on the Lamb, But I Ain’t No Sheep” is an early version of the band’s later standard “The Red and the Black.” BLUE OYSTER CULT remains one of hard rock’s finest debuts.

• RSD Release Date: DDD
• Genre: Pop