Blue Őyster Cult

mainstays of heavy-metal music during the 1970s, the group formed as Soft White Underbelly on Long Island in 1968. Membership: Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser, lead gtr., voc, kybd., bs.; Allen Lanier, kybd., gtr., voc; Eric Bloom, gtr., synthesizer., voc; Joe Bouchard, bs., voc (b. Watertown, N.Y., Nov. 9, 1948); and Albert Bouchard, drms., voc. (b. Watertown, N.Y., May 24, 1947).

Blue ;Őyster Cult featured a deafening yet frequently melodic triple- guitar attack on songs often concerned with death and destruction. The group took the name Stalk Forest before becoming Blue Ő;yster Cult in 1971. A variety of band members passed through these early incarnations, including the rock critic R. Meltzer, who has since gone on to be one of the group’s strongest champions. The final lineup included frontmen guitarist-songwriter Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser, guitarist-keyboardist Allen Lanier, and guitarist-vocalist Eric Bloom. The band spent the early 1970s touring as a support act to Alice Cooper, finally breaking through in 1976 with the album Agents of Fortune, which featured their only major hit, “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper.” A special guest on the album was Lanier’s then-girlfriend, Patti Smith, the N.Y. punk diva who contributed some vocals and songs to the effort. Blue Oyster Cult established themselves as exciting live performers, as evidenced by their best-selling live set, On Your Feet or On Your Knees, as well as two other live discs. The group pursued a more pop sound with the 1981 departure of drummer-songwriter Albert Bouchard. He eventually returned to the otherwise intact group in 1988 for the album Imaginos. The band soldiered on into the early 1990s, although the Bouchard brothers Joe and Albert had jumped ship by 1994.

Discography

BLUE ŐYSTER CULT: B.Ô. C. (1972); Tyranny and Mutation (1973); Secret Treaties (1974); On Your Feet or On Your Knees (1975); Agents of Fortune (1976); Spectres (1977); Some Enchanted Evening (1978); Mirrors (1979); Cultosaurus Erectus (1980); Fire of Unknown Origin (1981); Extraterrestrial Live (1982); The Revolution by Night (1983); Club Ninja (1986); Imaginos (1988); Career of Evil: The Metal Years (1974–1986) (1990); Cult Classic (1994); Workshop of the Telescopes (1995). buck dharma:Flat Out (1982).

—Brock Helander