Most people who were lucky enough to be a kid in the 80s spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to explain to anyone within earshot why that particular Golden Era was so extraordinary. Just ask any of them (ahem…us) creaky bastards—the reasons are as long as Manute Bol’s arm, may he block shots in peace. However, most would likely avoid correlating the glory of the 80s to a serendipitous lack of the internet. Virtually anyone of sound mind would never willfully choose to close that particular chapter in technology—what has been seen cannot be unseen—but the truth of the matter is this: Part of what made those early years great was the fact that the internet didn’t have a chance to ruin mystery yet. Mystery and the underground as it relates to music, just to further spice the argument. In the 80s, our brains were left to do most all of the rationalizing if we stumbled across something cryptic, and anyone hoping to dispute the second part of the argument can choke on the grim truth that the underground currently hangs by the tiniest of threads in a world where a device once used to call your dear mum on Sundays can also be used to listen to Mütiilation demos on Youtube.
This is important, because if you were stumbling around rock and metal LPs thirty years ago and had insufficient BÖC knowledge, you came across Fire Of Unknown Origin in those bins and wondered just what in the grim hell might be going on, thanks to the artwork alone. And tough luck, kid—you couldn’t slip out to the parking lot and cue up a series of youtube videos to discover if the music lived up to the visuals. In 1981, sweet mystery and wild gambles were par for the course, and most who lived through it wouldn’t change that aspect for the world.
Just having the word “Cult” attached to your name back then was cause for alarm, and that iconic image of creepy parishioners gathered with those precious aqua oysters in hand made everything all the more seductive. The design of Fire Of Unknown Origin came courtesy of artist / graphic design mogul Paula Scher, who was also responsible for designing the previous BÖC album cover, plus quintessential covers such as One On One from Bob James & Earl Klugh, and the debut by a little band called Boston. The artwork itself, however, was done by Greg Scott, then art director for Rolling Stone and The New York Times—a fellow who also lended his talents to BÖC follow-ups Extraterrestrial Live and The Revölution By Night.
Feel free to judge the book by its cover. Those stony eyes shaded behind ornate masks and deep hoods, combined with the band’s typical use of esoteric symbols—including their unmistakable upside-down “?” logo (based on the astronomical symbol for Saturn and designed by Bill Gawlik)—made the record irresistible from a visual stance. At the time, the worlds of Michael Moorcock (an occasional collaborator with BÖC), C.J. Cherryh, Mœbius and the film Heavy Metal were prominent, and BÖC’s general aesthetic often managed to fall inside those sorts of fantastical sci-fi lines, particularly with Fire Of Unknown Origin. And just as is the case today, metal’s frequent escapist slant paralleled these fantastical realms, so an eagerness to delve was palpable. Plus, metal has never been able to resist umlauts.
BUT…
The BÖC-ignorant with a fresh interest in hard rock and a still very youthful metal likely remained cautious, because these guys had already established themselves as a successful radio-rock band, and other groups like Molly “Please Get Me Out Of The Metal Bin” Hatchet had already fooled us once with tempting cover artwork. If you eventually surrendered and brought Fire Of Unknown Origin home, however, you probably walked away… Happy? Confused? Undecided? If you were fortunate enough to snag a smattering of other ’81 gems such as Mob Rules, High ’N’ Dry, Too Fast For Love, Fire Down Under, Moving Pictures, Welcome To Hell or Killers, you were perhaps not quite sure what to make of Fire Of Unknown Origin. Even those with an awareness of BÖC’s back-catalog must have found it strange from the gate, despite the relief that the band hadn’t jumped back to the soft-rock sounds of 1979’s Mirrors. Understanding why, though, requires a bit more history.
DON’T BREAK THE PACT
Originally billed as “America’s answer to Black Sabbath,” Long Island, New York’s Blue Öyster Cult spent their formative years perfecting a brand of loud and weird hard rock that fell more in line with the likes of Alice Cooper than anything Sabbath produced along the same timeline. Heavy metal, though? Mostly on a song-by-song basis and in subject matter, and certainly to the parents who were worried about their kids blaring yet another guitar-forward band with wailing vocals. Truthfully, the closest the band ever managed to get to Sabbath occurred once Martin Birch was landed as a producer in 1980—a man whose work behind the boards helped bring the heavy to Heaven And Hell, Mob Rules, plus virtually all of the classic runs from Deep Purple, Rainbow and Iron Maiden.
Birch’s heavy hand helped deliver the extra weight to BÖC’s under-prized Cultösaurus Erectus in 1980, just in time for a significant tour with Sabbath that same year. He was also the natural choice for ’81’s Fire Of Unknown Origin because a portion of the record was being written for the sake of accompanying a stack of other hard rockers of the day to fill the soundtrack to the film Heavy Metal. Strange is as strange does, though—the only song selected turned out to be “Veteran of the Psychic Wars,” a cut co-written with Michael Moorcock that wasn’t specifically intended for Heavy Metal.
Choosing a motif that involved Moorcock’s Eternal Champion was about as metal as you could get in 1981, and the song was clearly gloomy enough to appeal to the metal-minded mopers hitting record stores. However, it also very quickly demonstrated the leading eccentricity regarding Fire Of Unknown Origin: prominent keyboards. BÖC was certainly no stranger to the instrument prior to ’81, but album number eight dragged keys directly into the spotlight. “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” still had those martial drums and that sporadic riff to keep it rooted to something that felt heavy, and the keyboards themselves carried a palpable weight as well.
Nonetheless, it was clear that the era’s fixation on the burgeoning New Wave and Synth-Pop movements made an impression on BÖC, and a song like “After Dark” made it clear that the band was willing to embrace shifting trends and assimilate them into their design.
Established fans were used to the band altering their sound, but a dramatic deviation like “After Dark” must have been off the wall at first blush. The only thing that truly separated the song from being an outright Devo homage was Buck Dharma’s screaming lead around 2:30 and Bloom’s delightful Rob Halford wail at its close.
Undeniably, BÖC wanted to remain weird—couldn’t help being weird—but they’d already reaped (ugh) the rewards of success via “(Don’t Fear) the Reaper” from ’76’s Agents Of Fortune (Platinum status) and “Godzilla” from ’77’s Spectres (Gold status), so radio play was still on the radar. The closest Mirrors came in ’79 was the the decidedly delicate “In Thee,” and Cultösaurus, while strong from start-to-finish, failed to deliver in that regard entirely.

Faye Dunaway: Mommie Dearest: Paramount Pictures: 1981
Fire Of Unknown Origin, however, returned the band to commercial success, reaching well into Gold numbers again. The record still gripped BÖC’s characteristic hard rock stylings, but the keyboard and synth overtones brought in a freshness that managed to whisper greetings to those interested in cutting edge records such as The Completion Backward Principle from The Tubes, Oingo Boingo’s Only A Lad, or even Talking Heads’ Remain In Light. New Wave was gaining crucial traction in 1981, but it would be a couple years before it truly dominated charts, so the songs from Fire that ultimately landed the band back into Billboard’s graces were the ones that simply rocked and rocked very infectiously. Typical of BÖC’s uniqueness, they figured out how to get a cut relating to an undead version of Joan Crawford from the film Mommie Dearest onto the airwaves, but it was “Burnin’ for You” that pushed Fire to Platinum status.
Like previous Blue Öyster Cult mega-hits (and counter to the rest of the record’s Bloom-dominated crooning), track number two from Fire Of Unknown Origin featured guitarist Buck Dharma on lead vocals. The song absolutely screamed “rock of the 80s”—riff-dominated, and the sort of thing you’d expect to hear pealing from a Chevy Camaro at the height of summer—so it gutted other 1981 hits from the likes of Hall & Oates, Kool & The Gang and Climax Blues Band just by virtue of having actual teeth.
Despite these isolated radio-friendly anthems and touches of New Waviness, it was Fire Of Unknown Origin’s more shadowy side that obviously appealed to those who’d fallen under the spell of hard rock and metal. An overwhelmingly somber atmosphere behind the lights dominated the middle of the record, starting with “Veteran of the Psychic Wars” and extending through track six, “Vengeance (the Pact).” Within this stretch, a mostly slow, brooding song like “Sole Survivor” didn’t wallop the listener with riffs, but the subject matter was undoubtedly grim, and the way Bloom snarled “I AM THE END OF THE HUMAN RACE / WHEN I AM GONE THERE WILL BE NO TRACE / FOR I’M THE SOLE SURVIVOR” was as heavy as anything else hitting ears back then.

Taarna: Heavy Metal: Columbia Pictures: 1981
However, the clearest nod to the early years of metal landed with the one-two punch of “Heavy Metal: Black and Silver” and “Vengeance (the Pact)”—the prior being a hard-driving, no frills sort of cut that banged heads via the weight of Albert Bouchard’s dense rhythm and a notably noisy guitar, and the latter finalizing Fire’s grimmest face by hammering with a proggy grade of heaviness akin to Rush’s Moving Pictures before racing off around the 3-minute mark for the record’s most heated moment.
“As their leader (their leader!) / Swoops from the clouds (swoops from the clouds!) / She sticks him with her sword / Then she throws him down (throws him down!)”—how this walloper specifically written for the Taarna segment of Heavy Metal didn’t end up landing on the official soundtrack is clown shoes of the highest order. But the fact that it and handful of other Fire cuts even had the chance of being featured likely lead to a heavier design, so the consequence was definitely favorable.
Fire Of Unknown Origin was significant not only because of the quality of its music, but also due to the fact that it marked the last time the classic line-up of Buck Dharma (lead guitar, vocals), Eric Bloom (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards), Allen Lanier (keyboards, rhythm guitar, backing vocals), Joe Bouchard (bass, backing vocals) and Albert Bouchard (drums, percussion, backing vocals) played together on a record. During the subsequent tour in 1981, Albert was fired due to excessive head-butting with other members, so he went off to write his own music that would, oddly enough, eventually get pieced together for BÖC’s underrated eleventh record in 1988, Imaginos. Between those seven long years, the rest of the band managed to release two fairly enjoyable but mostly unsuccessful records—1983’s poppy Revölution By Night and 1985’s quirky Club Ninja—and they would never again come close to the bar set by Fire Of Unknown Origin.
Today, BÖC soldiers forward with a version of the group that’s still fronted by Dharma and Bloom, but the fact that current set-lists continue to be dominated by the material produced from the earliest interpretation of the band proves the duo recognizes precisely which sorts of oysters fans most want to see shucked. What’s unfortunate is that, outside of the occasional return of “Burnin’ for You,” Fire Of Unknown Origin remains mostly absent from shows. Although exceedingly unlikely, this seems like a golden opportunity to get the old band back together for one more tour that delivers the record front to back. Unfortunately, Allen Lanier passed far too early in the grip of cancer back in 2013, and Albert Bouchard once sued the band, so chances of this ever going down are about as good as spotting a beer-bonging Dave Mustaine wearing an all-over-print Deicide shirt.
Blue Öyster Cult were unmistakably successful during their heyday, but their quirkiness and refusal to color inside the lines kept them from ever attaining “Next Level Big.” They sure as hell knew how to deliver the fire, though. And quite heavily at times, too. Straight-up rock, hard rock or heavy metal, these fiery New Yorkers used numerous designs to their advantage over an extremely vital career, and their works continue to inspire most any (smart) band in the present day that elects to throw howling guitars into people’s ears.
Tucked away inside a discography that includes multiple gems, Fire Of Unknown Origin continues to tower as a release that will never, ever lose an ounce of its luster, no matter how many years manage to pass. If you haven’t yet had the pleasure, there’s no better time than the present to finally join the faith.
Excellent summation. My favorite BOC release. One of the most “metal” non-metal releases I’ve heard.
My best friend and I absolutely played the hell out of this cassette along with “The Backwards Completion Principle”. BOC’s “Fire” was the apex of their music and yes, Cultosaurus was definitely underrated.
What’s even cooler is that those 2 bands played here in MN TOGETHER earlier this year… and as a bonus, the Tubes played the entire ‘Completion’ album. (and more)
It was a truly awesome night of music; BÖC and the Tubes both sounded damn near as good as their prime years.
FANTASTIC review, by the way. This is not only my favorite BÖC LP, I personally consider it one of the top 5 albums of the entire 80s decade and beyond.
Blue Oyster Cult,
One of The Greatest Rock and Roll bands in the World other than Led Zeppelin. A very close second.
On Tour Forever.
Man, you ain’t kidding about being on tour forever. And when they weren’t touring, they were recording. Just relentless!
The title track and After Dark are my two favorites. I really like Joan Crawford Has Risen From the Grave, but the sound effect sequence is cliche and kind of ruins it for me. Still a great album — my third favorite studio album after Tyranny & Mutation and Secret Treaties.
The Imaginos mystery… spread over those early albums… absolutely intrigued me and unless you subscribed to obscure BOC fanzines, you were on your own to piece it together. And I loved that. Fire was a great album and I continue to spin it today when I want to play along with smart and quirky songs.
I didn’t really take the opportunity to hail the influence Sandy Pearlman had on BÖC, so I guess I’ll do that now. Dude was an integral piece to the puzzle for a long time, and obviously deserves to be mentioned when talking about Imaginos. I also had no idea that he was a co-founder of eMusic—I used to use that service YEARS ago when looking for weird electronic music from overseas.
Actually, given that “Burnin’ For You” is part of what fans call “the Big Three (hits)”, it’s very much a regular part of the band’s setlists. “Veterans of the Psychic Wars” and “Joan Crawford” are the two cuts that pop up from time to time.
> Most people who were lucky enough to be a kid in the 80s spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to explain to anyone within earshot why that particular Golden Era was so extraordinary.
This is obviously some new definition of “extraordinary” of which I was previously unaware…
But “Golden Era” I CAN comprehend, and vehemently disagree with… the 80s were an embarrassing blight upon humanity – encase the music from that era in a lead sarcophagus by all means and display it in a museum if you wish as a warning to future visitors of what COULD happen if you take your eye off the ball, but be sure of one thing – the 60s set it up, and the 70s delivered the goods… and that’s as true for BOC as anyone else…
Hmmm. Well, to be more specific, I was mostly talking about the Golden Era as it relates to metal. But in general, I would never consider a decade that produced Fire Of Unknown Origin and albums such as Heaven And Hell, Mob Rules, Grace Under Pressure, Ace Of Spades, Remain In Light, Hounds Of Love, Number Of The Beast, Powerslave, The Ramones’ Too Tough To Die, X’s Los Angeles, Riot’s Fire Down Under, Accept’s Restless And Wild, Exciter’s Heavy Metal Maniac, Killing Joke’s What’s THIS For, Prince’s 1999, and Manilla Road’s Crystal Logic to be a blight upon humanity. And that’s just off the top of my head.
That said, holy CRAP were the 70s ever great to music and fans of music.
“Don’t turn your back” is my favorite song on the album which I didn’t discover till years later should have been a hit with Dharma smooth voice and a sweet guitar guitar solo in a key change with Mystikal chords
A masterpiece, IMO, as well as one of Buck’s greatest guitar solos.
Don’t sweat poor ol’ RALPH, he was just listening to the wrong fucking bands.
The 80s underground scene *alone* makes it the best decade for music — period. (and heavy props for including Killing Joke in your rebuttal)
It’s been a lot of years since watching Heavy Metal, but did anyone else notice as the woman enters to pool, the narrator was quoting Vengeance (The Pact)? Even stoned at the theater, I was able to pick right up on that back in 1981. Lol, I got carded for this cartoon too. Probably because we were baked or because I looked 16 even though I was wearing my wedding ring, who knows. I got carded for the movie, but not for the bottle of MD 20/20 that came in with me, the early 80’s sure were an odd time.
Vengeance (The Pact) was actually written for and meant to accompany that segment of the film, however (from what I understand) the overly specific and narrative lyrics were perceived as spoiler-worthy by the producers of the film.
Their loss IMO; what a killer song that is.
And your puberty came a decade late to be able to form your opinion about puberty. I don’t man that as an insult, just an awareness notice. You weren’t at Woodstock, nor was I, so I don’t speak as though I have a place to judge.
Who are you responding to, and what the hell are you even talking about?
I tend to gravitate back to this BOC album as well as Agents and Cultasaurus. Every BOC album though is excellent even the ones most die-hard fans write off. Each album has it’s own unique sound and feel. I heard early tunes like Reaper, Golden Age, and Goin through the Motions as a kid on the radio but never put two and two together. It wasn’t until hearing Veteran of the Psychic wars off the Heavy Metal Sountrack sitting in the back seat while my friend’s older Brother was driving us to an arcade that I was hooked.
Never looked back. Intelligent rock with a “different” message and feel. Not quite metal, not quite space rock, not southern rock. Just cool shit all around.
Highly underrated to, to this day!
By the way not enough credit is ever given to the Bouchard Brothers either who helped create music that gave each album a different sound and soul.
I wish they’d all reunite!!
What do they have to lose??
Funny, die hard fans don’t write off albums, we respect the music. So, you have a lot to say, but you must not be a die hard fan.
Oh, and I would be really pissed off about the Bouchards, if I didn’t know what actually took place. I forgive mistakes made by human beings, I happen to be one of them. But, if you gave a shit about them now, you’d mention Blue Coupe which has the brothers back together and Dennis Dunaway of Alice Cooper fame, creating f’g fantastic music. Try to keep up
I was in a guitar store about 3 years ago and they had after dark blaring over the PA. I decided to check it out again and it’s been one of my most frequent albums since. I love the write up and while I might not have compared them to Rush, it really might be the best comparison. If Rush had started worshiping satan prior to recording Signals, it might have sounded pretty similar.
Oh my god, how I wish, they’d reunite — with the new band member Richie Castellano, who is a wizard on his instruments. Looking forward to a promised new album in 2019… if only the Bouchards were still with them…
This bid the album that started it all for me! Still playing today along with brevolution by night band secret treaties and mirrors in mellow moods