i hate the sound of guitars

And now for something else completely different, taking up the gauntlet thrown by my pals Jestaplero and Flasshe, a subjective evaluation of the relative merits of a non-comprehensive selection of Blue Öyster Cult records, starting with the one that’s probably at the bottom of my pile, 1998’s Heaven Forbid.

Novelist John Shirley titled his first book, Transmaniacon, after a BÖC tune; presumably working with the band as a guest lyricist must have been a dream come true for him. Unfortunately, it didn’t make for a good record. Heaven Forbid starts promisingly with “See You In Black,” which is creepy and vicious, yet simultaneously, oddly heartwarming — it’s basically an anti-domestic violence number, but sung from the decidedly un-PC perspective of wishing ill upon the abuser. “Harvest Moon” is primo Buck Dharma — sweetly melancholic and effortlessly melodic. I love the line “young people feeling restless, old people feeling old.”

But after that, the album sinks into a morass of plodding, sadly unimaginative rockers that are both stagy and stodgy. “Hammer Back” and “Power Underneath Despair” feel much more forced than, say, “Career of Evil” or “Cagey Cretins,” partly because their lyrics traverse well-traveled country, but also because they’re not very hooky. Buck Dharma’s sparkling, fluid solos almost redeem a few of these songs, but not quite. A spare live version of “In Thee” (originally from 1979’s Mirrors) closes the record; it’s no insult to the original version, but it’s no essential reinterpretation, either.

Star rating: 1.36