Rock legends BLUE ÖYSTER CULT are back with a brand new album, heralded by a new video.
'That Was Me' is taken from the album The Symbol Remains, the New York band's fourteenth studio album and first in almost twenty years.
Only singer Eric Bloom and guitarist Donald 'Buck Dharma' Roeser remain from the band's original line-up while guitarist/keyboardist Richie Castellano and drummer Jules Radino have been with the band since 2004 and bassist Danny Miranda returned in 2017 after a long sting in the late 90s and early 00s.
The video features a guest appearance from the band's original drummer Albert Bouchard on vocals and cowbell, a reference to the enduring Saturday Night Live 'more cowbell' sketch.
"The goal was for the new music to stand up to the quality and vitality of our legacy recordings and I believe we have successfully achieved that,” explains Roeser. “Other than that, the sound of our voices and style of our writing and playing can’t help but sound familiar to fans of our work."
Bloom adds “The album title comes from a quote of an old Sandy Pearlman lyric, which basically we are using to show that the band is back and still rocking after all these years. To me, it means we’re still here and doing what we do.”
Sandy Pearlman was a student colleague of the Cult when they formed at Stony Brook University, London Island in the late-60s, managing and producing the band and contributing to several songs. He would infamously go on to produce Give 'Em Enough Rope by The Clash.
Pitched between psychedelia, the proto-punk of the MC5 and the biker rock of Steppenwolf, their self-titled debut, Tyranny & Mutation and Secret Treaties (the latter two featuring lyrics by Patti Smith) - have been hugely influential, not least on Radio Birdman and the Australian underground scene of the late-70s and early-80s.
Set for release on 9 October through Frontiers Music on double-vinyl, CD and download, The Symbol Remains is available to pre-order here.