It’s been almost 19 years since their last studio album but now Blue Öyster Cult have returned to lift the Covid induced gloom with The Symbol Remains, an album that can stand proudly alongside their very best from their 50-year career. Metal Express Radio's Mick Burgess caught up with guitarist / vocalist Buck Dharma to talk about the making of the album.

MER: The Symbol Remains came out just a couple of weeks ago. Are you pleased with the reaction you’ve received so far?

Buck: "I’m very gratified with all of the great reviews and I would agree with them... ha!! It’s nice to see that it’s exceeded everybody’s expectations. I’m very happy about that. We don’t really expect to make money selling records these days. The album is selling well in today’s terms but compared to the old days it’s not that many units. Streaming is just beginning to ramp up but we’re competing against new artists who stream millions and millions of times, so in those terms were charted at 192 but on the Billboard chart, in terms of physical sales, we were number 12 which is pretty good."

MER: A few years ago, in an interview with Eric (Bloom / vocals), he said that the world wasn’t waiting for a new BOC record. What has changed your mind to make you want to do a new studio album?

Buck: "We privately wanted to do a new record especially with Richie, Jules and Danny; the band is so damned good, to not record it would be just a shame. To do that we had to find a record deal with a budget to do it right. It took us a while to negotiate the deal with Frontiers, which we are very happy with. They’ve done a very nice job so far."

Read more here.

Blue Öyster Cult are back with a mammoth new studio album, The Symbol Remains. Order the album here, and watch a video for the song "The Alchemist" below.

As the old saying goes, “good things come to those who wait” and the 14 songs showcased on The Symbol Remains embody that. The BÖC faithful will be delighted given that the band has delivered an extremely inspired album. Ultimately, this sounds like a band looking back at their storied catalog and giving the fans a bit of everything they’ve ever loved about BÖC, while simultaneously continuing to evolve.

Tracklisting:

"That Was Me"
"Box In My Head"
"Tainted Blood"
"Nightmare Epiphany"
"Edge Of The World"
"The Machine"
"Train True (Lennie’s Song)"
"The Return Of St. Cecilia"
"Stand And Fight"
"Florida Man"
"The Alchemist"
"Secret Road"
"There’s A Crime"
"Fight"

"The Alchemist" video:

“Tainted Blood” video:

"Box In My Head" video:

"That Was Me" video:

Lineup:

Eric Bloom
Donald “Buck Dharma” Roeser
Richie Castellano
Danny Miranda
Jules Radino

(Photo - Mark Weiss)