This is the best black-plastic blitz to bear the Cult's trademark cross and claw since 1974's Secret Treaties. Which is rather amazing since it's really only a kind of Blue Öýster Cult record.

Imaginos is a complex song cycle about an agent of misfortune who uses the power of dreams to unleash a plague of evil on the real world. It was originally written and recorded by former Cult drummer-songwriter Albert Bouchard and the band's longtime producer-major-domo Sandy Pearlman for a prospective Bouchard solo album. At some point during the lengthy gestation of Imaginos, the project became a full-fledged Blue Öyster outing, reuniting the original quintet on record for the first time in eight years. The end result, if you're a Cult purist, is a bit of a cheat: basic tracks from the Bouchard sessions (he is billed as associate producer); overdubbed contributions by the reconvened Cult; no fewer than seven guitarists, the so-called Guitar Orchestra of the State of Imaginos, in addition to charter Cult axe ace Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser.

But the most hardened purist will find Imaginos hard to resist because, even in this altered state, it is vintage heavy Öyster menace, a nightmare mosaic of brooding Gothic chorales, flame-thrower riffing and snappy crackling pop. "I Am the One You Warned Me Of" commences the protagonist's career of evil with a full anthemic dose of vocal Sturm and guitar Drang; "In the Presence of Another World" alternates between Stygian balladry and epic ensemble rage, with background vocals that sound like the Transylvanian Tabernacle Choir. It's hard to figure out exactly how they fit into the Imaginos story (actually, it's hard to figure out the story, period), but the beefy remakes here of "Astronomy" and "Subhuman" (from Secret Treaties), the latter revised and retitled "Blue Öyster Cult," vividly recall the band's early-Seventies glory days as the reigning monarchs of metal literati.

That, ironically, is the one big drag about Imaginos; this electric H.P. Love-craft-meets-A Clockwork Orange opera is only an illusionary re-creation of the way BÖC used to be. Still, it's a timely reminder of the band's past greatness, how it brought brains to metal and influenced future generations of punks and head bangers alike. With Imaginos, Albert Bouchard lost a potentially great solo album. Instead, the Öyster boys have left us one more shiny black pearl to remember them by. (RS 539)

DAVID FRICKE