Their other best album along with the previous one. It has all the qualities of a "classic" rock album, and the band was in stunning form (well expressed by the subsequent live album). Musically/arrangement-wise, I find it a bit less edgy and dark than "Tyranny" (which I actually prefer by a hair), but here too, there's everything that characterizes rock'n roll at the Cult of the Blue Oyster: the sci-fi-horror lyrics that are one of their strong points, Bloom's vocals with that touch of theatricality to enhance those lyrics, the "expanded" rock'n roll of tracks like "Dominance and Submission," for example, the irresistible pop-rock drive of "Career of Evil," the wonderful rhythm section of the Bouchard Brothers, and of course a sequence of tracks that are all among the best of their career: "Subhuman," the rock ballad "Astronomy" (their most classic track from the "rock side" before the evergreen pop arrived in the next album to mark their career), and especially my favorite "Flaming Telepaths" (probably their greatest song after "7 Screaming Diz-Busters") with a greater presence of Lanier's keyboards and containing my favorite guitar solo by Buck Dharma. A truly great song. And a really great album.
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