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Album Details

• Artist: Blue Oyster Cult
• Album: The Revolution By Night
• Label: Columbia
• Year of Release: 1983
• ME Rating:
• Reviewed by: gwhill on 2013-01-21

Released in October of 1983, The Revolution by Night was the twelfth album by Blue Oyster Cult. The music on the album is definitely in the hard rock/heavy metal sort of genre, while showing many indications of more progressive leanings, both in writing and arranging. The lineup on this album was Eric Bloom, Joe Bouchard, Rick Downey, Allen Lanier, and Donald (Buck Dharma) Roeser, with several sidemen (most notably, Aldo Nova and Larry Fast).

The album’s opener is “Take Me Away” and it is a tale of a desire to be taken away by a UFO. This track is generally a nice hard rock/metal number, but contains a rather quirky and intricate instrumental break. This is definitely a BOC classic. Beginning with some substantial and lovely piano work, “Eyes on Fire” is a good song of love and desire, and situations where both of those are found in different people. This is a solid track, although not really a stand out. “Shooting Shark,” a song which has come to be a Blue Oyster Cult standard, features a funky bass line, and a rather pleasing and somewhat minimalistic arrangement. It is truly quite lovely at times, most of that loveliness being achieved with nicely layered keyboards and backing vocals.

 “Veins” is a track about a man who is haunted by the question of "did I kill somebody?" Musically, this track is a hard rock number with some very nice keyboards and a tasty guitar solo. The intro and instrumental break are a bit reminiscent of Rush`s Moving Pictures era, while the ending draws quite heavily on the sounds of ELO. Set firmly in the heavy metal mode, “Shadow of California” is a strong piece, although not really standing out that much from the rest of the album. It is as close to a title track this album has, using the phrase "revolution by night" in the lyrics.

A song about a band of ghostly motorcycle riders, “Feel the Thunder” is a nicely spooky song. Considering that this album was released in October, this piece was probably quite appropriate for the season. It is literally a haunting number, both lyrically and musically. A hard rock song with some solidly progressive leanings, lyrically, this track is more image oriented than shock oriented, though ("a fiery crash of chrome and steel was the beginning of the longest dream"). Simply a good solid rock and roll tune, “Let Go” is kind of an anthem to the band, featuring the chorus "B---O---C", and is actually just a bit in the mode of the rock and roll type Alice Cooper song (the type of material that simply rocks without menace).

 “Dragon Lady” just jumps in and starts rocking quite hard, before dropping back a bit for the verse of the song. Lyrically, this song is about a woman who "appears mysteriously" and "takes you by the heart". Musically a nice solid rock song, not really metal, but not really prog either, this is simply a competent rocker. Still, parts of the song do feature rather quirky arrangements. “Light Years of Love” is a well-done rock ballad, lyrically your basic love song, with very unique imagery. "When we met, it was like a white hot star / The speed of light, between two hearts". The song really seems to touch the soul connection type of love which lives on from one life to the next, and serves as a rather satisfying conclusion to a very solid album.

When people think of Blue Oyster Cult, The Revolution by Night might not be an album that pops up as one of their best. The truth is, though, it’s quite a strong release and stands tall in the group’s catalog. It still holds up well today.

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