Review Summary: I’m not stepping into this club ever again for the life of me
By the time the tenth studio album
Club Ninja was released Blue Öyster Cult had gone through a series of rises and falls. They entered the 1980s at an apparent creative and commercial end, on the tail of their first disappointing work
Mirrors. It would seem we could write the Long Island boys off, but then the band managed to summon all its near-mystic strengths and released two LPs of ever-increasing quality in a row. It seemed Blue Öyster Cult were not yet ready to throw in a towel.
Both
Cultösaurus Erectus and
Fire of Unknown Origin acted as worthy additions to the expanding discography of the rock band, bringing back fuzzy narrative and dark phantasmagoria present on the early releases. They also managed to sprinkle the sound with current technologies without significant losses, something not everybody could achieve in those difficult times. It was as if the band again located the creative vein and could put out records that would not put their legacy to shame. But what followed could only evoke amazement. Responding to the renewed commercial attractiveness Blue Öyster Cult released
The Revölution by Night. Those in the know would start nodding along at this time. For those not aware I’ll give a brief insight as it is directly related to the topic of the discussion.
It is difficult to say what specifically drove the band during recording of that album (the same can be said of
Club Ninja too, though I’m getting ahead of myself) except apparent commercial goals. On it BÖC abruptly and surprisingly return to the direction set on
Mirrors and yet again attempt to storm the current trends, unhesitatingly throwing away all progress of the last two LPs. This resulted in cheery stops at pop-metal, turns to standard 80s dance ballads and generic hard rock whose name is Legion. (Possibly) luckily for fans it is worth mentioning that some tracks manage to preserve residual vibe and traits typical for the band or sound decent enough to settle in the listener’s mind. But it should also be highlighted the LP was a big step back for Blue Öyster Cult. This actually was confirmed by sales, obvious target of
The Revölution by Night, which failed to reach the desired level.
All of this finally brings us to
Club Ninja. If we look at it from the perspective of previous albums, we could assume that after such failure the band would reassess their priorities and get back to what they do best. Unfortunately, this assumption would be completely incorrect, because Blue Öyster Cult decided to release a successor to the last LP, but to even worse results. What did they want to lure potential audience with, both old and new?
Club Ninja has absolutely nothing of interest even for those who appreciated
The Revölution by Night. Literally all songs are no more than cheap knock-offs of the current sound of the time, and what made BÖC BÖC is practically absent. Instead we have imitation of
Iron Maiden (
White Flags), fake
Black Sabbath (
When the War Comes Home,
Shadow Warrior), poor replicas of inherently superfluous hair metal (
Make Rock Not War,
Beat ‘Em Up) and anemic emulation of themselves (
Perfect Water,
Spy in the House of Night). It feels as though the band realize the material they have is weak, so they produce nondescript vocals and mediocre instrumentation.
So it seems that
Club Ninja is the weakest album in the band’s discography at least for one reason: it has nothing of Blue Öyster Cult regardless of the conditions. You might try and listen the LP separate from the other works, probably getting a slightly better impression as a result. But let’s be honest, it would be much of an improvement.
