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 low, on the heels 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 strength and released two LPs of ever-increasing quality in a row. It seemed Blue Öyster Cult were not yet ready to throw in the towel.
Both
Cultösaurus Erectus and
Fire of Unknown Origin acted as worthy additions to the rock band’s expanding discography, bringing back the fuzzy narrative and dark phantasmagoria present on their early releases. They also managed to sprinkle their sound with current technologies without significant losses – something not everybody could achieve in those difficult times. It was as if the band had once again located their creative vein and could put out records that would not put their legacy to shame. But what followed could only evoke amazement. Capitalizing on a renewed commercial appeal, Blue Öyster Cult released
The Revölution by Night. Those in the know would start nodding along at this point; for those not aware, I’ll provide a brief insight, as it is directly related to the topic of discussion.
It is difficult to say what specifically drove the band during the recording of that album (the same can be said of
Club Ninja too, though I’m getting ahead of myself) except for apparent commercial goals. On it, BÖC abruptly and surprisingly returned to the direction set on
Mirrors and yet again attempted to storm 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 managed to preserve a residual vibe and traits typical of the band, or sounded decent enough to settle in the listener’s mind. But it should also be highlighted that the LP was a big step back for Blue Öyster Cult. This was actually confirmed by sales – the 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 a 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 their last LP, yielding even worse results. What did they want to lure a 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 the songs are no more than cheap knock-offs of the contemporary sound of the time, and what made BÖC BÖC is practically absent. Instead, we have imitations 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 realized the material they had was weak, resulting in nondescript vocals and mediocre instrumentation.
So it seems that
Club Ninja is the weakest album in the band’s discography, if only for one reason: it contains nothing of Blue Öyster Cult, regardless of the circumstances. You might try to listen to the LP separate from their other works, probably getting a slightly better impression as a result. But let’s be honest: it wouldn’t be much of an improvement.
