Okay I like the band, my metal mate showed em to me. Says they are metal. I dont hear it. Im probably slightly retarded.

My question is

Are they metal?


If they are write a rant or something so i can be like "oh ma fwend is right!"
but atm im saying eh maybe maybe not, sitting on the fence without any clue O_o

It's yet another borderline band commonly argued about if they're metal or not.

I wouldn't say they're a metal band though.

It's debated.

I don't think they are. They're good, but they're sort of psychadelic hard rock, not metal.

I'd say no, but I love the album Cultosaurus Erectus, mainly cos of the cover:

That thing looks like the creatures off cloverfield (sorry to those who have not seen the movie) but its not the main "thing"

BÖC is a tough one to figure. They are on the fringe for sure. One song they will play metal and on another they will not. I think they should be in because of their first two records and for Cultasaurus Erectus (the cover on that one is great btw). The song Wings Wetted Down on Tyranny and Mutation is good doom tune.

It doesn't matter. They have made their presence in metal permanent. They are one of those bands that whether or not they play strict metal, they have influenced a ton of metal bands.

Being the aforementioned "mate", I'd say they are metal. In the same respect that Uriah Heep are metal.

The first wave, in my opinion, was still a time of musical development the sound of metal was not defined, so no band set out necessarily to play metal. They just played what they wanted, and it turned out that some of this (Like Heep, BoC didn't always play metal - songs like "In Thee" are by no means metal.) but helped pioneer the genre with the more consistent likes of Zeppelin, Sir Lord Baltimore, Buffalo, Deep Purple and Sabbath (Not all of which are in the Archives, but that's not for here.)

So yeah, I think they are a metal band in that same respect.

The first time I heard Iron Maiden's debut album back in '80, it reminded me alot of early BÖC. Especially Running Free and a couple of others.

I like BOC quite a bit but was never convinced of them being a metal band consistently. Sure, they have some metal songs, but I would say they are more of a 70's hard rock band.

Yes, they are/were a metal band. I agree with most of what TheUglySoldier said.

Yeah, I'd say they were metal, or proto-metal at the very least. Great band, too - love the guitar tone on Agents of Fortune.

I wouldn't say they are metal, but they are a great band, regardless.

Not quite metal as per what norms the archives generally follows,but then you have Scorpions, Deep Purple and Rainbow on the archives who are also not absolutely, incontrovertibly metal either. One point that goes against them is that they only had a handful of metal songs scattered across their albums. You could say the same about the three I mentioned too but the metal-non-metal ratio is more favourable in their case. Of course Scorpions made mainstream metal in the 80s, which is probably why they are here and not because they were proto metal in the 70s.

And oh, one of my personal favourites, these guys - up there with the Priest and the Sabbath for me. The only American hard rock band I really dig at all, with due respect to Kiss, Aerosmith, Guns and Roses et al.

I think they are metal, but mostly from my parents blasting their tunes while I was still a tot in the late 70's. But even for the time, they are a tough band to peg.

Their lyrics were great. "I like to do it to your daughter on a dirt road" comes to mind first.

The song "Cities on Flame With Rock 'n' Roll" is just as metal as Sabbath's "The Wizard."

Patti Smith wrote the lyrics for that song.

But then again, Rush, who have several "metally" songs but many other non metally songs, are on the Archives

Why so arbitrary :'(

I never said I believed Rush were metal. I actually don't agree with their inclusion here, but it's not my place to say anything about them. In fact, if it were up to me, I would have BOC here before Rush, but it's not up to me.

Don't really care for them, but they have thier metal moments. Metal 24/7? No.

I'd say that BOC aren't a 'metal band;' they feel more like a hard rock band to me. That said, they are extremely borderline. There are a lot of characteristics of metal that were clearly present in embryonic forms in their old material. As has already been said, even if they are not metal, few bands have been as influential in the development of metal.

I would say Blue Oyster Cult are Heavy Rock before anything else. They wern't quite Metal as they still had quite a bit of slower "Pop-ish" kind of songs.

If BOC are metal, then so are Boston.


I'm going to go with nay.

I personally think some of there songs are metal, but the vast majority is psych and hard rock.

Haha, you guys seem to be swaying, I think when it was stated before metal 24/7 no sums it up. Im listening to "Heavy Metal (Black and Silver)" and I hear that its metal aspects as well with I others songs.

But in songs like In Three its like Uriah Heep which is pretty pop rock (of their time) and the "Red and the Black" songs rockabilly"esque" reminds me of the recent band Zombie Ghost Train for some reason
'
So I think I might say now, some is metal some ain't metal. They are a band that plays a bit of both rock to then metal.

2112 is more metal than anything BOC have put out.

BOC has some metal, and some would even say "proto punky" moments. But overall they really had a drier sound distortion wise compared to even early Heep could get. Also, I think that they never did a full on "heavy" album in the vein of say, Deep Purple's In Rock.


With these ideas in mind, we can give them the "honorable mention" classification, but that classification, and their influence on metal bands doesn't really warrant inclusion in the archives, at least in my humble opinion.

"Don't Fear the Reaper" has always been compared to a hopped up Byrds song for example, and The Byrds are not what I normally think when I think "metal".

That's extremely debatable. I've never really considered Rush metal per se. I'd throw them more into the progressive rock genre.

Rainbows inclusion i can see a bit, if just for Dio. Deep Purple has always been a band I considered relevant to metal for their roots, and they do have some stuff that is definitely metal, if not influential as a proto metal band.

BOC however, still falls a bit short IMO.

They're not metal, but they kick ass nonetheless!!

Borderline to an extreme for sure.


I'd classify them as a hard rock crossover.

A few songs from them that come across as metal to me:

Cities on Flame

Hotrails to Hell

Black Blade

Godzilla

The Great Sun Jester

The Vigil

Lips in the Hills

Heavy Metal/ The Pact

Dominance and Submission

7 Screaming Dizbusters

I'm On The Lamb But I Ain't No Sheep

Joan Crawford

Don't Fear the Reaper

Fallen Angel

Divine Wind

Huh? I love that song, but it's definitely not one of their metal ones.

Actually, you might be right. I almost didn't include it but thought what the hell.

tyranny and mutation and secret treaties were metal.

No, This Ain't The Summer of Love sounds more metal than 2112. But then, there's Jacobs Ladder, which's got some monster riffs too. I think Rush are here because of their influence on progressive metal which is not quite a good enough reason for me, because then hard rock bands which influenced metal should be here too. But as somebody else said, it's not upto me why Rush is here and BOC is not.

I disagree, it's soft throughout but the subject matter is imminently heavy and the solo absolutely smokes!

BOC had 3 guitarists but one of them was only a stunt guitar so I guess that means they mostly just had two in actuality.

How are you all failing to mention their meisterwerke, "Veteran of the Psychic Wars"? On Extraterestrial Live, the guitar solo in the middle there is just so intense! And that chorus! "We've been living in the flames we've been eating up our brains, o please don't let these shakes go on!" So fucking cool.

EDIT: Also, best song about Godzilla, EVER.

The lead singer played a little bit of guitar, he was essentially a rhythm guitarist. They call him a "stun" guitarist because of some inside joke, and something to do with his tone.

Well, that doesn't make it metal. Same as if Suffocation sung about teddy bears, they'd still be metal.