Stoner-metal legend Brant Bjork calls Blue Öyster Cult one of the great American bands

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED ON SEPT. 2, 2013

By Steve Newton

When stoner-metal legend Brant Bjork called me last week in advance of the Vista Chino show at the Commodore next Monday I asked him about the Stoner Rock Playlist he’d recently put together for metalsucks.net.

I totally understood why Black Sabbath‘s “Sweet Leaf” was on there, but was a little surprised that Blue Öyster Cult‘s “Dominance and Submission” had made the cut.

I never thought of that track from the 1974 Secret Treaties album as “stoner” material. But then again, maybe I wasn’t stoned enough.

Anyway, the inclusion of the B.O.C. tune had me wondering whether Bjork had been a big fan of that most underrated of U.S. hard-rock acts, considering the 40-year-old rocker was only one when Secret Treaties came out.

Boy, had he ever.

“Absolutely!” he replied. “Blue Öyster Cult was a band that I was turned on to through older friends, and I really liked their vibe and their sense of humour. To me Blue Öyster Cult is one of the great American rock bands. I think they’re flawless, and I like all their stuff.”

Bjork agrees with the general understanding among Cult freaks like me that the band–which lost founding member Allen Lanier last month–never really got the credit it deserved for creating so much incredible music.

“Yeah, you know, it’s strange. They’re one of those bands that didn’t translate outside of the U.S. I know they were pretty big here in the States, and outside of the States they were appreciated, but not on the same level. I don’t know what it is, but I think their records are fantastic, man.”

For more from Bjork–including his thoughts on pot and the current state of stoner-rock–see my feature story here.