Blue Öyster Cult returned to the hard rock they were known for with this 1980 album, their seventh studio full-length at the time. A year before, Mirrors had seen the band experimenting with folk rock and power pop, and the record had sold poorly. Cultosaurus Erectus didn't exactly put BÖC back in the Top Ten (that wouldn't happen until next album, Fire Of Unknown Origin) but did feature characteristically great songs. "Black Blade," about Stormbringer, the sword wielded by Michael Moorcock's character Elric, is one of the band's finest (and heaviest) moments, Buck Dharma plays incredibly on "Lips In the Hills" and "Monsters," which starts out normal but quickly goes into "Joan Crawford"-style weirdness, reminds people this band will do just about anything at any time. A blues-metal tune follows and soon they are playing numbers-perfect stadium rock ("The Marshall Plan"). In the mid '70s and early '80s, Blue Öyster Cult was at a major stylistic peak, if not a commercial one, and even the moments where they try to go a little too far are interesting.