Blue Oyster Cult's two previous studio albums had been quite different from one another; "Mirrors" was a mostly light metal collection of pop attempts and the following "Cultosaurus Erectus" had been just the opposite, an almost stripped-down crunching guitar-dominated record. This may be why 1981's "Fire of Unknown Origin" received such a warm welcome; it sounded as gutsy and confident as their mid-70s breakthroughs, but was all the while accessible and easily enjoyable. The success of "Agents of Fortune" been seemingly accidental; it certainly wasn't what you'd call mainstream for 1976, but it was BOC's unlikely commercial breakthrough. Its follow-up, "Spectres" saw the band trying to find another runaway hit single like they had with 'Don't Fear the Reaper,' yet still keeping their heavy metal poison in tact (the next year they would tone down the metal side). "Fire of Unknown Origin" sounds like a mix of those two albums. It has all of the blazing, dark, cryptic musical imagery of "Agents of Fortune" and their earlier works, yet there is still a catchiness to a lot of the music, making it an album fans will want to play again and again. Old friends such as Sandy Pearlman, Richard Meltzer, and Patti Smith made cameo appearances, but their contributions were mostly limited to being lyrical, as this album catches the band out-showing the outsiders. The title track is one of those BOC songs that's almost-a-ballad-but-not, an overlooked classic, while the album boasts some other classics like the crunching mystic 'Veteran of the Psychic Wars' and 'Heavy Metal: The Black and The Silver,' but the group still managed to score a big hit with 'Burnin' For You' The old imaginary sci-fi movie themes pop up often, notably in 'Joan Crawford (Has Risen From the Grave).' These two songs nicely explain the recipe for the perfect contrast and chemistry between the voices of Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser and Eric Bloom as they sing their respective songs; Roeser sounds like the sincere wandering poet, while Bloom's voice is like the ghoulish captain of a phantom ship. Blue Oyster Cult wisely decided to embrace their strengths on "Fire of Unknown Origin," as opposed to the previous two experiments. "Mirrors" and "Cultosaurus Erectus" were far from bad albums, but if BOC was looking for another hit album/single while keeping their pioneering metal sound the top priority, this was the perfect blueprint.