The music of Babylon Mystery Orchestra is a blend of Gothic and Traditional Rock music with elements of Heavy Metal and Doom that produce that elusive result for which so many artists strive and so few achieve: originality. Central to the nature of this original sound is Johnson's insistence on making the lyrics the central characteristic of the BMO sound. Everything revolves around them. This could be a dangerous and even foolhardy approach in the hands of a lesser artist lacking a significant preponderance of ideas from which to draw. However, Sidney Allen Johnson and his Babylon Mystery Orchestra are full of ideas that are as controversial as they are colorful, always delivered with Johnson's pontificating "fire and brimstone" baritone voice. Other people have questions; Johnson has answers.

Babylon Mystery Orchestra debuted on the musical landscape in 2002 with the release of Divine Right Of Kings. The CD contained not only one of the best BMO songs with the excellent "We Are Power," but also put Sidney Allen Johnson right in the center of controversy with the edgy "It's My Right." Not a few people in the press decided its content was a little too provocative in its challenge of the American educational system and led a few to even accuse Johnson and BMO of being homophobic and racist. It was not the last time Johnson would find controversy.

In 2004 Johnson turned even more heads by releasing On Earth as It Is in Heaven. The second BMO release dared to imply that music in general and rock music in particular may actually be the work of the devil himself. Certainly this is not the first time such a thing was ever suggested, but it had never been suggested by a musician who was actually playing it! Johnson backed his assertions up, however, with a record that was built around both Biblical and extra-Biblical books from the notorious Dead Sea Scrolls. Johnson says this is a record he had wanted to make ever since first encountering this story at an anti-rock music presentation he attended while studying at the University Of Alabama in 1983. The record earned BMO equal amounts of acclaim and derision for its unique vision and even led one reviewer to refer to Johnson as a "Prophet Of Wrath." Though the reviewer meant it derisively, Johnson himself loved the description and says it is his favorite. The track "Ravishing Music" still stands as the most downloaded and radio-played of all BMO tracks.

All the disparate elements that make up the BMO sound came to full fruition with 2006's epic The Great Apostasy: A Conspiracy Of Satanic Christianity. The recording is a bold, and subsequently quite detailed, look into the origins and practice of Satanic involvement within the Christian church. The record is easily BMO's most critically-acclaimed release thus far. It also brought a return to some of the "homophobic" criticism of the first record with the track "Eye Of The Needle." While in fairness, the track does not reflect well on the homosexual Reverend V. Eugene Robinson, it places equal disdain on his diametrical opposite, the Reverend Fred Phelps. This track points out one of the great strengths of Babylon Mystery Orchestra: Sidney Allen Johnson is not an artist devoted to "ambiguity" in his expressions. He makes his points and isn't afraid to name names!

2008 saw Johnson's vision took its most daring and controversial form yet with Axis of Evil, a record that dared to take on Illuminist Conspiracy Theories, Socialism, The Mark of the Beast and the one institution that all artists of all genres seem to fear the most. . . ISLAM. The record received both extreme praise and extreme damnation in equal measure. Nobody who dared cross this record's path was left without a lasting impression. With a 32 page booklet to accompany the most powerful tracks BMO had recorded to date, Axis Of Evil stands as a crowning achievement of an artist devoted to expressing his vision of the world unencumbered by the fears and political correctness which bind other artists.

And yet, Sidney Allen Johnson and his Babylon Mystery Orchestra were not done. For the 2010 release of The Godless, the Godforsaken and the God Damned, Johnson unveiled the first BMO record that wasn't a true concept record. This freed him to vary the subjects of material in a much wider scope than ever before. Now songs about such matters as NASA, abortion, hate crimes, and Che Guevara are woven into the new music of BMO. . . and yes, Johnson is very aware of the distressing events happening in America today. It too shows up here. There is a reason why Johnson chose to be photographed "clinging" to a rifle and a Bible. All is revealed in the latest example of political incorrectness the way only Babylon Mystery Orchestra can. Oh yes, you can say that. . . and Babylon Mystery Orchestra will repeat it, too.

Through its releases, BMO also has earned a deserved reputation for packaging its CDs better than the industry standard. Each CD has come with a substantially bigger booklet than its predecessor. Johnson believes in his visions and does not spare any expense in his presentation. BMO is definitely devoted to the CD as a complete experience where the booklets actually act as a libretto for the presentation. They have more to offer than just the lyrics.

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Sidney Allen Johnson