Recommendations of the editorial team
Always more duo than the band (as the wear of several rhythmicism suggests), singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy are the creative minds of the Brit rockers who have passed a number of musical and fashionable mutations. With a stylistic spectrum that ranges from Gothic to hard to the alternative skirt, The (Southern Death) Cult survived and helped shape trends in the course of her over 40-year career- and developed a very own sound, worn by Astbury’s Sonors Bariton and Duffy’s crystalline guitar.
Cult -crediting
Love (1985)
Released in the middle of the postpunk wave, The Cult’s second album with its kiling-style hippie rock psychedelia looks rather anachronistic at first glance. But Love is also a zeitgeist child and pioneer of the Gothic rock propagated by The Mission, Sisters of Mercy or Fields of the Nephilim. Billy Duffy serves to Astbury’s shame-swag characteristic-charismatic guitar melodies (“Nirvana”, “Love”, “Rain”, “Revolution”). With “She Sells Sanctuary”, the band succeeds in an over-hit for eternity. No other plate sets your Patschuli fragrance tastier.
Six stars
Electric (1987)
Although the third album marks a stylistic U -turn, it is another commercial success. The plan to benefit from the prevailing rock climate of the US market that has not yet been cracked is under the aegis of producer Rick Rubin (Beastie Boys, Slayer). Rubin uses AC/DC (and LED Zeppelin) as a sound reference points. Billy Duffy gives the denim biker to Ian Asbury’s leather pants and trapper hat. If the hit “Love Removal Machine” is obviously based on “Start Me Up” of the Rolling Stones, whiskey and engine oil-lubricated songs such as “Wild Flower” and “Lil ‘Devil” fit into a change of image like the fist on the eye.
Five and a half stars
Sonic Temple (1989)
Billy Duffy’s wide-legged, Pete Townshend cited windmill pose symbolizes an album that symbolizes the fully completed Americanization of the band. At least viewed superficially. May the first cooperation with producer Bob Rock also squint on an account-filling hard rock sound-The Cult are still not DEF Leppard. Ian Astbury does not just nourish his inner Jim Morrison with the ODE “Edie (Ciao Baby)” to Warhol-Muse Edith Sedgwick, while hits like “Sun King”, “Fire Woman” or “Sweet Soul Sister” MTV’s rock program.
Six stars
CULTIVATED
DreamTime (1984)
With Gothic, Postpunk and a portion of psychedelia juggling, a number of basic pillars are already set to The Cult’s debut album: Duffy’s pearling guitar tone, Astbury’s dramatic timbre and its obvious affinity for the spirituality of North American indigenous people. Although the very big song (entt) litters are still missing here, with “Spiritwalker” and “Go West” there are already two later cult classics on board, while a western play reminiscent of Ennio Morricone, such as the “Gimmick”, which has already been titled overly, indicates further wide wall ambitions.
Five stars
Under the Midnight Sun (2022)
Had the last albums more of a North American rock feeling, The Cult reflect on their British origins on their eleventh work. Producer Tom Dalgety (Ghost, Clutch) creates a stringent sound for the eight atmospheric and once again spiritually addressed songs, the (conscious?) Do not use explicitly hit songwriting this freely flowing work on a sublime overall album experience-but also for the last larger experiment.
Four and a half stars
Secret cult
The Cult (1994)
The previous Ceremony cannot repeat the success of Sonic Temple, The Cult are faced with the paradigm shift initiated by the Grunge. The fact that they can handle it far better than one-dimensional hair metal bands is obvious, but is largely ignored by the audience. Even if Bob Rock missed a scratchy alternative rock sound somewhere between Primal Scream and Pearl Jam and pieces such as the hypnotic “Coming Down (Drug Tongue)”, the strong “Star” or “Naturally High” evo, the album still remains an insider tip.
Five stars
Beyond Good and Evil (2001)
The comeback after seven years of radio silence – also for Bob Rock as a producer. What makes her seventh disc in a way a kind of revenue of her holy hard rock monolith Sonic Temple. A modernized recipient, mind you, because the now accomplished developments in the alternative rock are noticeable in the biting, contemporary edge of guitar sound and significantly more aggressive arrangements. However, the songs, including crusher like “Rise”, “American Gothic” or the ballad “Nico” as a kind of “Edie” -2.0, are classic cult anthems.
Five stars
Choice of Weapon (2012)
At the beginning of the album, Chris Goss (Masters of Reality, Kyuss, Queens of the Stone Age) is committed as a leading producer, band confidant Bob Rock finally brings the matter to the end. Significantly more inspired and more energetic than on Born into this, Ian Astbury’s fascination for the indigenous culture of North America is visually and in terms of content. Billy Duffy’s guitar is again much more prominent, songs such as “Amnesia” or “Lucifer” even vibrate something from the desert rock overve of the learned goss student Josh Homme.
Four and a half stars
Hidden City (2016)
The logical continuation of Choice of Weapon: Bob Rock is again trying for the good tone, but at the expense of the band’s own resource ability. The almost simple melodic magic of “Dance the Night” or “Avalanche of Light” does this as little as the final threesome from “Lillies”, “Heathens” and “Sound and Fury”, who put David Bowies, Iggy Pops and Lou Reed in the picture.
Excessive
Holy Barbarians Cream (1996)
Ian Astbury’s first side project. Cream sounds like the even more eclectic continuation of the alternatively-inspired The-Cult album, quotes the late-free and seventies, while the single “Space Junkie” is committed to the Brit pop. The title song trip, the melodic “blind” and “Bodhisattva”, which even feeds a little in Kula-Shaker spheres, are fun.
Four and a half stars
Colorsøund Colorsøund Ø (1999)
Together with The-Alarm singer Mike Peters, Billy Duffy also founds a side project that is not that far away from the classic cult sound of the love era, but is much more modern in the guitar work. Duffy’s striking riffs and consistently catchy songs (“Under the Sun”, “State of Independence”, “Heavy Rain”, “View from a Different Window”) hardly orientate themselves on the 80s U2 close of Peters’ main band. Rather, the duo sounds exactly as one would imagine a parallel universe version of The Cult with a different voice than that of Ian Astbury. In 2021 a (unfortunately significantly weaker) second album appears.
Five stars
Cult factor -free
Born into this (2007)
With Killing-Joke-Bassist and producer Youth on the desk, the band largely puts the will to the stylistic or sonic experiment. In 2007, The Cult prefers to rely on an amalgam from Love and Electric, at least paired with a few nineties vibes. Apart from memorable pieces such as “Dirty Little Rockstar” or “Savages”, it works like The Cult with an attracted handbrake. Ian Astburys (temporarily) lost interest in the album principle even lets the plan, which-later again–ripen only to publish digital EPS from now on.
Three and a half stars