(4 / 5)
Eighth studio album from the reformed Cult, originally released in 2007, expanded with a CD of bonus material.
Their sole release for Roadrunner Records, with The Cult’s core team of Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy joined by Chris Wyse (Ace Frehley, Ozzy Osbourne and The Hollywood Vampires) on bass and backing vocals, and John Tempesta (Exodus, Testament and White Zombie) on drums and percussion.
It was a slight departure from their gothic, post-punk stuff, as a lot of this set leans more towards hard rock.
Featuring the singles “Dirty Little Rockstar” and “Illuminated”. Produced by legendary Killing Joke bassist and mega-producer Youth. He lends his bass guitar on the album.
The original release comes as a two-CD “Savage Edition” – disc one is the original 10 tracks, and there’s also a five-track bonus CD featuring “Stand Alone”, “War Pony Destroyer”, “I Assassin” (Demo), “Sound Of Destruction” (Demo) and “Savages” (Full Length Version), included here.
On “Born Into This” the song writing partnership of Astbury and Duffy is in fine form.
The press blurb that came with this album exclaims: “The old swaggering pomp and stomp that The Cult made their trademark is as ever present, with Billy Duffy’s crunching riffs and Astbury’s trademark vocals to the fore.” True that!
The band formed in 1983 in Bradford, West Yorkshire as Death Cult, dropping the death bit a year later. Ian Astbury was previously in the band Southern Death Cult.
The Cult single “She Sells Sanctuary”, from their second album 1985’s “Love” is among my all-time favourite tracks.
They broke into the mainstream in the US in the late 1980s as a hard rock band.
The band have had various line-ups; the longest-serving members are Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, the band’s songwriters.
The band moved to L.A. where they have been based for many years. “Sonic Temple” was their most successful album, released in 1989. They split in 1995, reforming in 1999 for a seventh album two years later. Then a hiatus from 2002 to 2006.
Since then, they have done a series of worldwide tours, and released three studio albums in 2007, 2012 and 2016.
Billy Duffy announced that the band were recording their new album with producer Tom Dalgety at Rockfield Studios, where The Cult recorded their debut album “Dreamtime”, 36 years earlier.
In support of their new album, The Cult will embark on a co-headlining six-date UK tour with Alice Cooper in May and June 2022, and have festivals lined-up in the UK next year (2022) too.
By Graham Morrison
(1 / 5) ‘Dull Zone’
(2 / 5) ‘OK Zone’
(3 / 5) ‘Decent Zone’ (4 / 5) ‘Super Zone’
(5 / 5) ‘Awesome Zone’
