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Album Details
- Artist: Cult
- Album: Choice Of Weapon
- Label: Cooking Vinyl
- Year of Release: 2012
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: rockthusiast on 2012-07-09
Recommend2012 marks The Cult's 29th year together as a band. Well, actually, make that singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy's nearly-pearl anniversary as a songwriting couple, not counting the odd band hiatus. Even with the tremendous, mainstream rock-shunning legacy they've been building up since the 1980s, The Cult are still competing for their share of ears with their ninth studio release Choice of Weapon. These 10 new songs come as a bit of a surprise, seeing how it wasn't too long ago that Astbury pulled a Billy Corgan (of The Smashing Pumpkins) by declaring the album an obsolete format. If you are one of those who firmly believes in the notion that rock isn't dead yet, you'll be awfully glad that The Cult frontman reneged on his statement, as it is a return to the classic form displayed on Electric and Sonic Temple, arguably their most well-known works of amplitude.
Duffy never seems to be part of the conversation of all-time great hard rock axemen, but he is absolutely thunderous on "Honey from a Knife", "The Wolf", "For the Animals"and "Amnesia", the latter two structured in a way that seemingly bleed one into the other. And whether they're guitar or piano driven, one thing that stands out on almost every track is the strength of Astbury's voice, accompanied by the occasional shaman-like tambourine shake. Combined with familiar Cult themes like mysticism and animal worship (the cover hearkens back to their 1994 self-titled effort), this is their most focused and complete album in quite some time. It bodes well for their future moving forward, a future that includes a summer's worth of shows in North America and Europe. This is a group definitely worthy of rediscovering at TheCult.us, where they're offering a free download of "Lucifer".User Reviews and Comments
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on 2012-07-20 gutterseed Said:
Ill start this out with this premise: there are no two cult albums any better than Sonic Temple and Electric. I can still listen to both back to back. I don?t think that there is any comparison. This album disappoints from the beginning. The first two songs are nothing short of disappointing. I was hoping for some redemption with a song named The Wolf. I was pleasantly disappointed. However, you have to take into account that this band is a much older band. Ian Astburys voice doesn?t quite have the power behind it. The musical composition is there. I mean seriously, listen to Sonic Temple, and then listen to Honey from a Knife and Elemental light. The power from back in the day is just not there. I give him credit for trying on The wolf and perhaps he still has some of it; For the Animals shows signs of classic Astbury and is kinda a turning point in the album. Up until that song I thought the rest of the band pulled its weight and Astbury received voice lessons. Compare Wilderness now to Edie. You just can?t do it. I was expecting more from a song called Lucifer.
I?ve always loved The Cult. I?ve loved their live antics, releasing helium into the audience after the show so everyone talks in a high pitched voice as Astbury greets them at the exit and says ?whats wrong with your voice dude?? How he did it with a straight face, how he dealt with signing tits from women sounding like spongebob squarepants begging to go back stage is beyond me. I?ll also say this, the first 3 songs disappoint, but the cult doesn?t disappoint on this album. I?m glad I listened to the rest of it because Astbury proves he still has it, but to make this album a true classic Cult album, one needs 100% from him on all tracks.
Rating: 6/10
