progshine Oh, The Cult! Often the band is forgotten when it comes to the old Hard Rock genre. I admit that I am not that familiar with the band's whole discography but boy oh boy Electric (1987) throws some serious light into the shadowed world of 80s Hard Rock and that's good, very good!

If it wasn't for the completely unnecesary cover of Steppenwolf's 'Born To Be Wild' this album would be close to perfection.

Anyway, you still have great hits in the album like 'Love Removal Machine' , 'Lil' Devil' and 'Wild Flower', to make it a great modern 'Hard Rock' classic!

Highly recommended!

UMUR "Ceremony" is the 5th full-length studio album by UK hard rock act The Cult. The album was released through Beggars Banquet/Sire Records in September 1991. Despite internal turmoil in the band, The Cult had enjoyed great commercial success with the Bob Rock produced "Sonic Temple (1989)" and had toured heavily in the support of the album. The situation between lead vocalist Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy had not gotten better though and the climate in the band was so hostile that original bassist Jamie Stewart decided to leave the band in 1990. Rumour has it that the two fighting cocks even travelled in seperate vehicles during touring when possible. Despite of the bad odds Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy opted to continue with the band though and brought in Richie Zito (Poison, Elton John, White Lion, Heart, Bad English...among others) to produce "Ceremony". However their relationship was so bad at this point, that they rarely spend time in the studio together, instead opting to record their parts when the other wasn´t present in the studio. Drums, bass, choirs and keyboards are played by hired guns.

The music on the album pretty much follow the streamlined anthemic stadion rock formula of "Sonic Temple (1989)" but expands a little on that style. The lyrics and the imagery draws influences from native American culture, which is something the band have done before, but not to this extent. This and the fact that the music sounds very "American" have always puzzled me when in fact the band are British, but at this point in their career they consciously wrote music for the American market. "Ceremony" is a big "classic" hard rock album of the accessible and polished kind, but while there are several great tracks on the album (one is the "hit" "Wild Hearted Son"), not all tracks are equally memorable or interesting. The fact that the album is 63:15 minutes long also kills some of my enthusiasm. My attention simply begins to wander during the playing time because the album lacks infectious hook laden choruses, which is a thing "Sonic Temple (1989)" had plenty of.

On the other hand the album is very well produced, well played/sung and while the songwriting might be lacking in places, there are still enough well written and memorable tracks to justify a 3.5 star (70%) rating. They took a step down with this one though.

UMUR "Sonic Temple" is the 4th full-length studio album by UK hard rock act The Cult. The album was released through Beggars Banquet/Sire Records in April 1989. The band changed their style from their original New wave/goth/alternative rock style to hard rock on the Rick Rubin produced "Electric (1987)" and that move earned them quite a bit of commercial success. "Sonic Temple" further expanded the band´s commercial success and quickly cemented the band´s position as one of the leading hard rock acts of that era.

We´re talking hook laden and stadion designed hard rock. Very catchy and with loads of commercial appeal. The Cult´s albums from this era are often tagged glam metal, and while the music certainly has many similarities with that genre, this is not really glam metal to my ears. While the band changed their style over the years it´s always been Ian Astbury´s Jim Morrisson (The Doors) type vocal delivery and Billy Duffy´s hook laden riff work that defined the sound of The Cult, and that´s also the case on "Sonic Temple". The album features several tracks that are Cult "classics" like "Sun King", "Fire Woman" and of course "Sweet Soul Sister", but most tracks on the album are high quality hard rock of the more easily accessible and polished kind.

It´s actually quite amazing that the band were able to produce such a confident and consistent album, as there were serious internal turmoil in the band at the time of the recording of the album. Lead vocalist Ian Astbury lived a self-loating and self-destructive life, unable to cope with the pressure and expectations of being a big rock star. His unruly and erratic behaviour caused the band to cancel the Japanese leg of their tour supporting "Electric (1987)", and at that point the band were close to calling it quits. After a break the band returned to the studio and recorded an album full of material, which was to be released under the title "Peace". The band felt unhappy about the results of the recordings though and they were shelved. Instead they opted to record a new album in America with producer Bob Rock, but as recording began it was obvious that especially Ian Astbury on one side and Billy Duffy and Bob Rock on the other side had different ideas to how the album should sound. Astbury wanted a more gritty sound while Duffy and Bob Rock wanted to pursue a big stadion friendly commercial hard rock sound. As it turned out Astbury was overruled and at the time didn´t have the strength to fight for his convictions (he was drinking heavily and his father was dying of cancer).

So despite of all the troubles the band were having they released the most commercially successful album of their career and listening to the album today it´s perfectly understandable why the album became such a grand success. It´s memorable, well written, well produced (if you enjoy big polished hard rock productions) and very well performed. A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

UMUR "Love" is the 2nd full-length studio album by UK hard rock act The Cult. The album was released through Beggars Banquet Records in October 1985. "Love" was a big breakthrough for the band and has today reached multi-platinum status, selling around 2,5 million copies worldwide. This was helped along by the two charting singles "She Sell Sanctuary" and "Rain".

Compared to the band´s debut album "Dreamtime (1984)", "Love" features more memorable songwriting, more convincing musicianship and a better sound production. The latter is courtesy of no other than Wham producer Steve Brown. Something the band initually didn´t feel comfortable with. As it turned out Steve Brown had been looking to get rid of his pop producer image though and after a meeting with the band, The Cult found his production ideas intriguing and decided to work with him.

There´s been a lineup change since the debut album as the wild partying and unreliable drummer Nigel Preston (who died of a heroine overdose in 1992) has been replaced by Mark Brzezicki. Preston plays the drums on "She Sell Sanctuary" though.

The music on "Love" makes The Cult quite a unique sounding act on the UK pop/rock scene of the early- to mid eighties. Most successful acts from that era were synth based, but The Cult insisted on a guitar driven rock sound. They had guitar driven peers in The Smiths, The Sisters of Mercy and a couple of other acts, but guitar driven pop/rock was not in the high seat in those days on the UK scene. Ian Astbury´s warm and powerful Jim Morrison type voice and vocal delivery also set The Cult apart from most other acts coming from the UK in those years.

The quality of the tracks are generally high and most are memorable, but the music on "Love" is generally still a far cry from the more commercially and anthemic sounding music they would produce on their next three albums. I guess you can call this slightly more artsy and tasteful, but personally I prefer their later more hard rocking albums. "Love" is still a great albums though, deserving a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating.

UMUR "Dreamtime" is the debut full-length studio album by UK hard rock act The Cult. The album was released through Beggars Banquet in September 1984. The recording process was mared by a couple of issues as original producer Joe Julian left the project after having recorded the drums and new producer John Brand had to use the original drum tracks as drummer Nigel Preston was already at this point unreliable. Preston was notoriously known for his wild party life. He died of a heroin overdose in April 1992. "Dreamtime" was a relatively successful release in terms of sales numbers as it reached #21 in the UK charts and #1 in the UK indie chart.

The music on the album is a blend of hard rock and goth/indie rock with some new wave elements thrown in for good measure. Ian Astbury´s Jim Morrison-like voice is powerful and commanding. The rythm section sometimes recall the sound of acts like The Smiths and The Sisters of Mercy and the same can be said about some of the guitar riffs. Sometimes to a point where I almost expect Andrew Eldritch to start singing. Ultimately he of course doesn´t and Ian Astbury´s more expressive way of singing is what first and foremost provide the hard rock edge to this release. The Cult´s fascination with ethnic original cultures began on this album, and there are references to both Native American and Australian Aboriginal culture on the album (a theme they would further explore on subsequent releases).

"Dreamtime" is quite an enjoyable release by The Cult and tracks like "Horse Nation" and especially "Spiritwalker" show both promise and a hint of the direction the band would move in, in the following years. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.