The Cult (Cult - The Cult)

Member Name: Frankingsteins

Product:	Cult - The Cult
Date:	16/06/08 (19 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Deeply personal lyrics and some pleasant, slow hard rock songs.

Disadvantages: Dull and unconvincing.

The Cult's self-titled sixth album was their final release before the band split, not permanently as it eventually transpired, and is also probably their least known and least liked. The band's decline had been several years in the making, seeing them fall from grace as a leading gothic band of the eighties to a mediocre hard rock act supported only by the guitar talents of Billy Duffy, and 'The Cult' doesn't have an awful lot going for it. Unless you're the band members themselves, who generally consider it the peak of their musical career.

This is thematically a very dark and personal album, written by vocalist Ian Astbury to reflect on his own personal crises and negative experiences through life, but this feeling is never adequately expressed through the music. Even the opener 'Gone' just sounds like a needless swearathon, lacking the convincing display of anger to justify all those expletives. Other songs are just offensive for being so dull, roughly half the album being given over to lighter moments that work quite well, but other songs failing to incorporate a harder rock sound into the slower tempo, most notably 'Coming Down.'

Only 'Star' really stands out for its catchy riffs and more upbeat, seventies rock style, and even that is firmly rooted in the past.

1. Gone
2. Coming Down (Drug Tongue)
3. Real Grrrl
4. Black Sun
5. Naturally High
6. Joy
7. Star
8. Sacred Life
9. Be Free
10. Universal You
11. Emperor's New Horse
12. Saints Are Down

Summary: The Cult's sixth album (1994).