The Cult

[Falcon]

Ian interview with MSN..

http://music.msn.com/ian-astbury-the-cult/story/interview/

The Cult's Personality: Ian Astbury Stays Fierce

The '80s post-metal rock veteran sharpens their 'Weapon'

By Phil Freeman
Special to MSN Music

Ian Astbury may be the last non-embarrassing shamanistic rock frontman. One only has to look at Glenn Danzig or Perry Farrell to see how age can take a toll on formerly magnetic personalities, but Astbury, who just turned 50, has managed to stay thrillingly vital, sharing his instantly recognizable baritone with Japanese art-metal trio Boris, Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger of the Doors, and the U.K. electronic act UNKLE.
 
And it gets better: his band the Cult have just released their best album in 20 years. "Choice of Weapon" blends the band's patented crunching hard rock with a raucous clatter reminiscent of 1970s Iggy Pop, as Astbury's lyrics call out for a re-engagement with nature and exhort the listener to turn his or her back on a decadent society, and turn inward. As he said during our conversation, his advice to members of the Occupy movement is "Occupy yourself."
 
MSN Music: The video for your new single, "For the Animals," shows you passing something to a younger person. Do you feel you have something to communicate to people younger than yourself?
 
Ian Astbury: You know, it's weird: We talk about things as clearly defined, like there's some kind of border between generations. Maybe you can do that on paper, or in a conversation, and use it as a kind of existential marker, but in reality it's just different phases of life. I think what happens is not so much a direct, forward, linear motion; it's more of an expansion. Einstein refers to the universe as expanding and contracting. So life expands and contracts. And your consciousness expands. Hopefully your consciousness would expand throughout your life. If you're looking out the window and you're missing everything as you're going by, and you get to the end of it and the driver says, "Well, here we are, end of the line," and you go, "Oh s---, I missed it all. Can we go again?" It's happening right now, folks. This is not a dress rehearsal. It's called life.
 
What made you choose that as the first single?

Well, it's got to be the sacrificial lamb, I guess. It's the way things are cynically structured. I've been going on a rant about formatting affecting the way people write, the fact that subconsciously you find yourself writing these shorter songs because that's the way it's been since the '50s, the radio single. I guess, to answer your question, "For the Animals" just seemed to make sense. It's an instant song. We've been playing it out live and it goes over a storm.
 
The piano on "For the Animals" reminds me of 1970s Iggy Pop -- "Raw Power," "Lust for Life," albums like that.
 
It is. It's completely an homage to that. But then, where did he hear it? Probably Jerry Lee Lewis or something like that. We've done it before; I'm trying to think of another song we've done it on, but we're huge devotees of Iggy Pop and the Stooges. That was one of the first things Billy [Duffy] and I did, when I moved to London in 1984 and we started the band: We went to see Iggy Pop near Victoria train station. I loved "The Idiot" and [the track] "The Passenger" and "New Values" as a teenager.
 
Your stage persona has changed somewhat over the years. You were a goth, then you were a psychedelic hard rock guy, then you were an Indian, then you were Jim Morrison. How does the theatricality of your presentation affect your songwriting? Do you write in character, so to speak?
 
I'm not a character. It's not like I'm role playing; I'm not an actor. Even when I was playing with Ray [Manzarek] and Robbie [Krieger], I wasn't playing a role. It's my voice. My mechanism. I think you're just in different places. Of course you're going to behave differently in the grocery store -- or maybe not. It depends how much you've had to drink. We're stuck in that neurosis of definition. The biggest companies in the world are the psychotropic drug companies and the media. It's all stuff to keep us in our place, keep us civilized, keep our energy suppressed.
 
That's what William Burroughs talked about -- the addiction to control.

Sure, and people like Guy Debord, talking about the society of the spectacle. We're just going to sit there and watch it. We're not going to participate. We're not going to be participants, we're going to be observers. Burroughs was a wonderful observer, but not a great participant. And I love people of action. People who live their lives dynamically and just blaze a trail, and you're like, "What the f--- are they doing now? They can't do that." And that's kind of the way I've lived my life. People said, "You can't go from postmodern to hard rock," and I was like, "Well, we're doing it." And this is where we're at right now.
 
Everyone's pontificating about where we're at, what's going on, who's wrong, Occupy -- really? Occupy what? A public square? Put up a tent and play hacky sack? What does it mean? I think the message really is, occupy yourself. Plug into that. Because once you get quiet with yourself, the stuff that comes up is amazing.
 
Is that how you write? Are you introspective in that way?

For me, the best material is within, it's not external, and maybe things were happening with me, in terms of my emotional and spiritual life, which is what I was really listening to, so whatever phrases and images came up -- there's definitely a sense of mourning the destruction of the wilderness, metaphorically and literally.
 
There's a song [I sang] on the UNKLE album ["War Stories"] called "When Things Explode," and the final line of the song is something like "We watched it burn together." I just had this image of a couple standing, holding hands, watching the whole thing burn to the ground and being utterly powerless to stop it, while people like Rupert Murdoch were running around in the flames, trying to shove more money into every available orifice. Like a Goya painting.
 
It was a nightmare, and I had to erase it and say, "I can't be in that place. I have children." Everywhere you turn is a new incongruity, and how do we fight against that? Look away -- don't look at the man behind the curtain, look at the spectacle. Keep your eyes focused on the veneer culture. Keep your eyes focused on the glamorous icons we see on the covers of our magazines.

[Falcon]

http://loudwire.com/the-cult-choice-of-weapon-album-review/?utm_medium=twitter

The Cult, ?Choice of Weapon? ? Album Review

4/5 STARS

by: Chad Childers 39 minutes ago

Cooking Vinyl

The Cult may be getting some age on them, but they?re not going gently into the night. In fact, with their latest release, ?Choice of Weapon,? the group shows off the energy and vitality of a band half their age while feeding upon the years of experience to craft a lyrically deeper album.
 
From the opening moments of ?Honey From a Knife,? the Cult are off and running with Billy Duffy?s driving guitar and drummer John Tempesta keeping the listener?s toes tapping with a punk-fueled beat. The track is also bound to be a live favorite with its sing-along chorus, ?We got the drugs / we got the drugs / we got the drugs / the drugs in here.?
 
?For the Animals? is the lead single off the disc, and also shows the talents of Duffy with his electronic-sounding guitar and Tempesta hitting hard behind the kit, while singer Ian Astbury?s instantly recognizable voice delivers the attitude needed to drive home the song?s message. But the real attention-grabber here is the Jerry Lee Lewis-like piano playing that really drives the track along.
 
?The Wolf? is another standout that feels like it would have been just as vital during the band?s ?80s and ?90s success as it is today, with Astbury?s voice really shining through on the track. And ?Every Man and Woman is a Star? also fits within that classic driving Cult sound.
 
But the ?Choice of Weapon? album is much more than a revival of past glories, it?s also a chance for the band to show their range and experiment without going overboard. ?Wilderness Now? is one of the disc?s more intriguing moments. It?s one of the slower cuts on the record and it really takes hold with the band?s string backing.
 
?A Pale Horse? shows off the Astbury?s range as his soulful call and response vocal comes off like a bluesman/preacher warning the audience, ?I?m gonna crush you right where you stand.? And ?Life/Death? may be one of the bigger curveballs on the release, as it feels like it has a ?50s era pacing, but the Cult give it their own modern stamp. Lyrically the song has substance as well as Astbury debates the essence of a man.
 
In Loudwire?s recent interview with Billy Duffy, he told us that the chemistry within the band was as good as it?s ever been and that Astbury has been really excited with the new music. Duffy was so enthused that he added of the disc, ?This one?s pretty much a winner from the get go.? After hearing the disc in full, we tend to agree.

[Falcon]

Duffy interview from KNAC, good stuff.

Billy Duffy Reveals The Cult?s Choice of Weapon

By Lisa Sharken, New York Contributor
Monday, May 21, 2012 @ 4:26 PM

http://knac.com/article.asp?ArticleID=8755
 

[Falcon]

The Cult's Ian Astbury Ain't No Caveman (He's the Wolf Child)

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/uponsun/2012/05/ian_astbury_cult_new_album_marquee.php

By Jason P. WoodburyTue., May 22 2012 at 8:00 AM

The Cult, with Ian Astbury seated center. The one with the hat.

British rock band The Cult have a new album out today, Choice of Weapon. It's good -- a remarkably heavy record without a trace of "heft for the sake of heft." The songs sound exactly like The Cult, but they aren't tired, no doubt enhanced by the presence of Chris Goss, the Joshua Tree-bred producer who's helmed records for Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss, Masters of Reality, and more.

Everything clicks. The drums are huge, and guitarist Billy Duffy's lines sting. Singer/lyricist Ian Astbury sounds huge, with his vaguely mystic words soaring over the mix. Just don't blame the band if they don't find the songs quite as fresh as the rest of us.

"We've been sitting on this one awhile," Astbury says over the phone, his English accent and penchant for metaphysical musings (dude sometimes refers to himself as "the Wolf Child").

"We had the mixes done at the end of December/January. But then you have to get into things like marketing and artwork, but we've been living with these songs for quite a while. We have to remind ourselves that it's fresh for our audiences. It's always a bit strange; there's always that pregnant pause."

Astbury was into discussing Choice of Weapon -- not to mention modern social media, and why the band never cared much about punk or indie rules.

Up on the Sun: Choice of Weapon is a really enjoyable record, and it looks fantastic. There's really some beautiful packaging going on here -- people who pick up physical copies are going to feel rewarded.

Ian Astbury: The intention was to create packaging that reflected the level of care that went into the making of the record and reflect the authenticity and integrity of what we're doing in the studio. But the intelligence and the awareness is there. [People] try and put on The Cult, that we're a neanderthal rock band, reminiscent of playing arenas in the '80s. Mindless rock fluff, which is the exact opposite of what we do. The illuminated post-modern crowd who likes to think they have exclusive rights to that territory probably looks at the rock community and thinks we're all a bunch of fucking primate rejects [laughs]. But I'll go toe-to-toe with any of them.



You wrote this one with the idea of weapons -- words, art, whatever -- that we use to navigate society. What's the idea behind that?
 
It's, like, where's our attention? It seems like as much as we're distracted by society as a spectacle, we're also communicating our every movement. Tweeting, blogging, texting. It always amazes me when I'm at the airport and people get on the phone straight-away: "I'm here." Well, of course, you are where you're at. You are here; you're always here. It's like we identify it like there's someone keeping score. We probably spend more time documenting our life than living it.

But the great mystery is still there. Science and religion can't explain it. We're caught up in reality shows, conspiracy theories, Weight Watchers, environmental pollution. Whatever -- whatever the distraction is -- the best of us are led by the least of us. The biggest cultural icons are actors. They're pretending to be people. They don't even write their own material. Politicians don't even write their own material anyway. So where is the real authenticity? Who's authentic anymore? You know yourself, your own experiences. So there's an authenticity. The idea of occupying yourself is something I like a way to go forward.

This is a pretty dark record, with lyrics about "fucked-up children" and songs like "Lucifer."

I'm comfortable in that place. That's where the interesting things are, the uncharted and unexplored. We tend to shy away from the shadows.

But there's a theme of survival and hope, too.

Absolutely. That's where the fear exists. If you go in those areas and put some light on them, if you're good in that part of your psyche, you're good.

[Falcon]

Flocked Media review

http://www.flockedmedia.com/2012/05/22/the-cult-choice-of-weapon/

The Cult: CHOICE OF WEAPON ? Album Review

Published on 22 May 2012 by Aaron Harraman

Some bands are built to last. Some bands should stop while they are ahead and some bands are above it all. The Cult is above it all. After many line-up changes and in fighting, solo projects, break-ups and reunions, The Cult prove that it was worth it all with their latest release, CHOICE OF WEAPON.
 
Vocalist Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy have been the driving force behind the sound of The Cult since the early 80′s. It has been a partnership that has had it?s up?s and down?s. It is also a partnership that has produced some of the most recognizable music of the time (you can?t tell me you don?t turn up the radio when ?Fire Woman? comes on).
 
CHOICE OF WEAPON is everything we have come to expect from The Cult. Dare I say that it ranks right up there with SONIC TEMPLE? Everything, from the art work to the lyrics has a deep meaning, even if the listener doesn?t get it. Its as if Astbury and Duffy are challenging us to divine the meaning. I, for one, do not look for meaning, although one may ask one?s self about a song titled ?For the Animals?. If you are expecting me to point out my favorite song or stand out track, I can?t. This is a great rock album and you will find yourself enjoying every song from the opening track, ?Honey from a Knife? to ?Amnesia? and the final track, ?This Night in the City Forever?. My advise is enjoy first, divine later. But whatever you do, make sure you pick-up what is one of the best rock releases to date in 2012, The Cult?s CHOICE OF WEAPON

[Falcon]

A long interview with Ian from Song Facts - tons of info..

http://www.songfacts.com/blog/interviews/ian_astbury_of_the_cult/

[Falcon]

The first unflattering review of "Choice Of Weapon" I've seen...

From PopMatters..5/10

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/158782-the-cult-weapon-of-choice

The Cult: Choice of Weapon

By John Bergstrom 22 May 2012

PopMatters Associate Music Editor

There are three kinds of Cult fans.

The first kind followed them through their post-punk/goth beginnings as Southern Death Cult and through their breakthrough album, Love (1985). These fans felt betrayed or lost interest when the Cult turned toward the hard rock mainstream with the Rick Rubin-produced Electric (1987). Most of these folks have probably long since stopped listening to music altogether.

The second kind found Electric rather groovy, or rockin?, or both, and were blown away by the Cult?s metal apex, Sonic Temple (1989). These fans were let down by the 1991 follow-up Ceremony, though a few stayed on as far as commercial nadir The Cult (1994). These fans constitute by far the largest group, and the Cult have them to thank for their place in rock history.

The third kind have stuck with mainstays Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy all the way, through comebacks like Beyond Good and Evil and the inevitable indie release Born Into This (2007). I?ve never met any of this brand of Cult fan. They must exist, though, because the comeback albums sold well enough at least to enter the charts, and here the Cult are with another, Choice of Weapon.

You can apply all the late-career, post-commercial-peak clich?s here. Have Astbury and Duffy filled in their rhythm section with a couple relatively faceless, facelessly professional veteran musicians? Yes. Have they tapped a producer of their glory-period material? Say hello to Bob Rock, a longtime associate who helmed Sonic Temple but, and this is not a point made in the band?s press material, The Cult as well. Have they claimed the new album is One of Their Best, If Not ,The Best? Check.

I must confess, I fall into the category of Cult observer who was always skeptical of the band?s intentions, but recognized ?She Sells Sanctuary? as a bona-fide classic. Who felt that, after Love, the band were, as the English say, rather a load of bullocks. Who at least appreciated the calculated swagger of Electric as a genuine attempt to light a fire under an increasingly wimpy college music scene.

Cynicism weighs heavily, though. During the Cult?s turn-of-the-millennium hiatus, Astbury performed as a ringer for Jim Morrison along with Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger in the badly-conceived, and even more badly named Doors of the 21st century. And, once you?ve taken a dive like that, you can?t really go back, can you?

Astbury is trying, aided and abetted by Duffy. And, like Born Into This, Choice of Weapon is not the trainwreck one might have predicted. Rock?s production, building on tracks laid by nu-metal veteran Chris Goss, is loud and crisp. Duffy is still a mean, no-nonsense guitarist who can crank up the noise but also dial up the texture when necessary. The other two hold down the bottom end as if their paychecks depended on it.

What is missing, and what has been missing since Electric, is the groove to match the swagger. These are self-serious songs with self-serious arrangements that take all the fun out of playing up native American imagery and cultural commentary, as Astbury is wont to do. The kind of rocking the Cult are up to on Choice of Weapon is made clear from opener ?Honey From a Knife?, which chug-a-lugs like a million other hard rock and metal songs, rather than stomping or charging ahead.

As far as new sonic territory explored over the ten tracks, well, there isn?t any. ?Life > Death? is curious in that it is a stately midtempo ballad that comes across like latter-day Bowie, dignified yet nondescript. ?The Wolf? is the inevitable attempt to combine the Cult?s two best tracks, ?She Sells Sanctuary? and ?Love Removal Machine?, into one song, while ?This Night in the City Forever? is psychedelic Doors pastiche.

One track does briefly hit on the avalanche of raw power that is the selling point of the band?s best work. ?Amnesia? unleashes a monster descending riff and funky breakbeat, and does so convincingly until the lackluster chorus comes on. It?s tough to imagine the Cult are just now getting around to releasing a song called ?Lucifer?, but here it is. ?You working hard for the Devil / Sucking on the crack?, calls Astbury amid the overbearing, thudding rhythm. It is either exactly what Cult fans were waiting for or an embarrassing self parody.

While Duffy, at about 50, seems to have little trouble at least sounding like a rock star, Astbury does not always fare as well. His guttural howl is still unique, but it?s now more gruff and Muppety, and at times the words sound like they are struggling to get out.

Completists will appreciate the second disc featuring the two standalone singles the Cult released in 2010, along with their b-sides. ?Every Man and Woman is a Star? is danceable; the others are not. 

It?s likely the third kind of Cult fan, those who have stuck with the band all along, will be plenty satisfied with Weapon of Choice. Assuming they?re out there.
 

[Falcon]

All Music reviews "Choice Of Weapon"

http://www.allmusic.com/album/choice-of-weapon-r2403181/review

It's been five years since the Cult released the Youth-produced Born Into This. While it was plain that Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy -- with the newly hired rhythm section of bassist Chris Wyse and drummer John Tempesta -- were attempting to reach back to the hard rock attack of Electric and Sonic Temple, the impact of Duffy's guitar sound was blunted by their producer. By contrast, Choice of Weapon, co-produced by Chris Goss and Bob Rock, is urgent, militant, and pissed off. Tempesta and Wyse are no longer hired guns, but the most enduring, tightest rhythm section in the Cult's history. Astbury's youthful wail has been replaced by a deeper, smoother delivery; he's in excellent form and an iconic rock & roll singer. Duffy's guitar roars up front where it belongs. He's as canny as ever in his ability to coax enormous yet infectious ringing riffs from his strings. (Check his rework of his vamp from "She Sells Sanctuary" on "The Wolf," and his pedal to the metal blast on the first single "For the Animals.") As usual, Astbury's lyrics are filled with shamanistic imagery from Native American religion to tantric Tibetan Buddhism (the inner sleeve features photographs of a hunting knife in union with a double vajra), married to political, social, and environmental indignation; throughout his conviction rings true. Even when his lyrics are overly metaphorical, as in "Pale Horse," his delivery is fierce and cuts through the excess. "Honey from a Knife" features a gigantic, distorted chug by Duffy, Wyse, and Tempesta, pushing Astbury to the breaking point, but he's buoyed by a backing vocal chorus and James Edwards' pumping piano (think the Stooges' Raw Power album), and he soars. As a rhythm section, Tempesta and Wyse are buck solid; they provide the proper throb and crunch for Duffy and Astbury to climb atop. Given the pulse of this set, even when a synthetic keyboard is used to introduce "Lucifer," it merely becomes part of the aggressive (yet always accessible) attack. Choice of Weapon is the Cult's finest moment in 23 years; it's the true swaggering heir to the period that birthed Electric and Sonic Temple, and proof that contrary to even Astbury's stated belief in 2009 that the album is far from dead. [As a bonus, the Cult has included a bonus CD with four tracks from 2010's Capture EPs.
 

[Falcon]

The Cult ?Choice of Weapon? ? album review

http://louderthanwar.com/the-cult-choice-of-weapon-album-review/

By Adrian Bloxham on May 22, 2012 in Album Reviews, Featured

Nearly 30 years into their career The Cult have just today released a new lp. It?s their first proper album for five years so is it any good? Adrian Bloxham passes judgement.
 
The Cult, what does that name mean to you? Do you remember Southern Death Cult? Do you remember She Sells Sanctuary? Do you remember Rain? Do you remember when they triumphantly threw a peace sign at the Goths and blasted out Electric?
 
I?m not saying which I recall, you don?t need to know. Although to be honest I?ve not heard any new material from The Cult since Sonic Temple twenty odd years ago. They have, in Choice of Weapon, reasserted themselves as true masters of bombast electric riff charged rock.
 
I started to listen to this album as a nostalgic whim which has changed into a recognition that at my heart I still love the sound of a good guitar and singer working together, on this evidence Billy Duffy and Ian Astbury must have a telepathic link by now.
 
The album? Pounding drums, chugging guitar, tambourine shake, pounding bassline and then Ian Astbury?s voice, a rock behemoth right there. They have stories, choruses about drugs and the biggest riffs so far this year. Billy Duffy never wastes a guitar moment, be it a huge riff or a spiralling solo, it?s all here.
 
It sounds like a filthy denim jacket with the arms cut off, a skull and crossbones embroidered across the back. With a packet of cigarettes in one breast pocket and a bottle of whiskey stuffed in the side. Smelling of petrol and blood and faded by the desert wind howling in from Valhalla.
 
You will be playing air guitar to this, you will be singing along. You will love it.
 
Half the album is Electric tinged rock perfection, the other half harks back to the Cult from the days of Love and is considered and understated. They complement each other brilliantly.
 
The last track (stream above), This Night in the City Forever, takes both, screws them up together and throws in The Doors for an epic album finisher.
 
This is very big and quite clever. Coupled with a tour alongside Killing Joke and the Mission this Autumn it seems the heroes from when I was young have re-emerged and are ready to hold court again. There is a sense of why should we listen to the old music when there is so much new worth filling your head with. To answer, why shouldn?t we listen to those that soundtracked our youth, this is as good as Electric and because it?s out now, it?s not nostalgia, is a celebration.

[Falcon]

http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2012/05/the-cult-choice-of-weapon.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter
 
The Cult revisit their primal selves.

In their commercial heyday The Cult were that improbable band that bridged the gap between The Cure and Guns N? Roses (who eventually nicked their drummer), floating in a psychedelic suspension spiritually derived from The Doors (who Cult singer Ian Astbury eventually fronted?sort of) and otherwise inhabited by only occasional others like Jane?s Addiction. When Metallica hired Bob Rock to produce The Black Album, it was allegedly to chase the tones and polish he achieved with The Cult on Sonic Temple. The lazy man?s storyline on Choice of Weapon is Rock?s return and the fact that facially Choice of Weapon, like Sonic Temple, fuses the arena-ready rock of Electric with the mercurial tones of Love, resulting in? a Cult record that sounds like a Cult record.
 
What?s most compelling about this record, though, is that it has a more turbulent soul than a 2012 record from a band that has been around for this long really ought to, probably due at least in part to time spent in the desert with the album?s other producer Chris Goss (Queens of the Stone Age, Kyuss). From the drug-pop of ?Honey From a Knife? to the vision-dreams of ?Elemental Light,? Astbury remains an oddball, shamanistic cat, while Billy Duffy buttresses his singer?s weirder flights of fancy with workmanlike guitar dazzle. Even what sounds like a dead-on reworking of earlier hits like ?The Wolf? comes off as unapologetically natural. As always the music imagines that Cult space where the arena, the peyote sweat lodge, the abandoned cathedral and the Berlin leather club all become one, and you get the sense that here and only here are they truly in their element. Offering catchy music with a twisted core, The Cult continue to thrive by sticking to their basic muse, and they are showing pretty much no signs of rust.

[Falcon]

Listening reminder, Ian and Billy will be on the nationally syndicated radio show "Rockline" tonight at 11:30 EST, 10:30 CST and 8:30 PST.

Affiliate info here:

http://www.rocklineradio.com/archivehistory.php

[BurningHills]

The first unflattering review of "Choice Of Weapon" I've seen...

From PopMatters..5/10

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/158782-the-cult-weapon-of-choice

The Cult: Choice of Weapon

By John Bergstrom 22 May 2012

PopMatters Associate Music Editor

There are three kinds of Cult fans.

The first kind followed them through their post-punk/goth beginnings as Southern Death Cult and through their breakthrough album, Love (1985). These fans felt betrayed or lost interest when the Cult turned toward the hard rock mainstream with the Rick Rubin-produced Electric (1987). Most of these folks have probably long since stopped listening to music altogether.

The second kind found Electric rather groovy, or rockin?, or both, and were blown away by the Cult?s metal apex, Sonic Temple (1989). These fans were let down by the 1991 follow-up Ceremony, though a few stayed on as far as commercial nadir The Cult (1994). These fans constitute by far the largest group, and the Cult have them to thank for their place in rock history.

The third kind have stuck with mainstays Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy all the way, through comebacks like Beyond Good and Evil and the inevitable indie release Born Into This (2007). I?ve never met any of this brand of Cult fan. They must exist, though, because the comeback albums sold well enough at least to enter the charts, and here the Cult are with another, Choice of Weapon.

You can apply all the late-career, post-commercial-peak clich?s here. Have Astbury and Duffy filled in their rhythm section with a couple relatively faceless, facelessly professional veteran musicians? Yes. Have they tapped a producer of their glory-period material? Say hello to Bob Rock, a longtime associate who helmed Sonic Temple but, and this is not a point made in the band?s press material, The Cult as well. Have they claimed the new album is One of Their Best, If Not ,The Best? Check.

I must confess, I fall into the category of Cult observer who was always skeptical of the band?s intentions, but recognized ?She Sells Sanctuary? as a bona-fide classic. Who felt that, after Love, the band were, as the English say, rather a load of bullocks. Who at least appreciated the calculated swagger of Electric as a genuine attempt to light a fire under an increasingly wimpy college music scene.

Cynicism weighs heavily, though. During the Cult?s turn-of-the-millennium hiatus, Astbury performed as a ringer for Jim Morrison along with Ray Manzarek and Robby Krieger in the badly-conceived, and even more badly named Doors of the 21st century. And, once you?ve taken a dive like that, you can?t really go back, can you?

Astbury is trying, aided and abetted by Duffy. And, like Born Into This, Choice of Weapon is not the trainwreck one might have predicted. Rock?s production, building on tracks laid by nu-metal veteran Chris Goss, is loud and crisp. Duffy is still a mean, no-nonsense guitarist who can crank up the noise but also dial up the texture when necessary. The other two hold down the bottom end as if their paychecks depended on it.

What is missing, and what has been missing since Electric, is the groove to match the swagger. These are self-serious songs with self-serious arrangements that take all the fun out of playing up native American imagery and cultural commentary, as Astbury is wont to do. The kind of rocking the Cult are up to on Choice of Weapon is made clear from opener ?Honey From a Knife?, which chug-a-lugs like a million other hard rock and metal songs, rather than stomping or charging ahead.

As far as new sonic territory explored over the ten tracks, well, there isn?t any. ?Life > Death? is curious in that it is a stately midtempo ballad that comes across like latter-day Bowie, dignified yet nondescript. ?The Wolf? is the inevitable attempt to combine the Cult?s two best tracks, ?She Sells Sanctuary? and ?Love Removal Machine?, into one song, while ?This Night in the City Forever? is psychedelic Doors pastiche.

One track does briefly hit on the avalanche of raw power that is the selling point of the band?s best work. ?Amnesia? unleashes a monster descending riff and funky breakbeat, and does so convincingly until the lackluster chorus comes on. It?s tough to imagine the Cult are just now getting around to releasing a song called ?Lucifer?, but here it is. ?You working hard for the Devil / Sucking on the crack?, calls Astbury amid the overbearing, thudding rhythm. It is either exactly what Cult fans were waiting for or an embarrassing self parody.

While Duffy, at about 50, seems to have little trouble at least sounding like a rock star, Astbury does not always fare as well. His guttural howl is still unique, but it?s now more gruff and Muppety, and at times the words sound like they are struggling to get out.

Completists will appreciate the second disc featuring the two standalone singles the Cult released in 2010, along with their b-sides. ?Every Man and Woman is a Star? is danceable; the others are not. 

It?s likely the third kind of Cult fan, those who have stuck with the band all along, will be plenty satisfied with Weapon of Choice. Assuming they?re out there.
 

This guy couldn't even be bothered to get the name of the album right, so his opinion is completely invalid as far as I'm concerned.

[Falcon]

From RocklineRadio on "Choice Of Weapon"

"Choice of Weapon", by The Cult is their first new effort in some five years. More importantly, both albums feature world class vocalists and guitarists. The Cult's Billy Duffy is a non-stop riff maker with the rare gift of creating unforgettable guitar melodies that blend perfectly with Ian Astbury's distinctive, mellifluous moan. Five years apart is nothing for this band as they have been an on-off organization since their early 80's formation. While being accompanied by some very talented rhythm section performers over the years from Matt Sorum to Eric Singer (the total list of drummers reads like Spinal Tap's), it's no secret the magic in the band comes from the spark generated by Duffy and Astbury and together they have created a robust collection of outstanding songs. TheCult.us is their Internet stop.

Quite fortunately, the new album, "Choice of Weapon" has its own particular sound and style as the band explores new territory but stays within a particular bpm (beat per minute), creating an atmosphere with changing moods, textures and sonic colors. Nothing sounds remotely the same, yet there is a flow running through the album's fourteen tracks. 10 songs come with the basic album, but there are 14 songs available and we highly recommend you seek out the extra 4 songs as each is worth adding to your collection while one, "Embers", is one of the album's standouts, casting a mesmerizing spell that demands to be heard again and again. As with Slash's new album, we couldn't find any song we didn't like, but as with all albums some grabbed us more than others. The Cult has always been a thoughtful band, or perhaps more accurately a thinking person's band, and "Choice of Weapon" continues that feel with a steady, sensual, captivating approach you'll greet like a longtime friend, a friend who has gone through some noticeable changes, but the kind that fit in their overall milieu and enhance the memories you have of their finest moments.

[Ali]

I haven't listened to all of it, but wow, what a great record.  "Honey From a Knife", "Life>Death", "For the Animals" and "Lucifer" are all great tracks.  I have to say that Ian Astbury once again proves to me that a great tone is what matters in creating an appealing voice.  Vocal range isn't everything.

Ali

[Falcon]

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2012/05/the_cults_ian_astbury_talks_ne.php

The Cult's Ian Astbury Talks New Album, Kitchen Knives, and Fucked-Up Children
By Dave PehlingThu., May 24 2012 at 9:14 AM


Not too many bands have traced the kind of eclectic arc traveled by The Cult. Anchored by the British songwriting team of singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy for three decades, the group has traversed from its UK gothic-rock roots in the early 1980s through a rise to global fame with the iconic college-rock album Love before becoming hard-rock kingpins and MTV favorites after the release of 1987's Rick Rubin-produced Electric.
 
While The Cult found even greater success with the follow-up effort Sonic Temple in 1989, the band spent much of the '90s in disarray, as the working relationship between Astbury and Duffy disintegrated. The singer would explore other outlets with his band Holy Barbarians and on a solo album before The Cult's first celebrated reunion in 1999. Since then, the group has toured and recorded regularly, while still taking time out for other projects including Astbury's stint as vocalist for The Doors of the 21st Century with Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger.
 
Though Astbury had at one point insisted The Cult would no longer be making albums, the band's brand new release Choice of Weapon is rightfully being hailed as its best in ages. The loquacious singer recently spoke with All Shook Down about recording with two producers and his lyrical inspirations. The Cult performs with The Icarus Line and Against Me! at the Fillmore this Sunday, May 27.
 
The press materials explained that you worked with both Chris Goss and Bob Rock on Choice of Weapon, but I wanted to know if it was a matter of working with Goss during the initial development of the material and then recording with Bob Rock, or were there recordings with Chris Goss that you then refined with Rock afterwards?
 Yeah, more in that sense. Working with Chris was something we had spoken about. I worked with Chris on two records, my solo record and the UNKLE record. We've been friends for many years. He had talked with me about at some point working with The Cult. And I said "Are you sure you want to do this? [laughs] It's a very different animal."
 
So in 2010, we started working with Chris. I had made the initial statement about albums being irrelevant or not being something we wanted to pursue anymore. Or that I didn't want to pursue as an individual. I was just looking at the sheer mass and volume of music being produced and then those albums being cannibalized. The cynical nature of the industry, pushing single tracks as the epicenter of the work for commercial use. I just thought it had kind of destroyed the essence of what albums are. A lot of the albums I like, people just went into the studio and made a record. They would just go in and make an album and it'd be a great body of work. I'm looking at a shelf that's probably got about 2,000 vinyl albums on it. I think I've gotten some knowledge of what good music is over the years.
 
So we went in with Goss and started these capsule recordings. I called them capsules because I wanted to come up with a format that fit in the 21st century. The EP kind of belonged in the 20th century. The idea of the capsule was that it was going to be vinyl, digital, and visual. It would have a visual element, a film element -- not specifically a music video, but more of a short film.
 
So we did two of those and that was all great. Because we didn't have an agenda in terms of single tracks, we came up with things like "Siberia." They're all kind of distinctive in a way. They're all different from each other, those four songs. That was kind of a transitional phase. Between the Love live tour and the making of Choice of Weapon were the capsules. So perhaps the transcendent piece is that capsule collection. Working on those songs, developing them with no agenda, kind of freed us. All of a sudden we're free.
 
And Goss did a great job. He's a brilliant magician. He creates an environment, just by his presence and his persona, where all the stresses and problems of your daily life disappear and the studio becomes a magical environment again; all infinite potentiality, all possibilities. All your neuroses are calmed -- he's a very calming person -- and he makes it safe. And then you can play. You can definitely go deeper and he encourages that. He has a brilliant ability to go there with you. So we were reaching further, and that was the foundation of this.
 
During that process, people are hearing our music, and our core fans -- the real partisan, dyed-in-the-wool Cult devotees -- they're saying, "We want more of this. This is brilliant. This is the best music you've made. Blah blah blah." That quote, right? [laughs] And then we have labels banging on the door going "This is incredible. These songs are great. These are very strong. We want to do an album."
 
And I'm like, "Wait a minute! We're not doing albums anymore!" And then, of course, I've got Billy and my manager looking at me going "C'mon..." And another thing that happened was we've kind of become our own label, which isn't what we really wanted to do. The next thing you know, we're talking about paper stock and inks and how to market our capsules. That's the exact opposite of what we wanted to do, so we kind of became entrenched in that as well.
 
So labels started banging on the door, and Cooking Vinyl from the UK approached us. They have an interesting background, because some of the people there worked at Beggar's Banquet and have been around the old systems that we were very much a part of. Like a real independent, a true independent label. And it's a British label that seemed to have a lot in common with where we were at, so I capitulated. I'm like "Okay, fine. Let's do an album."
 
So it made sense to go into the studio with Chris. And the same process continued where we had a lot of raw tracks that needed to be refined. We now had this body of work that, because we'd gone so broad and so deep, we really needed to bring it home. We kind of exhausted ourselves. We'd spent all of our resources and our time and our energy exploring all those possibilities and we'd kind of exhausted our relationship with Chris. We wore each other out. Or we certainly wore him out. We asked a lot of him. He gave us everything he had.
 
So I could only think of one person on the planet who was capable of helping us finish this record, and that was Bob. But he was tied up in other projects, so we had to kind of work with him piecemeal. We got four days here, five days there. And that went on for a couple of months. And out of maybe four sessions with Bob, we got to finish the record. He was so gracious. To come in and finish another person's work is not something that's really done very often. But it was wonderful, because it was almost seamless when he walked in the room. We've worked on four records with Bob. It was one of those classic beautiful accidents, and we ended up with Choice of Weapon.

[Falcon]

con't..

I wanted to get into the specifics of the lyrics a little bit. The imagery in "Honey from the Knife" -- with the description of running down the street with a bloodied shirt -- is really vivid. I had to ask if you had a specific NYC experience or memory that inspired the song?
 Yeah, it was a few things. It's a lot to go into, but all I can say is I'd reached a certain threshold. My capacity to sustain the arc and the energy of a life of 20-odd years of doing this, my ability to contain that was frayed. I was pretty frayed. I'd just come out of working with Ray and Robbie [Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger, whom Astbury sang with in The Doors of the 21st Century]. I'd moved to New York, New York, and I'd kind of walked away from everything again. I guess that cynicism after the collapse of the music industry and kind of not feeling like you have a place in the world, you know?
 
Working with Ray and Robbie gave me a safe harbor. Not that it was that safe, but it was a place that I could really put my energies and focus into. I think internally I was moving into a new phase in my life. So here I am with a disparate group. It was like a group of old pirates, disparate outsiders. Old wolves and tigers, wounded, all kind of banded together in New York on this thin raft, as [Doors singer Jim] Morrison referred to. And I was kind of in a frenetic state in New York, which is a pretty unforgiving city at best. There were a few things going on at that time. I was frayed, and I had one friend in particular who was going through a very difficult time psychologically.
 
We would spend a lot of time together. [He was] a real deep thinker as well; a deep feeler and an emotive person. He had traveled through Tibet and Mongolia. A student of Buddhism, a student of philosophy, a student of fine art, a student of culture. And I guess part of it was watching what we'd been through and what we'd come up with. All our reference points dissolving, you know? Materialism. The celebration of the veneer of society with the best of us being led by the least of us; celebrating the celebrity culture and the fa?ade. In terms of icons to be inspired by, everywhere you turned is an actor's face. And we're looking at each other going "What the fuck? How did we get here?"
 
We're just kind of watching the thing implode. But then we were also watching these young artists like Dan Colen, these brilliant young men defining a new voice for a new generation. But they were incredibly self-destructive. So we were around a lot of that. We were around a lot of damaged, really deep thinkers who were frenetic and frayed on this thin raft trying to make sense of things. This was just after the Obama election. I was in a state where I'd just become so numb. I had become numb to so many things. And I was in my apartment one day and there was a kitchen knife and I just slashed my own arm with it in an act of madness. I just wanted to feel something so desperately. I was desensitized. And in the spontaneous action of doing that, I was like "Oh my God. That's pretty..." [trails off] It was just a spontaneous action.
 
So I taped up my arm that night and laid down -- I was in a one-bedroom apartment in Hell's Kitchen -- and went to sleep. The next day I got up and threw on my shirt. I spent a lot of time in that area just below Crosby Street by Lafayette and Kenmare. I have friends around that area by Lower Broadway and just east of Broadway, so I'm always hanging out down there. So I'm running down Lafayette Street, more of a jog than a sprint, and a friend of mine bumps into me. He says "Hey! Where are you going?" I said "I'm just going to meet a friend." And then he says "What happened to your arm? Looks like you're bleeding." I said "Ah, no don't worry about it." But he insisted on looking at it, so I took my shirt off and he looked at it and said "Dude, you have to get stitches!" [laughs]
 
So I had a friend who took me aside and cleaned me up. Went to CVS and got some hydrogen peroxide and cleaned it out. Got some butterfly tape; didn't bother with stitches. And that was that. It was just another day in my sabbatical in New York City; in the life of a seeker. I was kind of living a monastic existence. I wasn't so much caught up in the nightlife of New York, though I was out very late. I was out until 5 o'clock in the morning, just walking the streets considering everything. It's a magnificent city. It's like walking through the Himalayas, being in New York. I had certain places where I'd just kind of sit and hang out and certain friends I'd be with. We were all very much trying to make sense of the shift in the culture.
 
Growing up with really progressive culture and ending up with a culture that was all about acquisition and entitlement and artifice. We were just standing around asking "How did we get here? Where do we fit into this?" A lot of those answers were pondered over and I started making notes and observations. And some of them are reflected in this record.
 
"Honey from the Knife" also has the first of a couple of references to "fucked up children" on the album. At first I thought it might be directed at the younger generation, but the more I listened, the broader it seemed...
 We're all children. In that context, I'm using that for all of us.

[Falcon]

The Cult's Ian Astbury still knows how to rock

Aidin Vaziri, San Francisco Chronicle
Posted May 24, 2012

The Cult has just released its first new full-length album in five years, "Choice of Weapon." A long time has passed since the British hard-rock band ruled MTV with tunes like "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Wild Flower," but on its ninth studio recording, produced by Chris Goss and longtime collaborator Bob Rock, the group still makes a wonderful racket. We checked in with singer Ian Astbury at his home in Los Angeles.
 
Q: You turn 50 this month. Does that number intimidate you?

Astbury: It's just a number. It's weird because my mum passed on my birthday when I was 17, so I never really celebrate my birthday. I've gone through years without even thinking about it.
 
Q: Didn't you ever worry about growing old?

Astbury: The first 12 years of being in a band was just a blur. We were in a hermetically sealed life. All the sudden you're on the other side of it and you're 33 years old. It's been said by many scholars that musicians should hang it up at a certain age. Tell that to Lou Reed. Tell that to Bruce Springsteen. I'd like to think we get better with age.
 
Q: You still work the stage like a regular rock god.

Astbury: Standing still and looking at your pinky is in fashion with so many new bands. I think it's the terror of doing anything wrong.
 
Q: Well, not everybody gets to tour with Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger of the Doors. What did you learn from inhabiting one of your idols' leather pants?
 
Astbury: Being able to stand still with authority. You can't pretend to stand still with authority. You have to know the material intimately. Learning the lyrics is one thing, but learning about the intention and subtext was really important. It's all intuition, especially with their music.
 
Q: You recently did a tour where you played the Cult's 1985 album, "Love." Do you think it's a good idea for bands to go back to their roots?
 
Astbury: Perhaps. I think there's a freshness and earnestness to those songs. There were no rules. We just got on with it. Doing that definitely did re-inject some energy into the band.
 
Q: There was a time you and Billy Duffy would have thrown each other off the tour bus. How do you get on now?
 
Astbury: There's a certain respect we have for those records we made, the music we made. We're very different as people. But when we get the chemistry right, we do great work. We've known each other for 30 years, so we can say anything we want to each other. I certainly have opinions about every single note we play, but there are times I just leave it to Billy. It's not about tolerance. It's about respect.

[Falcon]

http://www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/features/the-cult-whatever-the-term-was-we-were-still-playing-rock-n-roll/
 
The Cult: ?Whatever The Term Was, We Were Still Playing Rock ?n? Roll?
Interview
Simone Scott Warren converses with The Cult's Ian Astbury

As an impressionable fourteen year old, my Saturday night entertainment was provided by the local under eighteens? disco, Heroes. There, for no valid reason, it quickly became apparent you must make a choice; The Cure or The Cult. Each week, they would play ?She Sells Sanctuary? (or sometimes, ?Rain?) and ?Lovecats? back to back, and you were meant to pick which to dance to, thus pledging your allegiance. Both had their own dance routine; for ?Lovecats?, you would perform a bizarre box step move whilst jauntily wiggling your elbows, for ?She Sells Sanctuary?, a strange intertwining hand movement whilst facially attempting to adopt an air of wide eyed otherworldliness, until you found yourself staring at your hands over your head, at which point you would start the whole thing again. We were, as I am sure you will agree, dead,dead cool.
 
I never really managed to pick between the two bands properly, both dance routines had their own merits and I could master them easily. Apart from having four letter names, both beginning with ?C?, I also couldn?t see where the similarity came from. Now, with age, I realise we?re were picking between two bands perceived as being goth, but back then, that term meant nothing to me and I just didn?t understand the connection. I might have loved The Cure more than anything, but I was fourteen, I wasn?t ready to be exclusive, and besides, my friend Anna had the Cult?s ?Love? on repeat and it was really good too. Anyway, 'Baggy' was about to happen and we would soon be spending all our money on oversized trousers and forgetting all about the Great Jersey Goth Wars of ?89.
 
?The term Goth was kind of a joke term, it was David Dorell that coined the term, he used to write for the NME.? Ian Astbury, legendary lead singer for The Cult, softly laughs down the line from his Californian abode, ?I mean, it was a communal joke, we were all living together in Brixton, and that sort of phrase sort of came up; gothic, gothic hoards, living together in a gothic mansion... David Dorell picked up the word Goth and applied it to everyone who was wearing black... It was pretty much, you've moved on from punk, it's the next natural progression. All the boys adopted leather jackets, and all the girls adopted Siouxsie Sioux's hair, and that was the uniform for the time. Whatever the term was, we were still playing rock ?n? roll.?
 
The story of Astbury, and The Cult?s rise to prominence is one of rock ?n? roll dreams come true; Astbury had led a nomadic childhood, emigrating to Canada in the mid seventies as a young teen, and returning to find a very different Britain from the one that he had left behind. ?I had my first holiday back in the UK in ?77, my family was in Birkenhead, near Liverpool. I remember the Queen just happened to be in Liverpool, she was going around the country I guess, and she was on a boat going down the Mersey. So the Mersey banks were lined with lots of people, you know, waving and cheering, and I remember looking across the banks and seeing all these punk rockers. I'd never seen punks before close up, it was kind of a shock. Going from the UK, to North America was a huge culture shock, and then coming back for a holiday was huge, because so much had changed in the UK, culturally and musically, which was kind of what I was interested in. I wasn't really interested in the political stuff, I was 15 years old, all I was interested in was the music.?

That interest quickly turned to an obsession, with the punk scene, and with the seminal punk band Crass, in particular. Astbury, effectively homeless, travelled the country following them around. For a period of six months, he slept wherever he could, bus shelters, abandoned buildings, dossing on couches, until he met some likeminded Crass fans who invited him to stay with them in Bradford. As it turns out, they also needed a singer for their band; ?They were practising in the living room, it was a punk band called Violation. They needed someone to sing, they liked the way I looked, and so they asked me to join the band.?
 
Violation morphed into Southern Death Cult, before Astbury disbanded that group, dropped the Southern and then the Death, and poached Billy Duffy from tour mates Theatre of Hate. The Cult quickly scored their first NME cover, ?We were on the cover without even having a record out.? Ian tells us, sounding a little surprised, even to this day, ?Literally, we didn't have any music and we're on the cover of the NME. That was so bizarre, because we didn't even have a label at the time.?
 
It?s fair to say that The Cult?s worldwide success exceeded all preconceptions for a British band at that time. ?The band did transcend expectations, but we didn't have any expectations, I didn't have any expectations, so I guess we didn't transcend our expectations, because we didn't have any. We were just putting one foot in front of the other. The UK has no expectations for it's talent anyway. I don't know what it is. Maybe it started in the war, or the kind of school system we have; when I was at school, teachers were always telling you that you were no good at things, I had very few teachers that were encouraging. I didn't have that connection with an education. We culturally put down people who are successful at things, I don't know why that is, it's very perplexing to me. Living in North America, there's more of a sense of optimism, and then coming back to the UK, with that sense of optimism, you have a different energy, definitely, people felt that coming from me. And you get criticised for it, criticised for being earnest, criticised for being driven in that way.?

Astbury?s relationship with the music press has always been that of a misunderstood optimist, so it might be safe to assume having taken a bit of a battering for the last thirty years, he?d be a prickly character to converse with, guarded and wary. Nothing could be further from the truth, over the course of our conversation, we cover everything from the Royal Family (?they're a tourist attraction, but when you think about how they got in that position? they had to subjugate someone to get into that position, and subjugate them with what? With violence. So we come from a culture where there's been that subjugation, the class system, upper class, middle class, working class, that's just an existential way, isn't it? We're all creatures, we're all human beings, we all have equal value.?), to Buddhism (?I guess in life, there comes a time where you can either do it your way, the way you've made up, or you can try and absorb some wisdom from other texts, cultures, experiences, that you can apply to your situation, and I found myself just going back to Buddhism.?) to the rites of passage we miss from our youth (?Phone boxes!?). Indeed, such an engaging conversationalist is he, that it takes us some time to remember what we?re here to discuss, the ninth studio album by The Cult, ?Choice of Weapon?.
 

[Falcon]

con't

For three years prior to recording the album, Astbury had been living in New York, in Manhattan, which was where much of his writing for the record was completed, and certainly, the influence of the city is felt keenly on the album; as Ian describes it, the record ?emanated from experiences in New York and living there?. There?s a definite sense on the record that this is a band who don?t really care too much about what other people think, that they?re out to enjoy themselves alone, which Astbury concurs is the case, ?It's because you have that option. Certainly when you're coming up, finding your place the world, you do have an awareness of where you are, and some of that does seep into your music. But as you progress, you get further and further into your own story. For this record, there was no agenda, there was nothing, we weren't aiming for a certain goal, we just wanted to make this record the best it could possibly be. Let the heart rule the way.?
 
Which all sounds terribly tranquil, but Astbury and Duffy, well, there?s a certain reputation there, one of two musicians who can?t live with each other, can?t live without each other. We ask, tentatively, whether the issue of the two band leaders locking horns arose again, or whether it?s that very chemistry that keeps the band going after all these years? ?Chemistry is where it's at. You've got to have those elemental particles that oppose each other. Makes great art, makes great mileage.? Ian confirms, ?Even the fact that I'm a singer and he's a guitar player, there's difference of philosophy in that. I think over the years we've come to appreciate each other for who we are, as individuals. And we get the most out of each other, we know the character aspects that we have, so if I get caught into a space where I'm, for want of a better word, becoming too esoteric, he can be very grounding. And likewise, sometimes he can be too pragmatic, and I can just completely destroy that. You just learn how that works, the balance, the dance, and try not to step on each other's toes too much. It's so easy to have a argument about things and just walk out the door, throw your teddy in the corner, but it doesn't really fix anything. I think we both know that when we get together, we make a certain kind of noise, and that's something you really have to appreciate.?
 
Certainly, as Ian discusses the writing process (?Crayon!?), and the recording process, you get the sensation that this record was born out of a much less tumultuous affair. ?We recorded a little bit in New York, but then we moved it to a studio called Ocean Way [in California], which is like an old studio, the last great live recording rooms.? Ian enthuses, ?There's some very old recordings of Sinatra from there, Sammy Davis Jr, pretty much everyone and their dog recorded there; the Stones, U2, etc etc. It?s a great atmosphere, and for recording rock ?n? roll bands, it's definitely the best, because you've got space to make up amps, they don't just use a plug in on it. Everyone's using plug ins now, you don't even have to mic up an amp anymore, and there's a real skill to that. There's a real skill to mic-ing up drums, and very few engineers know how to do that anymore. The engineers in there really know their trade, but getting space in a room, it's really important. Working on the record with Unkle, for example, [Ian appeared on Unkle?s ?Burn My Shadow? and ?When Things Explode?] you're in a control room, in quite a confined space, it gets to be a bit claustrophobic. Being in a big room, it's got a certain atmosphere to it, you can really travel, whatever's going on, you just drop it, it's really magical.?
 
With ?Choice of Weapon? ready for release, the next logical step is a few live shows, and The Cult have lined up some pretty special tour mates for the UK leg of their tour; The Mission and Killing Joke. ?The idea was we could go out and do a similar tour to what we've been doing, playing the Academies or whatever, or we could try and make it a little bit more of an event.? Ian confesses, ?And originally when it was presented to us as playing with the Mission, I thought it could be misconstrued, bit of a nostalgia thing, but then we saw the Mission at a festival in Belgium, and they were incredible. I was blown away by them. So we thought that was actually a good idea, based on what they're doing now. And then Killing Joke joined the party, Killing Joke's a band I grew up with, I used to go see them play. So that was a bonus. And we thought that the three bands playing together had a value, you know, we could go play a bigger venue, create more of an event, do something different. We can always go back to the same old, but we've always tried to do something different with touring. We did the ?Love Live? tour and played the Royal Albert Hall, which was really important to us. It's incredible, that's somewhere we've always wanted to play, it was Billy's idea, to play the Love album in a venue that we should've played it in back in the day, but we never ever played it.?
 
Ian sounds momentarily contemplative, ?There are some parts of the British culture that are endearing and have certain merit to them, magic to them. In Los Angeles at the moment there are all these billboards everywhere, that say 'Great Britain Is Culture'; with a picture of the British Museum. We've had this idea to go block out the ?ure?, and make it 'Great Britain Is Cult'.?
 
The Cult's new album 'Choice Of Weapon' is out now via Cooking Vinyl.

[Falcon]

Ultimate Guitar Review of Choice Of Weapon, notice the bold/underlined portions - that's what I've always dug about Billy's playing.

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/compact_discs/cult/choice_of_weapon/index.html

Sound: The Cult are one of those bands that inspire such devotion that their fanbase may as well be a cult, and "Choice Of Weapon" will certainly please those fans. They have a musical vision that seems unique and special, and they've tried to put that across on previous albums, though albums like "Born Into This", "Beyond Good And Evil" and "The Cult" seem to have under-delivered this vision in their eyes, and in their fans eyes too.
 
So what have Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy got in store for us this time? Well, in terms of style, this is as raw rock n roll as they've been since "Electric", tinged with the gothic mysticism of their classic "Love" album. Billy Duffy's guitar playing on this record is dirty and raw and, as ever, pretty diverse. He knows how to write a rockin' riff and he has a very rare quality that the majority of other rock guitarists don't, and that is quality control. He knows when to end a solo and he knows when to pull back. He's a guitarist who can come across as being heavy without just turning up the distortion and his guitar playing is very rarely masturbatory. Songs like "Honey From A Knife", "A Pale Horse" and "The Wolf" show Billy Duffy to be on top of his game and it is very impressive. There is a perfect balance between hard and soft, which is good as there wasn't such equilibrium on the last 2 Cult albums, but everything about this album is raw in a way I haven't seen since Foo Fighter released "Wasting Light" last year. Also the current Cult line-up has been going strong for a good few years so everything sounds tight and there is evidently strong musical chemistry. // 8
 
Lyrics and Singing: Lyrically The Cult are a good band to listen to, though there are deeper levels for those who care to delve that little bit further. Ian Astbury lyrically explores many themes of life, death, love, belief, mysticism, shamanism and also a lot about his past and his life experiences. "Honey From A Knife" was written about Astbury running through the streets of New York with his arm cut open from a knife wound (if my memory serves me correctly). Astbury matches lyrical themes to the music perfectly on this record. His words provoke thought but do not demand it. It makes this record appealing to casual listeners and hardcore fans alike.
 
And singing skill? I shouldn't have to tell you that Ian Astbury is an amazing vocalist and frontman. He's proved all that already. But what's nice to notice about his voice on this record is how it has matured with age and settles nicely into Billy's guitar riffs, as has always been the magic between these two musicians. And, of course, no studio trickery with Ian's voice. What you hear is what he sang, and boy his voice is freakin' powerful! // 10
 
Impression: Ok, I'm going to say it... This is the best Cult album in at least 21 years. If you don't like "Ceremony" then 23 years. If you don't like "Sonic Temple" then 25 years. This album is a return to the sounds of "Love" and "Electric". All the metal has been driven off with a pitchfork and it's about time. Sure, The Cult got high levels of success in the 80's for albums like "Sonic Temple" but that wasn't the true Cult. As Astbury says, "Love" was the closest The Cult got to achieving it's musical potential and after that they became less true to themselves. I can safely say this is a return to form.
 
All the songs have impressive sounds, but my personal favourites would be album opener "Honey From A Knife", "The Wolf", lead single "For The Animals", "Lucifer" and "A Pale Horse". They all sound like raw rock n roll and it's about time a band made an album like this. It does seem quite fitting that it would be the Cult.
 
The funny thing is, this album is released at the same time as Slash's "Apocalyptic Love". Comparing "Choice Of Weapon" with Slash's recent effort is quite interesting. Mainly because you can listen to Slash and think it was great but you knew he'd do that. Duffy's playing is arguably more diverse, as it has been over his career, and "Choice Of Weapon" is quite the shocker, especially coming from a band who were written off by most people many years ago.
 
This album won't sell like "Apocalyptic Love", but that goes for most Cult albums. It won't stop me singing the praises of "Choice Of Weapon" though, because this is a band pushing their boundaries while an American dude in a top hat solos happily in his comfort zone. This album is a must for Cult fans and is a must