Anyone else love this one? In retrospect it's not really that different from a lot of what was going on in the early nineties UK rock scene where many bands were mixing dance music into their sound but arriving on the heels of Ceremony this was a pretty big departure for The Cult. It's too bad that they did not continue in this direction and give us a whole album like this.

I thought Ceremony was a decent album, although my favs from them will always be Love & Electric. Did you like the direction the Cult album took them after this?

lezama said:

I thought Ceremony was a decent album, although my favs from them will always be Love & Electric. Did you like the direction the Cult album took them after this?

Ceremony was a good album but it was kind of Sonic Temple, part two. If you look at their previous albums Love was very different than Dreamtime, Electric was very different than Love and Sonic Temple was very different than Electric. Sonic Temple and Ceremony were pretty much the same. Of course then they took another u-turn after Ceremony with The Cult. At the time I hated it as I thought they were just aping the current grunge/alternative scene but over time I have come to really dig that album. It was a very different sound for them but underneath it they are still recognisable as The Cult. I just feel that if they had carried on with Rick Rubin and the direction they were headed with "The Witch" that they could have come up with another classic album but maybe that one song was all they could do in that style?

I do like Beyond Good and Evil and Born into This but they both felt a little too "safe." It's probably unrealistic to expect a band that has been around for thirty years to keep pushing themselves and changing their sound but I hope that the new album is a bit more adventurous than the last two.

This is the song that got me to dig The cult actually! along with the video

rialb...

being a fan of the post-Sonic Temple albums of The Cult...

what are your REAL feelings about Beyond Good and Evil? lol

I seriously think is one of the most underrated rock albums of all time, that album had like 4 or 5 potential hit singles, but the label didn't care at all...

[Edited 5/10/12 15:31pm]

I was very excited when this song came out because it was so different for them--especially after the disappointing Ceremony album. The self-titled release after this one was also not very good. Southern Death Cult through Sonic Temple are the albums worth keeping to me. Beyond that I only like the occasional single.

"Rise" is great.

sextonseven said:

I was very excited when this song came out because it was so different for them--especially after the disappointing Ceremony album. The self-titled release after this one was also not very good. Southern Death Cult through Sonic Temple are the albums worth keeping to me. Beyond that I only like the occasional single.

"Rise" is great.

"Rise" is a killer rock song

that's one of the 4 or 5 songs of BGAE that could have been hits in the US, had they been released by another band...

rialb said:

Anyone else love this one? In retrospect it's not really that different from a lot of what was going on in the early nineties UK rock scene where many bands were mixing dance music into their sound but arriving on the heels of Ceremony this was a pretty big departure for The Cult. It's too bad that they did not continue in this direction and give us a whole album like this.

rialb said:

Anyone else love this one? In retrospect it's not really that different from a lot of what was going on in the early nineties UK rock scene where many bands were mixing dance music into their sound but arriving on the heels of Ceremony this was a pretty big departure for The Cult. It's too bad that they did not continue in this direction and give us a whole album like this.

This is one of their baddest soulful jams imo. One of the only decent cuts on the Cool World soundtrack as well..especially the extended version. Im a Cult freak and I liked the change from Sonic headbangers to this. I liked this change rather than the 93 The Cult release.

JoeTyler said:

rialb...

being a fan of the post-Sonic Temple albums of The Cult...

what are your REAL feelings about Beyond Good and Evil? lol

I seriously think is one of the most underrated rock albums of all time, that album had like 4 or 5 potential hit singles, but the label didn't care at all...

[Edited 5/10/12 15:31pm]

Well, Beyond Good and Evil is kind of their heavy metal album. It took me quite a bit of time to warm to it. I think I got it and Rare Cult around the same time and I really loved the box set and kind of ignored the new album. Of their newer material I would give Born into This the slight edge. They are both very solid albums but I don't think they reach the heights of their earlier albums. Still, I give them credit for once again completely changing their sound. Love them or hate them you can't accuse them of milking a formula and they are never afraid to change things up. At that time I was probably still reeling a bit from the fact that my heroes had recently recorded a song by Diane Warren. First Kiss did "Nothing Can Keep You from Me" and then The Cult did "Painted on My Heart." Dark times indeed. I guess it is hard to fault them after the massive success that Aerosmith had with "I Don't Want To Miss a Thing." After that every hard rock band thought they could have a hit with one of her crappy songs.

I guess especially in America The Cult were viewed as a spent force. It had been over ten years since Sonic Temple and neither Ceremony nor The Cult made much of an impact so Beyond Good and Evil was completely ignored. I'm not as high on the album as you are but when you commpare it to popular hard rock/heavy metal albums circa 2001 it is an absolute masterpiece. It's very easy to make the argument that if that was the debut album from a new band that it could have been a hit and a platinum seller. The problem was that by that time the name "The Cult" had a bit of a stigma attached to it and no matter how great the album was it was probably doomed to stiff. It is a little odd that the album didn't do a lot better in the rest of the world, particularly in Europe. You are probably right when you say that the label did not care.

I'm curious, in addition to "Rise" which songs would you have picked as singles?

[Edited 5/11/12 4:05am]

rdhull said:

This is one of their baddest soulful jams imo. One of the only decent cuts on the Cool World soundtrack as well..especially the extended version. Im a Cult freak and I liked the change from Sonic headbangers to this. I liked this change rather than the 93 The Cult release.

I don't see it on youtube but the limited edition version of the Rare Cult box set features a ten minute version that is well worth hearing.

sextonseven said:

I was very excited when this song came out because it was so different for them--especially after the disappointing Ceremony album. The self-titled release after this one was also not very good. Southern Death Cult through Sonic Temple are the albums worth keeping to me. Beyond that I only like the occasional single.

"Rise" is great.

You didnt like Wild Hearted Son, Ceremony, Sweet Salvation, or Heart Of Soul?

That was a badass tour too.

sextonseven said:

rialb said:

JoeTyler said:

rialb...

being a fan of the post-Sonic Temple albums of The Cult...

what are your REAL feelings about Beyond Good and Evil? lol

I seriously think is one of the most underrated rock albums of all time, that album had like 4 or 5 potential hit singles, but the label didn't care at all...

[Edited 5/10/12 15:31pm]

Well, Beyond Good and Evil is kind of their heavy metal album. It took me quite a bit of time to warm to it. I think I got it and Rare Cult around the same time and I really loved the box set and kind of ignored the new album. Of their newer material I would give Born into This the slight edge. They are both very solid albums but I don't think they reach the heights of their earlier albums. Still, I give them credit for once again completely changing their sound. Love them or hate them you can't accuse them of milking a formula and they are never afraid to change things up. At that time I was probably still reeling a bit from the fact that my heroes had recently recorded a song by Diane Warren. First Kiss did "Nothing Can Keep You from Me" and then The Cult did "Painted on My Heart." Dark times indeed. I guess it is hard to fault them after the massive success that Aerosmith had with "I Don't Want To Miss a Thing." After that every hard rock band thought they could have a hit with one of her crappy songs.

I guess especially in America The Cult were viewed as a spent force. It had been over ten years since Sonic Temple and neither Ceremony nor The Cult made much of an impact so Beyond Good and Evil was completely ignored. I'm not as high on the album as you are but when you commpare it to popular hard rock/heavy metal albums circa 2001 it is an absolute masterpiece. It's very easy to make the argument that if that was the debut album from a new band that it could have been a hit and a platinum seller. The problem was that by that time the name "The Cult" had a bit of a stigma attached to it and no matter how great the album was it was probably doomed to stiff. It is a little odd that the album didn't do a lot better in the rest of the world, particularly in Europe. You are probably right when you say that the label did not care.

I'm curious, in addition to "Rise" which songs would you have picked as singles?

The Saint

Nico

American Gothic

had they been released with the PROPER worldwide promotion, they could have been BIG rock hits...perhaps even cracking the Billboard top50...

but as you said, The Cult was seen as an uncool relic at that time...