The Cult
Choice of Weapon

The Cult is a classic name in the world of rock music, their gothic flavoured rock music that charmed many fans all over the world. With mainstream success for some albums and songs in the late eighties and not really that much in terms of that in the later days. I would think that it is fair to say that this band has its best time way back in the past. Choice of Weapon is their ninth album and with that they might be looking to please some of their older fans, although one would have to say that they have a tough task to unite the fans to like this album considering their wandering through different stylistic ways of making their music which means that they have to overcome their past to really succeed with this album. One thing they definitely cannot do is look back and try to emulate what gave them success in the past, one thing I can conclude at first glance is that the album cover looks like shit.

It is The Cult and you will recognise the sound, the rock music with a simplistic way but with a touch of gothic elements and Ian’s characteristic vocal style. If you have heard them before I would say that it sounds a bit like The Cult of the eighties but older and… older. The production is of course more modern than it was back then in the eighties, so an older The Cult with a fresher production is what we get if we decide to look into this album which has ten tracks that are decently varied within the musical framework that the band has set. So if you decide to look into this album it will set you back around 42 minutes, 42 minutes that sounds familiar for the fanatic of the band.

The reviews of this album has been rather mixed from quite bad to really good so whatever rating I put on this album I will not really be different from those who have reviewed this album. And I am not impressed, I have always thought that The Cult are overrated and has never really cared too much for them, but I do think that they had fresh ideas and were an exciting band in the eighties and the song Edie from 1989 is a fantastic song as well as She Sells Sanctuary and a few more from that time. This album is stylistically not that different from that time and it is better produced and has a better sound than the band had back then but it is tired and seems to lack any sense of fresh thinking. Honestly I find this album uninspiring, and whenever I listen to it I become really bored and there aren’t really many times that I have played through the entire album without falling asleep before it ends.

So, a boring album that feels a bit like it is trying to live on old accomplishments and as you regular readers already know I hate when bands do that and that along with the boringness of the album is the reason for its low rating. So, if you are interested in The Cult, have a look at their albums from the eighties because this isn’t good in any way, sure the way it makes you fall asleep can be seen as some use but honestly I had expected something very different.