Exhibit A is 2001's Beyond Good and Evil. It was the band's first album in six and a half years. That's pretty much the only common factor about this and Exhibit B, their 2007 album called Born Into This. Beyond Good and Evil had good artwork, killer guitar riffs from Billy Duffy and some awesome vocal performance by Ian Astbury. Production was pretty kickass. It had Bob Rock handling the production duties a good two years before he became a metal villain after Metallica's St. Anger.

On Born Into This, Sorum's out and Tempesta's in, and they're now on Roadrunner Records. First of all, the artwork is pure shit. Second and a lot more importantly, the one thing that makes this album an unconditioned no-go is the sheer lack of guitar riffs or rhythm playing on Duffy's part. The Cult have always been a guitar driven band. During their AC/DC worship days and during their more gothic days too. But on this album, he somehow hardly comes up with anything worthwhile. It is all driven by Chris Wyse's bass grooves. Don't do too much of that unless you're Les Claypool, especially in a hard rocking setup.

The best moments of this album come in the way of Astbury's vocal performances. There are melodies and choruses that are signature Cult, like on the title song, Dirty Little Rockstar and Sounds of Destruction. He also does well on Holy Mountain, the ballad of the album that sounds like an early gramaphone era love song. This is otherwise a very boring album that completely fails in the guitar department and the prosaic songwriting isn't helping either. Even the production handled by Martin "Youth" Glover is a bit of a step down from the more organic Beyond Good and Evil. Seriously avoid, unless you're a loyal fan of the band.



Year of Release: 2007
Label: Roadrunner