Music : Beyond Good and Evil

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Rating:

- Another Cult Classic.
Play this in a multi-disc changer filled with The Cult and the flow from old to new is unblemished.

Rating:

- Dark, heavy and booming
If there is one thing you can count on with this band, it is consistency. Not necessarily can that be applied to release date gaps, for this one was a long time waiting for fans of this band. However, the album did not lack in any way when it comes to quality, while again retaining the key sounds and unique imagery that gave them "cult" status back in the day.

What does separate this album from others? That is easy with a first listen; it is the guitar playing of Billy Duffy. Duffy seemed to come into this album with a chip on his shoulder, giving some mega-raucous riffage and dark, driving forces in a sonic fury. Songs like War (The Process), Rise, Take the power, breathe...the list goes on, song after song of heavy guitar work from Duffy. The atmosphere of this record overall, is somewhat different, seeming to leave some of the Native American trances in the background while reaching out more as an all out rocker. Make no mistake about it though, Astbury's vocals are as reaching in range as ever and do not disappoint.

Nico is a song that slows things down with a more ballad style approach that has some really touching singing and sounds. The song "American Gothic" is again a flurry of Duffy guitars before dropping down into a repetitive riff in which Astbury lays out the foundation of a good old yell fest.

Beyond Good and Evil ratchets it up a notch with heavy influence paid to the strings and drums, making for an album that may not seem as magical as it could be, but every bit a hard hitting one.

Rating:

- I LOVE THIS RECORD
I was really excited to see that The Cult released this album. This is the record that got me listening to them again. I hadn't really listened to anything from them in a long time, but when I caught the 2001 Concert on The Hi-def Voom network and heard these songs for the first time, I had to get it. I love this record and Every song on it. "Rise" sounds a bit like a return to the punkish sound from their past, and it is great! Another of my faves is "My Bridges Burn," to which Ian dedicates to Steve Jones in that 2001 concert mentioned above. "Nico" is the ballad song reminiscent of Edie and I love love love that song as well. Actually, I love every song on this album. All the months they put into the recording of this record was well worth it because it sounds fantastic! It's just too bad that it took the concert on TV to hear it for the first time because I've never heard even one of these songs on the radio and that kind of makes me angry. It was released in 2001 and I didn't know about it until 2007!!! What's wrong with that???

Rating:

- Good stuff, but not a return to the limelight - 3.5 stars
Beyond Good and Evil glories in a couple of great meaty tunes, nice guitar hooks and somewhat understated production values. It is an album containing some interesting and at times bewildering lyrics and is proof positive that the boys still have it in them to create worthwhile hard rock numbers.

But there are some problems here. As per basically every Cult album ever, including the often referenced Sonic Temple, there are a bunch of fillers here. Now even the greatest albums usually have a few songs that don't stack up but on the great albums the mood created by the band evens things out so that the listener still feels that the lesser songs belong as part of a whole. The Cult never really managed this in the early phase of their career and it seems their later efforts are going to be plagued with the same issue.

That's not to denigrate at all the swirling, hypnotic riffage and melody on numbers like War (the process) which has Astbury fairly spitting defiance into the face of the dogs of war and The Saint in particular has a mesmerising circular effect, the vocals laying over the music with the effect of pulling the listener down.

Elsewhere we get interesting nuggets of wisdom such as American Gothic where vocal effects are laid over Astburys voice to good effect and the album operates in a number of gears - there is a song here trying to catch the mood and magic of Edie from their Sonic Temple opus, but I'll let you figure out which one when you listen to the record. For my mind if you can get the version of the album that comes with the bonus track Libertine you might as well as long as it doesn't cost you any extra though the track itself isn't anything life altering.

I enjoyed this album, finding a couple of great tracks here, particularly the two lead numbers. But I also found a band that seemed somewhat at a loss for words, not really having much to say and putting forth simplistic structures that just didn't work for me, like Take the Power. Still, Cult fans should really pick this up as they'll no doubt skip over the dud tracks and enjoy hearing Billy Duff crank out some choice riffs and Astbury come out with his usual bag of lyrical curve balls.

Rating:

- THE CULT RISES FROM THE ASHES
This is a great power house album/CD of molten heavy metal refined to

the purest gold escence. Ian Astbury is one of the chosen great vocalists

of Classic Rock. He still delivers on this CD, a rock siren who shatters

the air waves. I rank him right up there with Robert Plant, Ian Gillen,

Bruce Dickinson, and Geoff Tate. Every song shows maturity, without

stretching his vocal range-- Ian can still put it out there.

Billy Duffy is a very under rated guitarist- he creates a wall of

sound, melodic or a metal undertow, at his beckoning. Beyond Good And

Evil stacks up with their greatest body of work, as good as Love or

Sonic Temple. This is a great rock CD, that deserved better air play.

My favorite tracks are: Take The Power, Nico, American Gothic,

Shape The Sky, and True Believers. The Cult made a come back album

with merit. Other bands reform and fall flat on their backs, The Cult

show that they can still deliver the goods. Long live rock n roll.

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