Rating:  -
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:  -
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.
Rating: -
Great album, heavy riffs, great enchanting lyrics and amazing vocals. GO CULT!
Rating: -
Hey folks, what can I say? What a moron i've been for passing this one by....mostly just because I was in the middle of raising my family, but thats enough about me. I am stunned by the sheer brillance of this album! I've been a fan since forever, and honestly I think Sonic Temple had been my fav up until last night. I finally listened to this CD in full (for the first time if you can believe it!). What put me in the mood to do that? Well I have the DVD they put out in 2001 (Music without fear) and as many of you may know that is one bad-a@@ DVD (except for Ian's vocal problems on a few songs). What makes that DVD so amazing? The sheer heaviness, that's what. I noticed a Sabbath like grind almost immediately on that DVD, and I was stunned that the cult could just sit in that heavy groove for almost an hour and a half. Of course, I wondered what Cult CD the heaviest grooves were from...To make a long story short, I'm stunned at the impact this album has had on me. Not since the first time I heard Sabbath Vol. IV, have I reacted in such a way to pure Dark Metal like this:) WOW!!!!These guys have a brilliant album here, this album puts them right up with the best of Rock and Roll and Dark Metal at its absolute best. Great work Ian, Billy and the rest of the gang:) Keep on putting this kind of Rock out, please, please, please:)
Rating:  -
This is probably one of the best raunchy rock and roll cd's in a long time. The Cult went out with style. There are few weak songs but it is all hard for the most part. I like the style of darkness that is here
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