When I first met Ian Astbury he was pretending to be somebody else. He knew he wasn't fooling anyone, but he played the part with panache. He made us all put misgivings aside, make believe and have a great time. The band he sang with at the time was called the 21st Century Doors, and his co-conspirators on stage were Doors legends Robbie Krieger and Ray Manzarek. How did he manage to fill shoes as big (not speaking literally, of course) as Jim Morrison's? Only by preparing for it his whole life. While other punks railed against rock stars and their grandstanding, he must have been studying hard rock behemoths Led Zeppelin, AC/DC and Aerosmith. He slowly guided his band towards his objective, every name change bringing him closer to his purpose. As Southern Death Cult became Death Cult and finally plain Cult, the music transformed from Punk to Goth to New Wave and finally, with "Electric", Hard Rock. Under the supervision of hotshot producer Rick Rubin, the songs were stripped bare, so as to better display the muscular guitar riffs and vocals. Guitarist Billy Duffy comes up with riffs that would make even Angus Young jealous and Astbury roars heroically, channelling Robert Plant and Jim Morrison. Opener "Wild Flower" is a classic hard rock single with a monster riff. Two more singles were released from the album and made the UK Top-20. "Little Devil"'s riff is pure AC/DC, while "Love Removal Machine" is as close as you can get to the dream scenario of The Rolling Stones ousting Jagger and bringing in Jim Morrison and Rory Gallagher to duet with Richards on guitar (Gallagher did actually almost become a Stone in 1975, but that's another story). "Peace Dog" is a Doors-influenced song with slightly embarrassing lyrics - let's face it, Astbury's grasp of poetry is a far cry from that of his idol, Jim Morrison. The fact they revisit "Born to Be Wild" (the song that coined the term heavy metal) is further sign of their ambition. The rest of the album follows more or less the same template: "Aphrodisiac Jacket", "Electric Ocean" and "King Contrary Man" offer more AC/DC riff-ola, while "Bad Fun", "Outlaw" and "Memphis Hip Shake" recall Aerosmith in their 70's hard rock heyday. Bringing back hard rock's glory days in the middle of the plastic 80's decade seemed to be mission impossible. That era was long gone and its protagonists like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath and AC/DC were shades of their former selves. Yet the Cult did try, and with aplomb. Call it a resounding success or a colossal failure, there just is no middle road, here...
***** for Wild Flower, Lil' Devil, Love Removal Machine
**** for Electric Ocean, Bad Fun, King Contrary Man, Outlaw
*** for Peace Dog, Aphrodisiac Jacket, Born to Be Wild
** for Memphis Hip Shake
