[rating=4.00]
Choice of Weapon is The Cult’s first full-length release of new studio material in five years. Judging by the album’s dark lyrical content and heavy duty riffs, during that half-decade the band has seen some harrowing times.
The album kicks right off into high gear with the pounding sleaze-metal intro to the first song, “Honey From a Knife.” Bassist Chris Wyse creates a sense of dread with a low, ominous backbeat that remains fairly consistent through most of the 10 songs, while lead guitarist Billy Duffy spices things up with alarm-like buzzing chords. The distorted, trippy chorus, “We got the drugs, the drugs in here,” sums up one of the consistent lyrical topics found on Choice of Weapon: the seamy underbelly of drugs and drug culture.
The other main lyrical topic to be found on the album, the destructive power of bad relationships, pops up in the second song, “Elemental Light.” Lead vocalist Ian Astbury is in fine form, making the listener feel his pain as he sings lines like “Every one of us feels alone inside” in a rich baritone. Astbury’s voice does not go quite as high as it did in The Cult’s 1980s heyday, but has deepened with age and experience, and he now sings in a strong lower register that recalls “L.A. Woman”-period Jim Morrison.
Astbury’s sound and persona have always owed a debt to the Lizard King, and on Choice of Weapon it appears the time he spent in the early 2000s singing in Doors reconfigurations with former Morrison bandmates Ray Manzarek and Robbie Krieger increased the influence. Not that it’s a bad thing.
Operating in the shadow of The Cult’s mysteriously charismatic frontman, Duffy has never really gotten his due as one of the best hard rock guitarists of the past 30 years. He struts his stuff throughout Choice of Weapon, displaying equal ability to deliver a lush, epic sweep like that of Jimmy Page and sharp, bone-rattling staccato attacks straight from the Angus Young school of lead guitar. In the case of “The Wolf,” Duffy delivers both in the same song, and throughout the album shows a talent for pulling off multiple dramatic tempo and tone shifts within a single song.
The Cult has always been a hard band to pin down. They combine elements of classic hard rock, psychedelia, punk rock, 1980s glam (check out the Guns N Roses-style gutter metal of “Amnesia”), and a little New Wave for good measure. All elements are on display in Choice of Weapon, although 1970s-style hard rock predominates. This album starts off with a sonic punch to the gut and despite some quiet and frankly pretty moments, by and large does not let up.
A bonus disc, which comes complete with a liner notes warning “This is a magickal spell do not open,” features four additional songs which sound more like outtakes from 1980s albums like “Electric” or “Sonic Temple.” Again, considering how good those albums were, it’s not a bad thing.
The Cult released several albums in the 1990s and early 2000s, but were never able to recapture the fire they lit in the 1980s. Choice of Weapon is easily the best thing they have done in 20 years. If you like older Cult, or simply like melodic hard rock with a slightly twisted worldview and a brain, you will probably like Choice of Weapon.
