The Cult's CEREMONY - 25 Years Later
For a band that enjoyed so much success throughout the Eighties, it's surprising to see The Cult perpetually relegated to the 'also-ran' category in discussions of rock history. They broke into the coveted American market in a big way on the popularity of second album Love in 1985, selling over 500,000 copies in the States alone. They spent the next several years touring the world with huge acts like Metallica and Aersomith (not to mention having an unknown L.A. band called Guns 'n Roses open for them in '87), and releasing even more successful albums like Electric and their commercial and (arguably) creative peak, 1989's Sonic Temple.
At this point, the story gets familiar: creative differences, tension in the ranks, etc. Singer Ian Astbury - having just turned down Oliver Stone's offer to play Jim Morrison in The Doors - and guitarist Billy Duffy were barely on speaking terms during the Ceremony recording sessions, and the rhythm section from the album demos was scratched in favor of Mickey Curry (drums) and Charley Drayton (bass). Astbury's fascination with American Indian culture was the dominating theme throughout the songs, a stark contrast to the straightforward hard rock anthems that dominated Sonic Temple.
A photo of American Indian child Eternity Dubray graced the album's cover and the video for single "Wild Hearted Son", and the band was subsequently sued by the boy's parents for using his image without permission. Unfortunately, that lawsuit is what most rock fans remember about Ceremony. The title track opener and "Wild Hearted Son" are classic Cult cuts, full of great guitar melodies and Astbury's L.A.-by-way-of-Yorkshire swagger. Whenever the band moved away from their winning formula - AC/DC channeled through The Doors and Led Zeppelin IV - the results varied greatly. Sometimes they came up with timeless arena-ready power ballads (Sonic Temple's "Edie (Ciao Baby" and "Sweet Soul Sister"), and other times...well, they can't all be winners.
Not all is lost, however. Later in the album one can find big rock hooks and melodies in the guise of "Heart Of Soul", with some of Duffy's best guitar work on the entire record. "Bangkok Rain" is also a solid cut, standing apart from the mundane ballads found on the latter half of Ceremony. It doesn't rely on anything more than the band's core talents, which is the album's great failing in regards to the rest of its forgettable tracks. More often than not, the songs drift along as if the band doesn't know how to end them, or even care enough to figure out how. The buying public felt the same way, and Ceremony's sales reflected it.
With the rapidly changing musical landscape in 1991, The Cult would never come close to finding their pre-Ceremony success again. They've made several good-almost-great albums since then (Born Into This, Choice Of Weapon) and most recently opened for - sweet irony! - Guns 'n Roses on the Not In This Lifetime...tour. Ceremony makes for a good snapshot of how a popular band's inner dynamics affect their career, and how those dynamics coupled with intangible forces can have a much larger implication than anyone can ever predict.
