Cult

Group Members:

Ian Astbury
Billy Duffy
John Tempesta
Mike Dimkitch
Chris Wyse

Former members:

Les Warner
Ray Mondo
Nigel Preston
Jami

The Cult is an English rock band. In the mid-1980s, the Cult was one of England's leading heavy metal revivalists, a hard rock band with slight psychedelic flourishes, influenced primarily by the Native American mysticism of The Doors and the hard guitar rock of Led Zeppelin and AC/DC. The band also touched upon post-punk goth rock, a relatively new style at the time.

The Cult had hits in Britain in the mid-1980s, such as "She Sells Sanctuary”, "Rain", and "Revolution" and in the late 1980s, they broke into the American heavy metal market with the song, "Love Removal Machine". Although 1989's Sonic Temple is the band's most commercially successful album to date, by the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band was fraying behind the scenes, due to alcohol abuse and off-stage tensions. In early 1995, the Cult split up, citing unspecified problems on a recent South American tour.

Between 1999 and 2002, the band reformed to record the album Beyond Good and Evil, and reissued all of their albums in Asia and eastern Europe in 2003 and Japan in 2004. In 2006, the band reformed again to perform a series of worldwide tours, and a number of dates were captured for posterity by InstantLive.

In February 2007, work began on new album Born Into This for Roadrunner Records. Prior to the album's release, the band have played festival and headline dates, and supported the The Who, in Europe through summer 2007, with a US headline tour to follow.

Since the band's inception in 1981, no lineup has lasted more than 2 years.

Discography:

    * Dreamtime (September 1984)
    * Love (October 1985)
    * Electric (April 1987)
    * Sonic Temple (April 1989)
    * Ceremony (September 1991)
    * The Cult (October 1994)
    * Beyond Good and Evil (June 2001)
    * Born Into This (October 2007)