Post-punk produced many excellent bands from the Talking Heads to Joy Division. One band that gets looked over a bit, in my opinion, is The Cult. The band from West Yorkshire takes a lot of the cues from its contemporaries, but adds in a more metallic element into their music until they eventually became a heavy metal band. And a pretty kick ass one at that. An approach that began on their second album Love. An album that was a commercial success and coming out for the band, the music on Love is nice and tight, taking a lot of the post-punk sound and lyrics while matching it perfectly with the heaviness and catchy punch of heavy metal. From the catchy big hit singles of "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain" to second look gems like "Nirvana", "Big Neon Glitter", and the title track, it's a nice little precursor for what would come with their next two albums when they would go full heavy metal with Rick Rubin as their producer for Electric and then enlisting Bob Rock to produce Sonic Temple. Ian Astbury's vocals are phenomenal and even have a bit of Glenn Danzig and Jim Morrison sound to it, Billy Duffy's riffs are catchy, varied, and memorable, Mark Brzezicki does a great job filling in on drums after the band had to dump their original drummer Nigel Preston mid recording due to his worsening addictions, and Jamie Stewart's bass work keeps the whole thing together very nicely. Highly recommended and especially if you want to check out The Cult's later work.
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