The Cult are an English rock band, formed in 1983. The band gained a dedicated following in Britain with mid-1980s singles like "She Sells Sanctuary" before breaking into the American metal market in the late '80s with "Love Removal Machine". The band fuses a "heavy metal revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism...of The Doors, the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin, and the three-chord crunch of AC/DC, while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". Since their earliest form in Bradford during 1981, the band has had various line-ups, and the longest serving members are vocalist Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy, the band's two songwriters.

After moving to London, the band released the album Love, which charted at #4 in the United Kingdom, and which included singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". In the late 1980s, the band adopted a more hard rock sound with Electric, the single "Love Removal Machine", and the album Sonic Temple, which enabled them to break into the North American market. By the early 1990s, the band was fraying behind the scenes, due to alcohol abuse and off-stage tensions, leading to a split-up in 1995. Between 1999 and 2002, the band reformed to record the album Beyond Good and Evil, and they 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. In October 2007, the band released the album Born into This, on the Roadrunner Records label. As of December 2008, The Cult are back in the studio and currently writing new material for a ninth album release due for the summer of 2009.

Southern Death Cult

main: Southern Death Cult The origins of the band can be traced back to 1981, in Bradford, Yorkshire, where vocalist and songwriter Ian Astbury formed a band called the Southern Death Cult. The name was chosen with a double meaning, and was derived from the 14th century Native American religion, the Southeastern Ceremonial Complex or Southern Death Cult as it sometimes known, from the Mississippi delta area, but it was also a stab at what the band viewed was the centralisation of power in Southern England (including that of the music industry); there has long been a perceived notion of a North-South divide based on social, historic and economic reasons. Astbury was joined in the band by Buzz Burrows (guitar), Barry Jepson (bass) and Aki Nawaz Qureshi (drums); they performed their first show at the Queen's Hall in their hometown of Bradford on October 29, 1981. The band were at the forefront of a new emerging style of music, in the form of post-punk and gothic rock (then known as positive-punk), they achieved critical acclaim from the press and music fans very early on.