THE CULT frontman Ian Astbury is featured in a new interview with Giorgio Mustica at The Aquarian Weekly discussing the band's new album, Choice Of Weapon. An excerpt is available below:

Q: Do you think this album compares with any others from The Cult?

Astbury: "You can probably compare it to everything if you wanted to. Maybe for comparisons for the perspective of being subjective and trying to explain it to somebody or share with it, but there’s no intention of trying to emulate any of our previous recordings. We were very adamant about going in, seeing where we were at right now, and we wanted to capture that as authentically as possible so the real focus was really on the now. It was really on the now and I think that’s one of the reasons we kind of like—we’ve been through periods, I think the period between Sonic Temple and Ceremony showed that when you kind of like, look in the rearview mirror a bit and there’s expectations out there and you start listening a little bit to those Twitterers, so to speak, that you can kind of get in the head game. You start second guessing yourself and doubting and you start making some choices based upon, maybe, external opinions or even assumptions on our part.

I think Ceremony was kinda like Sonic Temple part two or Sonic Temple the outtakes with so many good songs on it and I think that’s why when we did the ’94 record (The Cult), we basically scrapped everything, destroyed everything, and went back to kind of like, a garage record, for all intents and purposes. We’ve learned a lot over the years and I think this record is a really balanced, authentic document of where we’re at right now and it’s relevant, certainly in terms of its subject material, the tonalities, the sentiment of the record, the performances—it’s all done to the best of our abilities and it’s done, it’s in the can, and now we’re gonna go out and perform it live."

Click here for the complete interview.

Choice Of Weapon - The Cult's first new album in five years - was released on May 21st internationally and on May 22nd in North America via Cooking Vinyl worldwide. The album was produced by Bob Rock (METALLICA), written by Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy, and recorded in New York City, Los Angeles, the California high desert, and the band's Witch Mountain studio between July and December 2011. The new release features founding members Astbury on vocals and Duffy on guitars, with drummer John Tempesta and bassist Chris Wyse.

Choice Of Weapon tracklist:

'Honey From A Knife'

'Elemental Light'

'The Wolf'

'Life > Death'

'For The Animals'

'Amnesia'

'Lucifer'

'Wilderness Now'

'A Pale Horse'

'This Night In The City Forever'

In addition to the ten songs listed above, The Choice Of Weapon deluxe edition features four bonus tracks:

'Every Man And Woman Is A Star'

'Embers'

'Until The Light Takes Us'

'Siberia'

Check out the new video for 'For The Animals' below:

The Cult are currently on the road in support of Choice Of Weapon. "This is going to be a very intense, high-energy tour," said The Cult's vocalist, Ian Astbury. "We are really looking forward to the time we spend on stage connected to our music and our audience. That's our purpose."

June

5 - Boston, MA - House of Blues
7 - Buffalo, NY - Erie Canal Harbor Central Wharf
8 - New York, NY - Terminal 5
9 - Hampton Beach, NH - Ballroom
10 - Philadelphia, PA - Electric Factory
12 - Washington, D.C. - The Fillmore
13 - Norfolk, VA - The Norva
15 - Myrtle Beach, SC - House of Blues
16 - Orlando, FL - House of Blues
17 - Atlanta, GA - The Tabernacle
19 - Houston, TX - House of Blues
20 - Dallas, TX - House of Blues
22 - Tempe, AZ - Marquee Theatre
28 - Belgrade, Serbia - USCE Park (with Ozzy & Friends)
29 - Graz, Austria - Schwarzl Freizeit Zetrum (with GN'R)

July

1 - Bucharest, Romania - Rock the City Festival (with GN'R, Faith No More)
3 - Split, Croatia - Spaladium Arena (headline)
4 - Ljubljana, Slovenia - Kino Siska (headline)
7 - Zottegem, Belgium, Rock Zottegem Festival
8 - Weert, Netherlands - Bospop Festival
10 - Utrecht, Netherlands - Tivoli (headline)
13 - Pizzola Sul Brenta, Italy - Contarini Festival (headline)
14 - Rimini, Italy - Velvet Rock (headline)
15 - Milano, Italy - Carroponte (headline)
17 - Barcelona, Spain - Razzmatazz (headline)
18 - Madrid, Spain - La Riviera (headline)
19 - Porto, Portugal - Mares Vivas Festival (with Garbage)

September

11 - Newcastle, UK - Metro Radio Arena
12 - Sheffield, UK - Motorpoint Arena
14 - Manchester, UK - Arena
15 - Birmingham, UK - LG Arena
16 - London, UK - Wembley Arena