The Cult are a British hard rock band formed in 1983. They gained a dedicated following in the United Kingdom in the mid-1980s as a goth rock band with singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary", before breaking mainstream in the United States in the late 1980s as a hard rock band with singles such as "Love Removal Machine" and "Fire Woman". The band fuse a "heavy metal revivalist" sound with the "pseudo-mysticism ... of The Doors [and] the guitar-orchestrations of Led Zeppelin ... while adding touches of post-punk goth rock". Since their earliest form in Bradford during 1981, the band have had various line-ups; 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 in 1985, which charted at No. 4 in the United Kingdom, and which included singles such as "She Sells Sanctuary" and "Rain". In the late 1980s, the band supplemented their goth rock sound with hard rock in their third album, Electric; the polish on this new sound was facilitated by Rick Rubin, who produced the record. Their fourth album, Sonic Temple, proceeded in a similar vein, and these two LPs enabled them to break into the North American market.