THE Cult will play Leeds University on March 8 on their 12-date British and Irish tour to promote their tenth studio album, Hidden City.

Released on February 5 on Cooking Vinyl, this "brutal and beautiful" record completes a trilogy by baritone frontman Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy's British rock band that began with October 2007's Born Into This and continued with May 2012's Choice Of Weapon.

"Hidden City is a metaphor for our spiritual and intimate interior lives," says Astbury. "I find today's gurus are trying to peddle some cure, product or insight as if it's a new phenomenon. My place is to respond, not react, to observe, participate and share my thoughts through words and music. There is no higher authority than the heart."

The album is preceded by the single Hinterland, a place both real and imagined, a hidden city symbolic of a new Rome, says Astbury. "Through the eyes of several witnesses, we observe a young woman as she realises her enlightened self in a dystopian dream world," he explains. "Hinterland is filled with symbolism reflecting a new aeon in the shift of human consciousness as we realign with our planet's natural rhythms."

York Press:

The Cult's album sleeve for Hidden City

Another song from Hidden City, the haunting Deeply Ordered Chaos, was inspired by a quote by the visionary painter Francis Bacon and by the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks in Paris last January. In light of further terrorist attacks in the French capital last November, Astbury created a video for the track with Juan Azulay. "I have performed at Le Bataclan on four occasions and was deeply shocked by what occurred on the evening of November 13th," he says. "In the video, we chose to depict scenes of wildlife and outer space to create a counterpoint to the wave of violent images we are constantly bombarded with and acknowledge the profoundness of being."

Astbury and Duffy will tour with drummer John Tempesta, bassist Grant Fitzpatrick and keyboard player and rhythm guitarist Damon Fox. Tickets for their only Yorkshire show are on sale online at po.st/CultSee and po.st/CultMy