Cathedral Guessing Game
by Trevor Portz
Staff Writer
After remaining dormant for roughly four years (as seems to be their new trend since 2002’s The VIIth Coming), British doom masters Cathedral have returned with The Guessing Game. Spreading across 13 songs and two discs, The Guessing Game sees Lee Dorrian and company dabbling in some very psychedelic waters, while still retaining their groove-laced, doom-centered core. While it’s nice to see the band breaking out of their expected mold, in many cases the experimentation yields mostly unimpressive results.
Starting things off in a drug-happy fashion, “Immaculate Misconception” features some very trippy keys that swirl over a monotonous, dirge-y instrumental, succeeded by the sounds of a crying baby. All of these elements combine to create a dark, and very creepy overview of the album ahead.
“Funeral of Dreams” begins in a more traditional, bar-chord heavy Cathedral fashion, but things quickly turn strange, with the inclusion of a very psychedelic spoken word section and, wait, a xylophone? Certainly not very metal. Unfortunately, this strange detour (which weaves back and forth with the metal bits) is less groovy and more gruesome, as Dorrian’s painfully off-key vocals kill the overall buzz. While never a particularly amazing vocalist, times like this (and again throughout the album) make one yearn for his grunting, Napalm Death days.
Other more experimental tracks do fare better—instrumental title track, “The Guessing Game,” is very cool and mellow, showing that the band doesn’t have to rely on full-out distortion to get their point across. “Cats, Incense, Candles and Wine” is a masterpiece of doomy weirdness and serves as an excellent closer for disc one.
Unsurprisingly, the band shines most when sticking to more familiar waters. Masters of power-chord centered riffs, tracks like “Painting in the Dark,” “Casket Chasers,” and the strangely-titled “La Noche del Buque Maldito (aka Ghost Ship of the Blind Dead)” showcase the band’s strengths, with the latter even dabbling in a bit of NWOBHM.
Not to rag too hard on frontman and founder Lee Dorrian, but things take a lyrical turn for the worse on the final two tracks, “Requiem for the Voiceless” and “Journeys Into Jade.” “Requiem…” decrees the pain animals go through whilst being prepped for slaughter, but the witless lyrics do little more than make the more voracious of us just crave a burger. “Journeys Into Jade” tracks the band from its formative days in 1989 and essentially comes across as someone singing the band’s Wikipedia entry over music. While not a bad track overall, it would seem that a more creative telling of their history could have been spun.
While still retaining the core of what they’re known for, it’s interesting to see the members of Cathedral trying new things. In many cases, however, it would appear the band would be better to just stick with what they know, and though that may get a bit boring for the band and fans alike, the results would likely be more palatable.
Genre: Doom Metal
Band:
Lee Dorrian (v)
Brian Dixon (d)
Leo Smee (b)
Garry Jennings (g)
Track Listing:
Disc One
1. Immaculate Misconception
2. Funeral of Dreams
3. Painting in the Dark
4. Death of an Anarchist
5. The Guessing Game
6. Edwige’s Eyes
7. Cats, Incense, Candles and Wine
Disc Two
1. One Dimensional People
2. The Casket Chasers
3. La Noche del Buque Maldito (aka Ghost Ship of the Blind Dead)
4. The Running Man
5. Requiem for the Voiceless
6. Journeys into Jade
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Website: www.myspace.com/cathedral
Hardrock Haven rating: 6/10