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Cathedral: The guessing game
02/07/10 || revenant
OK, I’ll own up at the start: I am a big fanboy when it comes to Cathedral. I’m such a fanboy that Lee & co could lay a giant steaming turd on a disc and I would still love it. Nay, more than love it, I’d adore that shit. So when I first heard a new album was out, I made my way immediately to my nearest record store, knocking down old ladies or whoever the fuck got in my way, and bought the CD as soon as I could. And, as a long time fan, I was not disappointed.
Musically, Cathedral have not moved too far from the experimental mindset they were in when they wrote “The Garden” on their previous release. If anything, they have moved to a more psychedelic sixties feel, incorporating such instruments as the sitar to complete the effect (plus the good old mellotron is back too). The songs are long, they evolve through softer, more psychedelic moments before moving to heavier, more traditional Cathedral riffing. The riffs are, as always the case with Cathedral, awesome.
All but two songs (intros aside) clock in at over six minutes. Despite the length, the songs never get boring or repetitive. Cathedral have always taken their songs off on tangents mid way through, and again they incorporate this into their music. For a long time Cathedral fan like myself, listening to this album was like putting on an old pair of shoes. Everything about this album gives that good old Cathedral feeling, even with some of the newer psychedelic elements thrown in.
Lee Dorrian’s vocals have never been a strong point of Cathedral’s music, and this is no different in “The Guessing Game”. The snarls and growls of past are long gone, and Lee’s clean singing has not improved over time. Though the vocal performance is not great here, it never has bugged me greatly, and the only complaint I have with this performance is when his voice breaks on “Death of an Anarchist”. Couldn’t they have fixed this?
You may have already noticed the cover in the top right hand corner of the review. The distinctive artwork that has carried Cathedral through their career (minus one album) is again back. Yet again this is just a small piece of a much larger picture, and insert that comes with the CD is a small poster that shows the piece in its full glory. The artwork is so distinctive and intriguing, I doubt even nutcase booklet haters like Smalley would want to throw this one away.
The only real gripe I have with this release is that it comes on two discs. As always with double disc releases, it’s very easy to point out a few weaker tracks that could have been dropped off (and used as B-sides for singles) and the overall quality would have been improved. “The Guessing Game” is no exception. Had the band dropped the intro to the first disc, “Requiem for the Voiceless”, “Journeys into Jade” and the hidden track at the end of disc two, the album would have fit onto one disc and hence been given a higher score below.
So, time to wrap up this Cathedral love fest I have thinly disguised as a review. The long and short of it is if you are a long time fan of Cathedral, you will love this album just as much as any other. If you think Cathedral’s just OK, the new elements won’t be enough for you. If you hate Cathedral, then you clearly need to get a clue. And if you’ve never heard Cathedral before, start right back at the start. Now that everyone is covered, let’s give the fucken score already.
- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Nuclear Blast
- Website: www.cathedralcoven.com
- Band
- Lee Dorrian: vocals
- Gary Jennings: guitars
- Leo Smee: bass, mellotron, flute, synthesizers, auto harp
- Brian Dixon: drums
- Various guests: bunch of other shit
- Tracklist Disc 1
- 01. Immaculate Misconception
- 02. Funeral of Dreams
- 03. Painting in the Dark
- 04. Death of an Anarchist
- 05. The Guessing Game
- 06. Edwige’s Eyes
- 07. Cats, Incense, Candles & Wine
- Tracklist Disc 2
- 01. One Dimensional People
- 02. The Casket Chasers
- 03. La Noche del Buque Maldito
- 04. The Running Man
- 05. Requiem for the Voiceless
- 06. Journeys into Jade
