Cathedral Go Back into the Forest
Posted in Reviews on June 24th, 2009 by H.P. Taskmaster
Usually when an allegedly limited edition reissue comes out and it’s packing a bonus DVD, it’s a completely skip worthy live set shot on one or two cameras with crappy sound that’s boring as hell. That, or like in the case of Earache‘s tackling last year of Cathedral‘s 1995 classic, The Carnival Bizarre, it’s all previously released. Review-wise, the second disc obliges a mention and little else. For their remaster of the seminal UK doomers’ 1991 
debut, Forest of Equilibrium, however, the label has included a new 40-minute interview with the band about their career and making this album. Previously unreleased and relevant.
Granted, it’s shot mostly on one camera — other footage is spliced in — and it requires serious attention paid to dig words out of those Coventry accents, but it was enough for me to at least check it out before doing the review, hoping I’d learn something. I learned the “Ebony Tears” video (also included) kicks ass.
The audio portion of the release includes 1992′s Soul Sacrifice EP as another bonus and is a landmark in doom. Vocalist Lee Dorrian (blah blah Napalm Death, blah blah Rise Above Records), guitarists Gaz Jennings and Adam Lehan, bassist Mark Griffiths and drummer Mike Smail created a seven-track classic that’s morose by any standard you want to apply — even in comparing it to what was happening doom-wise in the UK at the time with My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Anathema. Put it next to Cathedral‘s last release, 2005′s The Garden of Unearthly Delights, and it almost sounds like a completely different band (Lehan, Griffiths and Smail being long gone might also have something to do with that).
In the church of true doom, there is a stained glass window in honor of Iron Man. Born out of a scene comparable to none other in the United States, namely Maryland and greater metro D.C. area, Iron Man stand out among the
truest of the traditional doomers. Led by guitarist and senior riffmaster Alfred Morris III — who after more lineup changes than any band should have to endure is now accompanied by vocalist Joe Donnelly, bassist Louis Strachan and drummer Dex Dexter — the band this April released their first studio full-length in a decade, the appropriately titled (and 
They just announced the final lineup and I don’t know from nothin’, but it looks to be a killer assemblage of traditional and otherwise doomed-as-fuck bands. Friends of the site Bulletwolf are playing, so good for them, and PA‘s Pale Divine will be there too. Shit, and Earthride.? I might just have to make the drive to Indianapolis. Full lineup is after the jump.
When Swedish doom legends Candlemass wrapped their touring for 2007, bassist and primary songwriter Leif Edling, whose riffs make me get all Jodie Foster in Contact — “Should have sent a poet,” etc. — had a couple weeks to himself. Accordingly, he wrote a solo album.
It’s 2:00AM and the cops, as ever, are sitting in the parking lot of the firehouse across the street, waiting for nobody. Practically no one drives past this late — even the drunks are home by now on a Wednesday night. Something died outside and I can smell it comingling with the farts and sleepy dog stink in this room through the open window. Like Orange Goblin says, “Some you win, some you lose.” I promised myself I’d write this review before I went to bed today, so let’s do this thing:
Part of Shadow Kingdom Records‘ “Let’s See How Much Awesome Crap We Can Reissue” Project (I’m pretty sure that’s what it’s called), this unearthing of Asylum‘s The Earth is the Insane Asylum of the Universe demo couldn’t have arrived at a better time. It seems these days that more and more American retro doom bands (see The Gates of Slumber, Apostle of Solitude, etc.) are trying with varying degrees of success to sound just like these Maryland gents did back in 1985. It’s refreshing every now and then to hear the real deal.
