Cathedral (band)

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Cathedral
Cathedral band.JPG
Cathedral performing live at the Wacken Open Air festival in 2009
Background information
Origin Coventry, England
Genres Doom metal, stoner metal,[1] heavy metal
Years active 1989–2013
Labels Columbia/Sony, Dream Catcher, Earache, Nuclear Blast, Rise Above, Southern Lord, Ultimatum, Spitfire, Relativity
Associated acts Napalm Death, Acid Reign, Firebird, Pentagram, Place of Skulls, Chrome Hoof, The Crunched, Black Sabbath
Website www.cathedralcoven.com
Past members Lee Dorrian
Garry Jennings
Brian Dixon
Scott Carlson
Adam Lehan
Mark Griffiths
Ben Mochrie
Mike Smail
Mark Ramsey Wharton
Leo Smee

Cathedral were a doom metal band from Coventry, England.[2] The group gained attention upon release of its debut album, Forest of Equilibrium, which is considered a classic of the genre.[3] However, the band's sound evolved quickly and began to adopt characteristics of 70s metal and hard rock. After releasing ten full-length albums and touring extensively for over two decades, Cathedral broke up after the release of The Last Spire in 2013.

History

In 1989, Lee Dorrian left Napalm Death because he was reportedly tiring of the punk scene and did not like the death metal direction which Napalm Death was taking.[4] Cathedral was formed after Lee Dorrian and Mark Griffiths (a Carcass roadie) met and discussed their love for doom bands like Black Sabbath, Candlemass, Pentagram, Trouble, and Witchfinder General. The band was founded in 1989 by Dorrian, Griffiths and Garry Jennings (formerly of thrash metal band Acid Reign).[2] Dorrian was the only founding member to remain with Cathedral for its duration, although Jennings' departure ultimately proved to be temporary.

Cathedral released The Forest of Equilibrium through Earache and then signed with Columbia. Cathedral's experience on Columbia was described by Dorrian as "surreal".[5] As Dorrian explained,

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We weren’t deliberately trying to be pop stars or anything like that, so playing that game just felt very surreal. We weren't exactly comfortable with it. We were an underground band one minute and the next minute they were trying to present us as the next Black Crowes. Can you imagine recording Forest of Equilibrium and a major label wanted to sign you on the strength of that? It was fairly bizarre. I guess heavy music was reaching some kind of pinnacle back then. Death metal had reached its pinnacle back then – at least its creative pinnacle so maybe they saw us as being the next step after that.[5]

Cathedral's major label debut, The Ethereal Mirror, was noted by Jason Birchmeier of Allmusic for its experimentation, upbeat tempos, and groove-laden guitar riffs.[6] After releasing The Ethereal Mirror in 1993, Cathedral was dropped by Columbia the following year. The band resumed its relationship with Earache Records, which lasted until 2001. During this time, Cathedral released four full-length albums that continued to explore faster rhythms and 70s-hard rock-influenced guitar riffs before returning to a relatively slow cadence for Endtyme in 2001.[7] Cathedral then signed with Dream Catcher Records and released The VIIth Coming. After releasing a single album on Dream Catcher, Cathedral signed to Nuclear Blast for their final three albums. These albums included the "inspired" and "quirky" but "uneven" The Garden of Unearthly Delights,[8] the double-disc The Guessing Game, which was touted as the "most psychedelic, progressive material in the band's entire catalog"[9] and the "true doom" of the band's farewell album, The Last Spire.[10]

While Cathedral had contemplated disbanding in the past, most recently after the release of The Garden of Unearthly Delights in 2006,[4] on 6 February 2011, Cathedral announced that they would disband after the release of The Last Spire[11] in April 2013. Dorrian explained that "It's simply time for us to bow out. Twenty one years is a very long time and it's almost a miracle that we managed to come this far!"[12] Cathedral played their last show in front of a small crowd in Perth, Western Australia during the Soundwave 2012 tour.[13]

Style

Cathedral's releases have been marked by sharp shifts in style. While Forest of Equilibrium was firmly entrenched in a slow, heavy doom sound, elements of 70s metal and groovier riffs entered its sound beginning with the Soul Sacrifice EP.[14] By the time that The Ethereal Mirror was released, the band had incorporated diversified its references to 1970s music, including the disco influences heard on "Midnight Mountain".[15]

As Dorrian explains, the band's original sound was a product of the immediate musical environment combined with the band members' influences:

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When we first started, the music of Cathedral was a lot more extreme than it is now, a lot more morose and depressing, because that's how we felt at the time. We'd all come out of the death metal scene, or the grindcore scene or whatever, and I was just as much into the slower stuff as I was into the faster stuff. I just wanted to do something a bit different, so we took all our influences like Vitus and Pentagram and the Obsessed and stuff and decided to take that kind of music one step further, bring it into the 90's, make it more extreme, more heavy and downtuned than any of those bands had done before. That was our first and foremost ambition, and I think we probably achieved that when we did our first album.[16]

Beginning with the Soul Sacrifice EP, the band began to incorporate a diverse array of 70s influences into its sound.[17] With 2001's Endtyme, Cathedral re-introduced the slower, doomy elements that had not been as prevalent on its previous four albums.

The Guessing Game represented another development in the band's sound, with Cathedral's progressive and psychedelic influences coming to the forefront. For Dorrian, the album's direction was a result of the fact that:

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This time on the record it seemed like we've come to the point where we feel confident enough to bring these influences to the fore. Because we also feel that we've got nothing to lose as well, after all this time. We've got nothing to prove as much as we've got nothing to lose. I just think we went for it, we didn't really think too hard about what the consequences would be, but I don’t think we went stupidly too far into the realms of progressive rock myself, it's just the right balance between that and everything else that the band's about.[18]

Remarking on Cathedral's penchant for evolving its sound, Dorrian said:

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I just think it’s important for a band like us, if we have all these influences and aspects of things we like, to be a bit more adventurous and make it interesting for ourselves as much as the audience. It might confuse a lot of people, I understand that, but that’s not a deliberate intention at all. We just want to make good music to the best of our abilities. We’re not the most musical band in the world, I admit that. We just want to push ourselves and stretch ourselves and contain an element of freedom of expression in our sound. I guess that’s why we look back on a lot of older bands, because they were so unrestricted, and things are too restricted and categorized these days. If you think about a band like Cathedral, how would you categorize us? I don’t know. I don’t know what box you could put us in, and that’s something I’m quite happy with. Try and put me in a box and I jump out of it.[19]

Members

Final line-up

  • Lee Dorrian - Vocals (1989–2013)
  • Garry Jennings - Guitars (1989–2013), Bass (1993–1994), Keyboards (1994–1996)
  • Brian Dixon - Drums (1994–2013)
  • Scott Carlson - Bass (2011–2013; touring - 1995)

Former members

  • Adam Lehan - Guitar (1989–1994)
  • Mark Griffiths - Bass (1989–1993)
  • Ben Mochrie - Drums (1989-1991)
  • Mike Smail - Drums (1991-1992)
  • Mark Ramsey Wharton - Drums (1992–1994), Keyboards (1992)
  • Leo Smee - Bass (1994–2011)

Live musicians

  • Victor Griffin - Guitar (1994)
  • Joe Hasselvander - Drums (1994)
  • Dave Hornyak - Drums (1995)
  • Max Edwards - Bass (2003–2004)

Discography

Studio albums

Title Album details Peak chart positions Sales
JPN
[20]		 UK
[21]		 FIN
[22]		 SWE
[23]		 GRC
[24]		 US
Heat
[25]
Forest of Equilibrium
  • Released: December 6, 1991
  • Label: Earache, Relativity
  • Formats: CD, CS, DualDisc, LP, DL[26]
 — — — — 40 —
The Ethereal Mirror
  • Released: February 1, 1993
  • Label: Earache, Columbia
  • Formats: CD, CS, DualDisc, LP, DL[27]
 — — — — 40 —
The Carnival Bizarre
  • Released: September 26, 1995
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: CD, CD+DVD, CS, LP, DL[29]
 73 130 — — — —
Supernatural Birth Machine
  • Released: November 12, 1996
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: CD, CS, LP, DL[30]
 56 — — — — —
Caravan Beyond Redemption
  • Released: December 6, 1998
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: CD, LP, DL[31]
 64 — — — — —
Endtyme
  • Released: February 26, 2001
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: CD, LP, DL[33]
 57 — — — — —
The VIIth Coming
  • Released: November 5, 2002
  • Label: Spitfire
  • Formats: CD, LP, DL[34]
 — — — — — —
The Garden of Unearthly Delights
  • Released: September 26, 2005
  • Label: Nuclear Blast
  • Formats: CD, LP, DL[35]
 154 — — — — —
The Guessing Game
  • Released: March 26, 2010
  • Label: Nuclear Blast
  • Formats: CD, LP, DL[37]
 103 — — — 22 —
The Last Spire
  • Released: April 29, 2013
  • Label: Rise Above, Metal Blade
  • Formats: CD, LP, DL[39]
 121 — 44 43 — 24
"—" denotes a recording that did not chart or was not released in that territory.

EPs

Title Album details
Soul Sacrifice
  • Released: October 20, 1992
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: CD, CS, LP, DL[41]
Twylight Songs
  • Released: 1993
  • Label: Ultimatum
  • Formats: LP
Statik Majik
  • Released: April 5, 1994
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: CD, CS, LP, DL[42]
In Memorium
Cosmic Requiem
  • Released: August 30, 1994
  • Label: Earache, Columbia
  • Formats: CD, CS
Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)
  • Released: April 9, 1996
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: CD, CS, LP, DL[43]
Live in London
  • Released: December 10, 2010
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: DL[44]
A New Ice Age
  • Released: December 2, 2011
  • Label: Rise Above
  • Formats: LP

Live albums

Title Album details
Anniversary
  • Released: October 31, 2011
  • Label: Rise Above, Metal Blade
  • Formats: CD, DL[45]

Demos

Title Album details
In Memorium
  • Released: October 1990
  • Label: Self-released
  • Formats: CS
Demo No. 2: Forest of Equilibrium sessions
  • Released: 1991
  • Label: Self-released
  • Formats: CS

Singles

Title Year
Grim Luxuria 1993
Ride
Twylight Songs
Gargoylian 2001
Vengeance of the Blind Dead (Flexi Version) 2013

Compilation albums

Title Album details
In Memoriam
  • Released: 1999
  • Label: Rise Above
  • Formats: CD
The Serpent's Gold
  • Released: June 21, 2004
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: CD, DL[46]

Split albums

Title Album details Notes
Rock Hard Presents: Gods of Grind
  • Released: December 1991
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: CD
  • split with Entombed, Carcass and Confessor
Cutting Through Columbia Hard Music
  • Released: 1992
  • Label: Columbia
  • Formats: CS
  • split with Fight and Alice in Chains
Gods of Grind
  • Released: 1992
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: CD
  • split with Entombed, Carcass and Confessor
New Metal Messiahs!
  • Released: June 1995
  • Label: Kerrang! Magazine
  • Formats: CD
  • split with My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost and Pitchshifter

Video albums

Title Album details
Our God Has Landed'
  • Released: January 18, 2000
  • Label: Earache
  • Formats: VHS

Music videos

Year Title Directed Album
1991 "Ebony Tears"
—
 Forest Of Equilibrium
1992 "Autumn Twilight" Jefferson Spady[47] Soul Sacrifice
1993 "Midnight Mountain" James McBride[48] The Ethereal Mirror
"Ride" Angus Cameron[49]
1994 "Cosmic Funeral"
—
 Statik Majik
1995 "Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)"
—
 Hopkins
1996 "Stained Glass Horizon"
—
 Supernatural Birth Machine
1999 "Black Sunday"
—
 Caravan Beyond Redemption
2013 "Tower Of Silence" Paraffin City Productions[50] The Last Spire

References

  1. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  3. ↑ "True Doom," 2006, p. 52.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  6. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  7. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  8. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  9. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  10. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  11. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  12. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  13. ↑ http://alternativemusichub.com/2012/03/13/perth-soundwave-review/
  14. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  15. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  16. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  17. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  18. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  19. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  20. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  21. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  22. ↑ http://finnishcharts.com/search.asp?cat=a&artist=cathedral&artist_search=starts&title=&title_search=starts
  23. ↑ http://swedishcharts.com/search.asp?cat=a&artist=cathedral&artist_search=starts&title=&title_search=starts
  24. ↑ http://web.archive.org/web/20120913180306/http://greekcharts.com/weekchart.asp?year=2010&date=201020&cat=a
    http://web.archive.org/web/20121020064331/http://greekcharts.com/weekchart.asp?year=2010&date=201025&cat=a
  25. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  26. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  27. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  28. ↑ http://dkdirect.metalsludge.tv/?p=30332
  29. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  30. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  31. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  32. ↑ http://dkdirect.metalsludge.tv/?p=30331
  33. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  34. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  35. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  36. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  37. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  38. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  39. ↑ https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/the-last-spire/id618463862
  40. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  41. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  42. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  43. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  44. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  45. ↑ https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/anniversary/id585017941
  46. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  47. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  48. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  49. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  50. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.

Bibliography

  • "Doom Top Tens: The Depths of Doom" (2006). Terrorizer, 144, 52–53.

External links

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