Artist: CATHEDRAL
Album: THE GARDEN OF UNEARTHLY DELIGHTS LTD. EDIT. (DIGI)

Year: 2005
Media type: CD

Mighty Doom icons CATHEDRAL from Coventry, England for sure are one of the most unique and unpredictable acts around. These legendary merchants of slow-motion sound could care less about redundant genre restrictions and have so far incorporated everything from Doom, Psych, Folk up to Funk in their works. With their eighth album „The Garden Of Unearthly Delights“ CATHEDRAL have achieved much more than simply living up to that reputation – the guys created timeless songs that couldn`t be farther away from standardisation, stagnation and convention.

Produced by Warren Ryker (DOWN, CROWBAR), „The Garden Of Unearthly Delights“ is probably the most varied effort of the band so far. While a song like ’North Berwick Witch Trials’ will bring back memories of such immortal riffs`n`groove as in ’Hopkins’ or ’Ride’, ’Tree Of Life And Death’ simply tears everything to pieces with its ultra-heavy guitar sound and fierce vocals courtesy of Lee Dorrian. The centerpiece of it all certainly is the 27-minute-long mammoth epos ’The Garden’ that almost bursts with such a wealth of ideas and changes in atmosphere that other bands probably couldn`t come up with on a whole album. Using every stylistic device from female vocals up to violins and embedding it all in that typical CATHEDRAL brand of Doom, „The Garden Of Unearthly Delights“ is a treat for every fan of the band, old and new alike.

Starting with quite sinister and ultra-slow songs on the 1990 EP „In Memorium“ and the full-length album „Forest Of Equilibrium“, CATHEDRAL quickly gained cult status. The 1992 follow-up EP „Soul Sacrifice“ brought changes soundwise and saw the band mixing traditional Doom with 70s – Hardrock and showed a first glimpse of the trademarks CATHEDRAL still represent nowadays. After having previously toured with MORBID ANGEL and SAINT VITUS, the band embarked on the legendary „Gods Of Grind“ – Tour with ENTOMBED, CARCASS and CONFESSOR. „The Ethereal Mirror“ featured alltime faves like ’Ride’ and ’Midnight Mountain’ and suddenly gave CATHEDRAL the reputation as „the next big thing in Metal“. Struggling with this label, the band started to experiment on the EP „Statik Majik“ and probably tried out every single instrument they could lay their hands on to churn out a 20-minute-track like ’Voyage Of The Homeless Sapien’. After touring with BLACK SABBATH, the guys went on to record the landmark „The Carnival Bizarre“ in 1996 that brought us immortal tunes such as ’Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)’ and ’Utopian Blaster’ – the latter featuring Tony Iommi on guitar. „Supernatural Birth Machine“ was released in 1996 after touring in South America, Europe and Japan amongst others. The catchy songwriting on that album echoed on „Caravan Beyond Redemption“ in 1998, but with a heavier twist to it. The next serious change in style occurred on the gloomy and sludgy „Endtyme“ that went almost completely without sound experiments and concentrated on ultra-grim riffing. 2002`s „The VIIth Coming“ combined catchiness with heaviness to form a well-balanced mixture between old and new CATHEDRAL. Now that the English fourpiece has returned with „The Garden Of Unearthly Delights“ it`s time to follow them for new adventures in sound…

TRACKLIST:

01 Dearth AD
02 Tree Of Life And Death
03 North Berwick Witch Trails
04 Upon Azrael’s Wings
05 Corpsecycle
06 Fields Of Zagara
07 Oro The Manslayer
08 Beneath A Funeral Sun
09 The Garden
10 Proga - Europa (hidden track)

LINE-UP:

Lee Dorrian - vocals
Garry Jennings - guitar
Leo Smee - bass
Brian Dixon - drums

Official Website: http://www.cathedralcoven.com