Cathedral - Soul Sacrifice EP

1. Soul Sacrifice
2. Autumn Twilight
3. Frozen Rapture
4. Golden Blood (Flooding)

Time to kick off the weekend right with a pair of Cathedral jams straight from the early 90's. "Soul Sacrifice", pulled from the incredible doom masterpiece Forest of Equillibrium, was chosen as a single by the ill-fated Columbia/Earache alliance. The following three spliffs are non-album b-sides. These four tracks also appeared on the oddly titled Earache comp Gods of Grind (of the four included bands, Confessor, Cathedral, Carcass and Entombed, only Carcass was grindin'...), albeit in a different order. Cathedral have always been great at adding psych flourishes to the Sabbathitude, and "Golden Blood" is a prime example.

Batman:
Loaddown

Cathedral - Grim Luxuria single

1. Grim Luxuria
2. Sky Lifter
3. A Funeral Request 1993

Single from the great and underrated The Ethereal Mirror features a pair of non-album tracks worth grabbing. Decibel magazine recently named The Ethereal Mirror as one of the top 20 "Stoner Rock" records of all time, and I'm in accordance. As far as I know, "Sky Lifter" only appears on this single, and "A Funeral Request 1993" is a rerecording of the track from the epic debut, Forest of Equillibrium.

Check:
Loaddown

Cathedral - Endtyme

1. Cathedral Flames
2. Melancholy Emperor
3. Requiem for the Sun
4. Whores to Oblivion
5. Alchemist of Sorrows
6. Ultra Earth
7. Astral Queen
8. Sea Serpent
9. Templars Arise! (The Return)

Cathedral's sixth record, released in 2001, is hands down my favorite. The oppressively heavy intro "Cathedral Flames" is the slowest, heaviest thing they've ever done. Which is to say it's well... REALLY fucking slow and heavy. It, in essence, sets the tone for the entire record. Not since Forest of Equilibrium had Cathedral made anything so slow, down-tuned and depressed. The lyrical tone isn't as personal as Forest, but dark nonetheless. Lee Dorian's vocals are in fine tortured form here, giving us a good idea what's to come with VIIth Coming and Garden of Unearthly Delights (also a great goddamn record). "Ultra Earth" contains the greatest Sabbath riff Tony Iommi never came up with... Gaz Jennings is a riff monster and unloads a shitpile of molten lead. Fuckin' great.

Lavender:

Loaddown

Cathedral - Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)

1. Spoken Intro/Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)
2. Fire
3. Copper Sunset
4. Purple Wonderland
5. The Devils Summit

I don't think Cathedral was the most serious of doom bands at times... there's a definite tongue-in-cheek cheese factor displayed in smatterings across several of their middle-period releases among more serious and doom-minded Sabbathian riffitude. Napalm Death fans don't seem to care for Cathedral... I'm guessing a lot of people were pretty suprised with Lee Dorrian's post-ND band.

Pocky:
Download