CATHEDRAL-Forest of Equilibrium, (1991) an appreciation-by
James Phaily….
To say this
album is crushingly heavy is an understatement! When I first encountered this
record
in the early
noughties I couldn’t believe the serpent’s treasure that I had found.
In other
words I had been listening to Stoner
bands like Kyuss and Queens Of the Stoneage, within this were whispers of a
world that were trapped in the 1970’s and born too late-I dug this! Then I
found CATHEDRAL and immediately decided to form a band-which I did, and for
three years, whence our power trio rode our sharks desire…
And so-onto the album itself! It makes no apologies for its
sound, remains sludgy, yet still gets down with it’s bad self-starts with a hip
interlude, straight from Glastonbury Fayre entitled,“Pictures of Beauty and Innocence,”
then we enter the forest and bear witness to its unearthly delights!
Like all the NWOBHM bands, yet mixed with a Sabbathian aesthetic
that knows no satiation. Tracks like Ebony Tears and Serpent Eve have a philosophy
behind them which embodies the doom of bands like Saint Vitus and Pentagram-yet
so slow, waiting for what?
Exalting in the Cathedralian, Nihilistic coven of the
Serpent, this our coven attend-“We’re Neophytes for,” “We’re Neophytes for,” “We’re
Neophytes for Serpent Eve,” “We are Neophytes for Serpent Eve” ‘”We’re
Neophytes for the Serpent of Eve”….
“Soul Sacrifice”- is welcome respite, got a groove on it so
bad, like heavy metal from the skies-I listen with a big smile on my face-“Soul
Sacrifice”-“sacrifice my soul for you”…
“A funeral request” is perhaps the highlight of the album-sounds
even better on the album with the use of the twin guitars, by the time we get
to “Equilibrium” and “Reaching Happiness, touching pain” and also the addition
of a seventies “Jazz” flute I am in seventh heaven, both pleasure and pain-this
album is hot and I recommend it to anyone who wants to get laggered and expand
their consciousness-“true doom baby”, “true doom”….
This album is a true gem and arguably influenced the
onslaught of sounds made by bands such as, “The Electric Wizard,” “Iron Monkey” and not to mention drone druids
“SUNN0)))” and “BURNING WITCH”-LET THERE BE DOOM,JIM,03.13…
