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Cathedral - The Guessing Game review



Reviewer:
7.5

100 users:
7.7
Band: Cathedral
Album: The Guessing Game
Style: Doom metal, Stoner metal
Release date: March 26, 2010
A review by: Baz Anderson


Disc I
01. Immaculate Misconception
02. Funeral Of Dreams
03. Painting In The Dark
04. Death Of An Anarchist
05. The Guessing Game
06. Edwige's Eyes
07. Cats, Incense, Candles & Wine

Disc II
01. One Dimensional People
02. The Casket Chasers
03. La Noche Del Buque Maldito (Aka Ghost Ship Of The Blind Dead)
04. The Running Man
05. Requiem For The Voiceless
06. Journeys Into Jade

We all know these doom pioneers have been around for over twenty years now, but for the first time Cathedral have released a double album, in the form of The Guessing Game.

The music contained on these two discs is as colourful and artistic as the cover art, Cathedral have always been a little fruity and this latest offering is no different. This is doom metal meets psychedelic rock and progressive punk, and a bunch of various other elements thrown in there for good measure. The Guessing Game isn't as crushingly heavy as the band have been in the past, but there are still plenty of riffs on this doom-a-thon to get your head behind.

The 70's would be proud, The Guessing Game smells of drugged up influence; the whole album feels foggy and intoxicated. Those unfamiliar to the band will find this just too weird. Sitting through the full album in one go is also a little draining unless you have no comprehension of time, as the band probably didn't putting this album together. The lyrics grumble along about society, religion, and such other inconveniences too, which does get a little old after the first song. The Guessing Game is an album that has gone even further into the bizarre, making it something only the band's fans will initially understand.

You can always find some songs on a double album that could have been omitted in order to save the planet's CD forests, The Guessing Game is no different, although the quality on this album is consistently good, the diversity of styles here might be the reason for either fixated or dwindling attention, however your tastes are.

Lee's vocals are as deadpan as ever, and the rest of the band make their best attempts to bring a slightly psychedelic-y doom-y soundtrack with some heavy yet slightly resigned riffing. The album sounds great, the production is spot-on.

The Guessing Game is intoxication encapsulated in musical form, this isn't your everyday doom album, it is a perplexing journey through time and space that might just leave you a little confused at the other end. Don't knock it until you've tried it though.

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Doom metal
Nuclear Blast
England
Length: 1:24:51


Rating breakdown
Performance: 7
Songwriting: 8
Originality: 9
Production: 9





Written on 27.03.2010 by Member of Staff since 2006


Comments page 2 / 2

Comments: 39   Visited by: 205 users
24.12.2010 - 01:26
Marcel Hubregtse
Grumpy Old Fuck
Elite
I actually find it piss poor. Especially for Cathedral standards. Way too forced. absolutely nothing flows naturally. Way too long for what they try to achieve. And yrically it's totally lauhable and self grandeuring like BitterCOld said. But then again that's no too surprising coming from Lee the last five to ten years.
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Member of the true crusade against European Flower Metal

Yesterday is dead and gone, tomorrow is out of sight
Dawn Crosby (r.i.p.)
05.04.1963 - 15.12.1996

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04.01.2011 - 15:02
Rating: 5
Daniell
_爱情_
Elite
Written by [user id=4365] on 23.12.2010 at 19:16

To be fair though I find a smattering of songs here and there showcasing a few eccentricities hardly equivalent to a double CD album that essentially abandons most of what they've built up the last 20 or so years. The fact such change occurs so late in their career is to be commended especially as it's pretty clear that most would have prefered them to bang out yet another slab of riff-heavy doom so to take the decision to go for a lighter, more whimsical psych-prog-folk number should be given extra consideration. Hey, everyone hates it when a band jumps ship. It so happens I find that the new ship is a lot more interesting than the rotting, decayed wooden barge they used to inhabit which should have been decommisioned years ago.

I do like the whole nautical metaphor that you have going here

To the point: I don't mind how much a band changes their style, as long that their change is convincing. Cathedral's simply isn't.
Examples of shifts that I appreciated: Paradise Lost, God Dethroned, Behemoth, Mayhem, Ulver, just off the top of my head.
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04.01.2011 - 15:06
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by Daniell on 04.01.2011 at 15:02


I do like the whole nautical metaphor that you have going here

To the point: I don't mind how much a band changes their style, as long that their change is convincing. Cathedral's simply isn't.
Examples of shifts that I appreciated: Paradise Lost, God Dethroned, Behemoth, Mayhem, just off the top of my head.

Yeah I dunno where I got that from whole metaphor from, seemed to work though!

I certainly agree about Mayhem! (assuming you're talking about Ordo). To be honest I don't hold out much hope this is Cathedral's new style from here on in, I reckon they'll probably go back to something resembling what they did before this. Or maybe they'll keep on experimenting? It's all speculation anyway.
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04.01.2011 - 15:28
Rating: 9
Angelic Storm
Melodious
Written by Daniell on 04.01.2011 at 15:02
To the point: I don't mind how much a band changes their style, as long that their change is convincing. Cathedral's simply isn't.
Examples of shifts that I appreciated: Paradise Lost, God Dethroned, Behemoth, Mayhem, Ulver, just off the top of my head.

Yep, but to many other people, the changes made by those other bands you mentioned weren't convincing, and they didn't like it. I know just as many people, if not even more, baulked at the change in direction from Paradise Lost, than the one made by Cathedral. So the fact Cathedral's latest didn't convince you is just a matter of opinion, and nothing else. xD
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04.01.2011 - 15:32
Rating: 5
Daniell
_爱情_
Elite
Practically every Mayhem album was very much unlike their previous:

"A Grand Declaration of War" is NOTHING like "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas"
"Chimera" is nothing like "A Grand Declaration of War"
"Ordo Ad Chao" is nothing like "Chimera"

Believe it or not, I like all Mayhem's full-length releases, every change they made to their sound was convincing to my ears.
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04.01.2011 - 15:36
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
For me pretty much everything they did between DMDS and Ordo were not worth my time (Wolf's Lair Abyss being a possible exception) and were just a bunch of mis-fires, but they made up for it with Ordo which still stands as one of the greatest records of the 'naughties.
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04.01.2011 - 15:42
!J.O.O.E.!
Account deleted
Written by [user id=35732] on 04.01.2011 at 15:39

Written by [user id=4365] on 04.01.2011 at 15:36

For me pretty much everything they did between DMDS and Ordo were not worth my time and were just a bunch of mis-fires, but they made up for it with Ordo which still stands as one of the greatest records of the 'naughties.

Or you're just a Maniac-hater in disguise

Honestly, if you were to ask me which records he was on specifically I really couldn't tell you, nor could I tell you much about his history or personality or any other crap that people seem to think is vital knowledge for a black metal fan I don't go in for black metal lore, and which vocalist was more grim has no bearing on my opinions. Attila has kick ass croaks, that's about all I can tell you.
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11.05.2011 - 21:50
Pankar95
Very good album.
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19.02.2012 - 23:17
X-Ray Rod
Skandino
Staff
Written by Daniell on 04.01.2011 at 15:32
I like all Mayhem's full-length releases, every change they made to their sound was convincing to my ears.

Old comment... But I just want to say that I'm also in that little group of people that enjoy all their full lengths.
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Written by BloodTears on 19.08.2011 at 18:29
Like you could kiss my ass

Written by Milena on 20.06.2012 at 10:49
Rod, let me love you.

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