Cathedral - Society's Pact With Satan - review
Cathedral - Society's Pact With Satan - review
Tracklist
01. Society's Pact With Satan A review by
AndyMetalFreak October 14, 2025
It's been 12 years since the UK masters of doom Cathedral disbanded, but now they've surface with a surprising release in the form of this EP, Society's Pact With Satan. This epic half-hour long song was their very last recording, and was originally intended for their 2013 album The Last Spire, but it was not featured due to not being mixed in time for the album's release date. The song was then lost in time, until producer Jaime Gomez Arellano finally rediscovered it while sorting through some old studio recordings. He convinced the former band members that he'd discovered a long-lost hidden gem, following which they agreed to release it in an EP format.
Losing a song to the pages of time that's oozing with this much great doom material would simply be criminal, but they've not let this one slip through their fingers, and releasing it now, over a decade after their disbandment, reminds us once again why this band were regarded as one of doom's all-time great acts. The song does take some time to really get going; in fact, it takes several minutes for the dark, eerie ambient intro with sinister sound effects to reach an actual climax. After the lengthy patient atmospheric build-up, listeners are then introduced to some classic doom instrumentation, through a slow crushing riff, powerful bass that rumbles as deep and heavy as thunder, and pummelling drums. This sets the scene for Lee Dorrian's unmistakable vocals to eventually emerge, which are accompanied by the eerie sound of a church organ.
Once it gets properly going, the song initially sticks to a typical traditional doom sound, with Cathedral doing what they always did best. However, they do incorporate other elements and influences from across their past discography, and the songwriting contains just enough variety to justify such an enormous length. The style mostly shifts between their mid-tempo groovy stoner approach recapitulating the classic 90s sound that they helped pioneer in the first place, through fuzz-toned catchy riffs and an addictively groovy rhythm section, and slower-paced low-toned doom slogs. There's also a beautifully constructed folkish acoustic section that pleasantly throws the listener off guard, acts as a soft mid-way interlude before they continue the second half of the album in a similar vein to the first.
What's also striking is that the lyrical themes are still just as significant to us as a society today as they were back then. This tells us not only how the world around us has not really changed significantly in the last decade, but neither has the doom genre in general. Many newly established bands emerging through the ranks still see Cathedral as a major source of influence, and yet Cathedral have still managed to sound just as fresh and exciting here as they did when they first spawned onto the scene many moons ago.
The trouble with lengthy epics such as this is they need to be engaging throughout. It simply won't work if you can't even get to the midway point without finding it just a tad bit tedious, and if you do manage to listen from start to finish without distraction then it needs to have enough memorability to warrant a return listen, and I believe this has just enough spark for that to happen. It's a slow burner to begin with, and some of the ambient sections, particularly the intro and outro, do run their course, and could've been trimmed back a touch as they take up nearly a quarter of the record's total length.
I think there's some great riffs here and there, but when looking at the album as a whole I'm left feeling slightly empty and greedy for the more memorable grooves that I believe Cathedral were certainly capable of. I don't think this song would've justified its length had it have been released on The Last Spire, but it's certainly more fitting released as an EP, and there's material here that deserved not to be missed, especially by doom lovers. Therefore, I'm glad it was rediscovered and then released, even if it took such a long time to do so.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 7 |
| Songwriting: | 7 |
| Originality: | 6 |
| Production: | 8 |
Written on 14.10.2025 by
Written on 14.10.2025 by
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