CATHEDRAL ~ Soul Sacrifice EP (1992)

[MikeyT]

[Posted this on another website, but also wanted to post it here ]


Heavy band from England. Yes, they call it Heavy Metal. Heh.  

I love this little EP. It was the first thing I heard by Cathedral. Bought it on a whim, lo these many years ago, and I must say it thoroughly exceeded my expectations. Imagine my delight, as I began to realize there was a band existing in the world, heretofore unknown to me, who were powerful and creative enough to conceivably challenge even the lords of Metal themselves (If that were possible. No, it is not, so just forget about it!). You know of whom I speak.


Four tracks, short and sweet. Able to be grasped in one listening, but so heavy and fat that the diner listener is as fully satisfied as he or she would have been after a full course meal length album.

Let's break it down...


1.  Soul Sacrifice
The weakest song on the Ep, imo, but it's still quite good. Good, but not much more than that. It's fairly aggressive, with nice, catchy riffing, a few nice lead parts, and a brief, but decent guitar solo. And another, better solo later on. The song is solid. And it's HEAVY, so right out of the box we know we're in the right place. In the Cathedral !

2.  Autumn Twilight
A thunderous chord, followed quickly by one, then a second motif, actually what sounds like an arpeggio, followed by- oh, please, I don't have the patience just now to tabulate all these riffs and passages- that's why I pay (along with thousands of others) Cathedral to produce these masterworks for me/us.
The song does features a great (very heavy) chugging riff, and of course changes to other riffs as it goes along. All of them are very good, and some are close to brilliant. Add some fat, thick, hot, evocative lead parts and a powerful solo, and you have a great Metal song. Very strong, and probably the best thing here.

3.  Frozen Rapture
Starting out, a huge, powerful riff/chord progression begins to unfold, and verily, it is nearly worthy of the mighty Sabbath themselves! It's also perhaps a little "Mountainesque". Simple, but pleasing.
The song continues eerily with what sounds like an organ playing (Who really knows anymore ? With all the studio wizardry available, it could be something else). One feels a vague sense of danger listening to the signature riff lumber along through the rest of the piece... oh, I get it, this is Doom ! Just before the four minute mark Cathedral unleash another, faster riff, again modeled after our tradition. It quickly gives way to the main riff again, which is garnished with suitable lead phrases. We close out with a little (very controlled & not exciting) feedback. Excellent.

4.  Golden Blood (Flooding)
Starts out with more huge sounding chording, and more thick, hot, Bluesy Rock leads, followed by another slow and catchy Sabbathical (like that?) riff. There is an odd little musical passage they insert a few times during the course of the song, which doesn't work for me. In fact I hate it. It might be allright by itself if it were just instrumental, but Lee Dorrian's strange vocal (he's not singing in his usual gruff 'monsterish' style) makes it even weirder than it it already was- and that was plenty weird enough, thereby ruining it completely (the passage, not the song). The band eventually abandons the main motif for some standard Metal riffing, which although not quite as interesting as what came before, does not derail the song. Another minor masterpiece.

The aspect of the band I appreciate the least is Lee's vocals, but I don't really mind them. Sometimes I enjoy them, sometimes not.
The guitar players may not be 'monsters', but they are great, and perfect for the style, with enough whine and sass in their playing to woo 60's/70's Rock fanatics like myself into the fold. Cathedral are very strong writers, as well, and this is a great EP.
Doom on !

[MikeyT]

X Needed a slight modification, but I accidentally hit the quote button. 

[The Shocker]

I like this, but I really like when they got stoner goofy.

[MikeyT]

Like on 'Fireball Demon'  (SUPERNATURAL BIRTH MACHINE) ?

[The Shocker]

Yeah that or Midnight Mountain or their entire last album...

[NCR600]

I remember playing this through a borrowed 15,000 watt PA at my 21st birthday party (when it was brand new). I love this EP. The first album probably has way more artistic merit though. For whetever reason I tend to prefer the stoner-goof Cathedral too. I still haven't heard the new one yet, something that needs to be rectified, seeing as Cathedral are one of the very few bands I have followed right from their beginning, and own everything they've ever done.