Cathedral - The Guessing Game (2010)

Twenty one years is a long time to be together, but that's exactly how long, Coventry, England, UK doom legends, Cathedral have been at it. With several singles, EPs, compilations and eight studio albums behind them one must wonder how their massive ninth studio album would sound? Five years in the making, 'The Guessing Game' is massive simply because its two CDs in length and it offers up the most diverse musical performance from Cathedral yet.

Largely forgoing their doom metal roots, The Guessing Game offers up a strange mix of jazzy psychedelic passages with somewhat typical acid rock and stoner metal groove with only the slightest touch of the bands classic heavy doomness here and there. Probably the most unexpected part of this release is the large usage of synthesizers, moogs and mellotrons on various songs, which in my opinion contributes to the psychedelic aspects I mentioned earlier and to great success too. However there's lots of other random weirdness' and wonders like acoustic guitar sections, the jazzy parts, some progressive rock parts that remind of King Crimson and of course some other aspects that I honestly have no idea how to describe.

The feeling I get when listening to this album is that of being in a smoky bar, drunk and just totally trippin' out while watching some heavy ass band perform in front of me, and you know what it's great. I hate writing reviews where I don't know exactly how to describe the music, but this is one of those albums. Nevertheless even with my inability to fully communicate the music to you I can still easily say this is an incredible release, but it really takes time before it grows on you. Don't expect anything similar to vintage Cathedral here as the band is clearly distancing themselves from the past and sailing upon new musical horizons. A hell of an idea after twenty one years of existence!

The songs to pay attention to are the wonderfully bizarre, 'Funeral of Dreams,' the slow and heavy, 'Edwige's Eyes' and of course the quite varied, 'Cats, Incense, Candles & Wine.' You've gotta love the hard, fast and rocking, 'The Casket Chasers' and 'La Noche Del Buque Maldito (Aka Ghost Ship Of The Blind Dead)' is total groovin' stoner metal bliss while 'Requiem for the Voiceless' is the only pure classic heavy as a really fucking heavy doom metal sounding thing on the album and 'Journey into Jade' is a fun career retrospective type of song similar in lyrical content to the old Megadeth song, 'Victory.'

This might just be one of the best albums in 2010, I dunno, it rocks, but its weird. Keep listening and maybe it will all make sense, eventually. I do know one thing though, I love Cathedral, and this album just makes me dig 'em even more so.