Customer Reviews

Blue Cathedral

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is a just a shredding, rockin-ass record....All you people who think it is senseless noise, probably shouldnt have taken Pitchfork so seriously. They are wrong often. Dont just run out and buy everything they give a 8 and upwards too. They give 8's to Cam'Ron and Chingy as well as Radiohead and Boris....all those things are completely different. Comets are rock and roll. If you are looking for "Doom-Laden" stuff, this is not it. It is not anywhere near Godflesh, and I don't know why you would even compare it to that. This is straight off the wax from the 1970's. To give an idea of what this sorta sounds like, it sounds like Robert Plant circa Whole Lotta Love joined MC5, decided they really liked the Stooges and just as a thought, decided to throw in an Echoplex...It is mostly fast and frenzied guitar music, with all the knobs turned up to 10. Riffs cross Black Sabbath and MC5 in a split seconds time. If you like your rock noisy and off the hinges, check this out. They slow it down from time to time to good effect. They are all very talented musicians and they know how to stack sounds for a very crushing fuzzy approach. It is not metal. There is no chugga chugga, and what does an echoplex sound like? It's very hard to describe, think of the word "oscillation", mad spirals of sound, psychedelia, think acid drenched noise rock. They feed everything through the echoplex and it just adds to the frenzy. If you are looking for something chill, then this is not it. Its not even as chill as Zeppelins most rocking-est moments. It is far more cacaphonous. MC5 might be one of the closest things in terms of speed and riffing, and yes, they do throw down the solos, all dripping with noise....it is the wall of sound approach achieved through a 70's rock ethic. It is not for everybody, it has very avant-garde moments, and I think this will appeal to people who are looking for something extreme that is not metal or industrial or jazz. It is not indie-rock and it has very few counterparts right now. It is great to get stoned too, and it might freak you out. If this sounds fun to you do yourself a favor and pick up the album.
The only reason I can't justify a 5 is because I cant personally listen to it all the time. It has it's time and place. Alot of indie-rock I can play whenever and get into it. This is perfect for moments when I want to take a brillo pad to my brain and clean it out, or amp it up. It is like driving a hundred miles an hour on a dirt road in an old pick up truck while shooting off rifles while on acid. It is musical amphetamines and when it is time to listen to something crazy, it holds just as much weight as all those metal albums and punk albums that I love. I just cant listen to it everyday. It could be exhausting. But you wouldnt want to jog 50 miles everyday either, but you could barely get a better work out, now can you? Think of this as a musical work out. A band flexing musical muscles. The band deserves a 5 star rating based on talent alone, its only the accesibility that knocks it down a star.

...and I am powerless to deny her.

It would be stupid to dismiss this band upon hearing the words "Cream" or "Deep Purple." Repeat after me: "influence" and "plagiarism" are entirely different concepts. Comets top up the darkwave psychedelica with a good dose of avant noise: they know it's not 1967, too.

Besides, the point quickly becomes moot after about six seconds of "The Bee and the Cracking Egg," which sticks its steel-toed boot deep in the brainpan and flails the head around with perverse glee. It's loud and it's scary, but it's also carefully, intricately, beautifully structured. To hear roar like that downshift, upshift, and stop on a freakin' dime is pretty darn impressive (and the big difference between Blue Cathedral and Field Recordings from the Sun). Then you get "Pussy Foot the Duke," an instrumental that shows us that Yes could have been punk rockers, and good ones, too. The final track, "Blue Tomb," also gets your marrow vibrating to the subspectral frequencies of the universe.

If you're a rock and roll masochist that enjoys being pummelled senseless, you've found a friend (?) in Blue Cathedral.

I thought I'd heard it all, but I must say when I first picked up Blue Cathedral I was struck by the sheer originality of the Comets' sound. Nothing sounds remotely like these guys. Something like Deep Purple and Yes collaborating with a bunch psychadelic spazz freaks and noise enthusiasts. Which, I guess, is exactly what the members of Comets on Fire are - total psycho noiz rockers, with one collective foot firmly planted in the sludgy 70's riff madness of Sabbath and Purple and the other in a pool of prog rock excess. It's an unbeatable combination. The searing noise and echobox explorations will have you teetering on the edge of madness, while a nasty, heavy organ and bass riff holds you down...until they switch gears and break it down with tender keyboards and melodic guitar that remind me of the Allman Brothers as much as Pink Floyd. Finally, the vocals are spare, but outstanding and totally unique. Sounds like Ian Gillan plus ten tons of reverb. The singer's voice is a real strong point, I hope they make more use of it on future albums. To sum it up, if you like stoner rock, jam rock, noise rock, metal, classic rock, prog rock - get this album and prepare to have your mind blown.

that this album has an average score of below 4 stars. Though, I must taking into account such reviews exist like the one who stated his/her feedback was based on listening to the samples; this reviewer was even kind enough to add, "Mind you I'm not really into this kind of music." Brilliant. It makes perfect sense to listen to 30-second samples of an album of a type of music you are not that into and then decide to review it. Namedropping Pitchfork media does not give you credit.

Rant aside, this album is incredible from start to finish. In all honesty, there is not a bad track on here. That statement doesn't even do it justice. Every track is incredible and works to the greater effect of the album, successfully creating a cohesive whole. Comets on Fire manages to cram a feeling of expansiveness into a just-under 45-minute album. Not an easy feat, by no means.

So during that period, the listener is pummeled with an array of sounds and textures. Pummeled, coaxed, invited and revealed, the music does not settle on just one manner of expression. Vocals are often thrown in like another instrument amidst the chaos. There are definite elements of classic rock, blues and psychedelia. But this music in no way sounds dated. The Song "The Antlers of the Midnight Sun" explodes from the get-go in a glorious fount of cacophony and melody. "Wild Whiskey," in my opinion, has the biggest pervading sense of classical rock of all the tracks, which is in no way a bad thing. And all the songs pulse and grow. The band has an excellent sense of pacing, but it isn't redundant or atypical, as one might say of the formula of other instrumental bands like Godspeed, You Black Emperor.

This is headbangers' music. This is music for evening drives. This is music for jumping on your bed. This is music that actually evokes. You are doing yourself a disservice if you do not spend the time listening and digesting this album. Because once everything clicks into place, you'll understand.

Right from the opening track, Comets On Fire paves the way for frenzied MC5 garage-rock, aggressive jams and psychadelic grooves. In terms of sound, 'Blue Cathedral' combines the fierce guitar-power of Guitar Wolf, the soul-punk of The Constantines and Hawkwind's space-flights. This CD captures the spirit of the Detroit garage-rock scene, reckless energy, bone-shattering rhythms that would make Rob Tyner and Fred Sonic Smith proud. Just press play, hold on to your seat, and be prepared to take-off.

I totally agree with "frankiep"'s review, when i got this album, although i am neither a die-hard fan of blue cheer or the stooges and am only a typical Zep early Floyd fan, this album blew me away. Maybe it was the fact that a band can still do this kind of music, maybe it was because this is just a great record, but this is classic. From the beginning of the first track my interest stuck and through each darker and stranger progression the track took I found myself still somewhat engaged, but once the second track came, with the organ and guitar riffing locked into a steam engine groove machine I knew I wasn't going to be able to stop until I got enough. AND THEN THE GUITAR SOLO CAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!! R\This album is great

so yeah finally someone answered the age old question, what would it sounds like if the Stooges and Blue Cheer started a band together after punk rock had happened. truly this record is the craziest, dumbest, slice of punk rock freakout nonsense i have heard in a long ass time. noise, blood, and broken bones. Comets on Fire definently have been sent from the Devil to tear out your soul and rock off your lame no rock respecting ass. i bet these dudes rule live.

Comets on Fire has always been somewhat of an anomaly in my music collection. They're one of those rare bands that I love so dearly, but that everyone else around me seems to despise. And to tell the truth, I don't know that I'd have it any other way. At it's best, "Blue Cathedral," is an album of primal fury with little to no subtlety, and that is, convexly, what either pushes or pulls people to their music.

What makes "Blue Cathedral," my personal favorite of their output so far, is that it acts as somewhat of a middle-ground between their noise-rock freak outs and 70's neo-prog leanings. And let me just put all doubts aside. Despite the slight shift in focus from their previous album, the "heavy" tracks on this album are still some of the most furious displays of rock the genre has to offer. There seems to have been a change in focus from mid-heavy guitar to low-heavy bass this time around, so everything leans slightly more in the direction of classic metal, but Ethan Miller keeps the wailing firmly in the realm of hard rock. It also might have made a few fans a little nervous to hear that they added some brass instrumentation into the mix on a couple of tracks, but once you hear it, you'll understand that it's only there to add to the chaos.

On the other side of the spectrum are the gentler tracks, which are actually handled quite nicely. They don't have the "oomph" of the heavier tracks, but they serve to make the album more listenable when taken in as a whole. My only problem with their first album was that it never let up from start to finish, so it became a little exhausting after listening to the entire thing, but that's not a problem here.

So I'll admit, the album may not be for everyone. Yes, it's relentlessly heavy and willfully inaccessible in places. However, for those of us that it has "clicked" with, it's a remarkable piece of art fury.

when i had first heard blue cathedral, or cof for that matter, my friend was playing the cd in his car with emphasis on the more "crazy" tracks on the album. i admit at first i wasn't taken by the notion of psychadelic, it just seemed like noise rock. interested, later on he let me listen to more of the album and i had fallen in love with it.

i dont want to go into depth here, all i can say is, if your into the neo-psychadelic movement going on in music, or just plain out like noise rock, than this album is very worth getting, especially for the last song, blue tomb. its one of my alltime favorite songs at the moment and if this whole album blew, i'd still buy it for that song alone.

also, if you were to start getting into comets on fire, i'd strongly recommend listening to avatar before this one, the ladder is lot more "easy" to listen to.

r. hillary.

if you are going to trash the band at leats get there name right.

THE BAND IS CALLED COMETS ON FIRE. not blue cathedral. funny that you bought this album yet dont knwo the bands name