Customer Reviews

Forest of Equilibrium

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been listening to this release, Cathedral's first, online for quite some time, but there's nothing like owning it, especially this gorgeous deluxe re-release that comes with the full remastered first release, the "Soul Sacrifice" EP that followed it, a DVD documentary about the group's early days, and a poster of the full album art. Gorgeous and grotesque.

The album opens up with the pleasing sounds of a flute, with some medieval-sounding guitar plonkings, very similar to the song "Solitude" on Black Sabbath's third album "Master of Reality", which seems to be a favourite of the Cathedral guys - they covered it on the "Nativity in Black" tribute album.

All of the songs plod along at an amazingly slow pace, with the exception perhaps of "Soul Sacrifice", at a brutally short 2:55 (which, as the rockingest song on the set, is updated and upgraded on the "Soul Sacrifice" EP where it gets a new intro and is lengthened to 4:34 - and even then it would be much shorter than any song on "Garden of Equilibrium"). An odd man out on the album, the song was a forerunner of the faster, rougher stoner sound that the band would later adopt.

"Ebony Tears" has spooky keyboards and bass, then bursts into groans and riffs. That's the highlight of the song, which drags itself along like a zombie on its last leg. "Serpent Eve" is even sludgier, moving about half as fast. The song ends with what sounds like Mongolian throat singing. Who knew? "A Funeral Request" is a very simple song with nothing special to it. "Equilibrium" is as plodding as the rest of them, but it has a simple, soulful solo that really stands out so powerfully. It also provides the fade-out for the track. More gorgeous than grotesque - superb, really.

The flute of opening track "Pictures of Beauty and Innocence" returns in the final track, "Reaching Happiness, Touching Pain", and it stays throughout. The song has a very gothic feel to it, sort of like Dead Can Dance, or Xymox.

The "Soul Sacrifice" EP rocks, starting with the title track, which lengthens and livelies up the song from the band's first release (the new intro is a thread from inside the track). And even in the dredges of "Frozen Rapture," the drummer manages to break out the cowbell during one more uptempo part - hey, is this Cathedral or is this Foghat.

The DVD is mainly the four members of Cathedral talking about their career, starting with Lee Dorian talking about his roots and how he got into Napalm Death for half of the "Scum" album, before building this new band - which was practically the antithesis of Napalm Death - as a tribute to bands he and his companions adored, bands like The Obsessed, Saint Vitus, Trouble, Candlemass, Witchmaster General, and of course... Black Sabbath. The footage of the lads having a conversation in the pub over beers is interspersed with soundless footage and pictures of those early days, and some live video snippets, to keep it "interesting." The band talks about the confusion of finding people who wanted to produce a band with the doom sound (deeper, heavier and slower than Black Sabbath, Trouble or Witchfinder General), going through band members (including the drummer of Sacrilege, a favourite band of the guys), and in finding that sound. They considered names like Father, Tower of Silence, Trinity. They walked past a ruined cathedral, and wanted the band to sound like the cathedral looked, and they considered Cathedral of Doom, until they finally realised that just Cathedral was enough. In conversation, the band references Michel Gira of the Swans, Diamanda Galas, Charles Baudelaire, HP Lovecraft (of course). Lee notes that his favourite song from the album was "Equilibrium", where the lyrics summed up his point of view.

We were going for something that was really quite nihilistic, but in a positive and cleansing way, in the fact that it was so nihilistic that it was almost sarcastic; and then through that, it was quite humorous in some respects, but I don't think people really saw the humorous side of it.

The band played their first gig in a village in England with SxOxBx from Japan - how did SxOxBx get out there in those early days? Their early gigs were with Agnostic Front and Saint Vitus (!!!!), then they toured outside of England with Paradise Lost. Video of them playing "Soul Sacrifice." Good vibes - "where is my sleeping bag!" Drinking a lot, smoking lots of pot, getting pretty caned, the other bands on the Gods of Grind tour. "After ten days of free beer you start to lose your mind, really." At the beginning they had too few songs, they used to play a Diamanda Galas song from the "Litanies of Satan" release, and just stand there. "Put your head down and just play doom." Lee gets a call on his cell phone, the window darkens from late afternoon to early evening. "The slowness was just vitally important to us - I don't think we were looking to be unique, we just ended up - we obviously are unique, but we ended up that way because it was just important that we were slow." Final words - "Doom will be doomed... don't form a band!"

The DVD also includes the "Ebony Tears" video, which is full of regular video effects. Cool to watch a young Cathedral cavort around a forest and a graveyard with strange effects. One of the guitarists has a sticker on his guitar that says "Solitude." Is that after the Black Sabbath song?

The new remastered "Forest of Equilibrium" by Cathedral was long overdue. This is classic doom metal. Essential listening for anyone into heavy music, or just getting into heaviness and want to hear how it is done.The bonus "Soul Sacrifice " EP(long out of print)is excellent as well.The second DVD disc is an interesting sort of behind the music dvd about the making of the album. Well worth the money.