Cathedral The Ethereal Mirror

Cathedral 'The Ethereal Mirror' (Earache, 1993)

May 1991; I ran from Queen Street Station, having just paid an adult train fare (due to Jon's stunning interjection - 'Gav, you're 16 now', 'Thanks Jon'), down Sauchiehall Street towards the Mayfair. Cathedral, the new project of ex Napalm Death vocalist Lee Dorrian, were supporting Morbid Angel on the 'European Sickness' tour and I wasn't going to miss a second. Of course I arrived about half an hour before doors opened so I had to stand in a queue of much older metallers in my pristine Carcass long sleeve and flame sleeved Napalm Death hoody looking very much like I'd walked straight from the pages of a death metal clothing catalogue. Which was great.

Once we were in the venue I went straight to the merch stall and bought a gargoyle emblazoned Cathedral shirt; it was awesome. I hadn't heard a note, but I knew from the print and the band's heritage that I was in for some serious death metal or grind. Soon Cathedral took to the stage and I turned to my friends, jaw on the floor, 'What the hell is this?', seriously though, 'What the HELL is this?'

Cathedral played for maybe thirty minutes and it seemed like they played one song. Actually it seemed like they played one riff. It was so far from our expectations that we laughed out loud. Surely this wasn't right? We'd never heard anything like it; slow, tortured, depressing, and seemingly endless. Apparently , this was doom.

The next day Jon, Chris and I wasted little time in forming Church. Chris and Jon played drums and bass as slowly as possible and I growled 'Multinational corporations, murder burger' on top of the dirge. World domination did not follow.

June 2004; The Process and Municipal Waste were touring the UK and were playing the Indian Queen in Boston. Municipal Waste had just signed to Earache and Rob and Digby from Earache were in attendance. Andy and I had just been royally screwed by Deicide cancelling their European tour and I had a bone to pick with the very surprised Earache attendees who didn't expect the promoter of Deicide's Edinburgh date to be in Lincolnshire.

It was a fantastic night; great crowd, great bands, a chance to quiz Digby about the early days of Earache, in particular Morbid Angel, and drink all night on Earache's tab. The next day I woke in the van with little memory of the previous night and entered the open pub to find the Waste and the rest of The Process crashed out on the floor and on pool tables.

Ryan announced that the Waste were going to Nottingham on the way to London and as I was obviously such a fan asked me if I'd like to ride in their van to visit the Earache office. Two seconds later I was in their van and we were on our way. The journey was an endurance test, the hangovers were brutal and there was no water, but it was worth it.

Upon arrival Digby said 'The stock room is next door, help yourselves'. I'd just lost £300 due to the Deicide cancellation, but I still couldn't bring myself to enter nirvana without a few qualifying 'Is he serious?' enquiries to Rob. The Yanks had none of my typically British reservations and plunged in feet first walking out with boxfuls of merchandise. I was like a kid in a sweet shop, but as I had the majority of Earache releases anyway I chose carefully. At this time vinyl was not quite as resurgent as it is now so there was a limited amount of discs to plunder. However, 'The Ethereal Mirror' on limited blue vinyl was eagerly picked up. I easily made back my £300 loss that day and I had an amazing time for which I will always be thankful to the Waste.

This album saw Cathedral move away from the dirge style I witnessed in Glasgow towards the grooving, galloping chug adopted by the gamut of mediocre doom/stoner which dominate the middle of the bill at Roadburn. It's a style which bores me senseless, but at least Cathedral were originators of sorts.

The artwork is wonderful, the riffs induce polite head nodding and it's all imbued with a welcome sense of fun which Cathedral always delivered whenever I saw them live; Dorrian is a useless vocalist, but it fits and he was one of the genre's finest frontmen.

Listening to this record brought back a lot of great memories. Enjoy!

Peace