Review Summary: Cathedral begins their nightmarish journey with 30 minutes of pure agony.
Line up:
Lee Dorrian - Vocals
Adam Lehan – Guitars
Mark Griffiths – Bass
Ben Mochrie – Drums
Garry Jennings – Rhythm & Lead Guitars
Cathedral’s birth was coincidental. The band was the product of the mutual admiration and respect paid by Lee Dorrian and Mark Griffiths towards the bands they worshiped as children. These two guys met at a Carcass gig and after a discussion they had (probably talking about how awesome bands like Sabbath, Pentagram, Trouble, and Candlemass are), they decided to form a band of their own and play the kind of music for which they shared a common love. An innocent and naive thought as it was, it couldn't betray the shape of things that would come in the immediate future and how greatly these children would affect the underground musical scene in the early ’90s.
During their first years, the group experienced some personnel fluctuation. The first line-up consisted of Lee Dorrian on vocals, Mark Griffiths on bass, Adam Lehan and Gaz Jennings on guitars and Ben Mochrie (his sole participation) on drums. The quintet gathered to inaugurate their unification with the band’s first recording which was released in the October of 1990. Along with their debut, this demo is a rare opportunity to witness Cathedral at their darkest, most gloomy and miserable version.
The demo contains four tracks, two of which that never made it into an official LP release, a very early version of
Ebony Tears and a cover of Pentagram’s classic
All Your Sins. This early recording serves as a prelude to the sound the band will serve in their first LP.
In Memorium contains many clues to what Cathedral will sound like in the immediate future; it’s dark, malevolent and really, really gloomy. The production serves the purpose of the music; sludgy, dirty and overwhelming. Not as nearly as suffocating or blurry though when compared to the
Forest; You can still hear the drums and the vocals are not that buried into the mix. Dorrian’s extreme Metal background is clearly evident by his singing style which consists mostly of death growls and grunts. Dorrian doesn't make any effort for a lighter approach. In
Forest he tried to do something different but here, he sings almost like the way he did during the time he spend with Napalm Death, only in a much more slower tempo. Dorrian’s demonic vocal style is surely of an acquired taste and it is a bit hard to get used to. But on the other hand, it’s hard to deny the strong connection of Dorrian's vocals with the music and how much emphasis on the dark atmosphere this style offers.
Although a Doom Metal outfit, it could be alleged that with these recordings, Cathedral pioneered a number of styles in Metal like Gothic, Funeral and Death/Doom Metal. This is an important reason to give this demo a cult status. From a historical point of view, it’s also important because it marks the beginnings of a band that gave birth to the second wave of Doom Metal in the early ’90s. Cathedral will release one more demo before recording the classic
Forest of Equilibrium.
In Memorium was re-released two times. The first time was on April 1, 1994, in a cd form, featuring new artwork by Rise Above Studios. The Second time was in 1999/2000, under the name
In Memoriam, with live recording material being added from 1991 shows in Holland and Belgium.
Recommended Tracks:
Morning of a New Day
March!
