While I have been into metal for many years and was especially into a lot of the bands during Earache Records reign of the Death Metal market in the early 90s, I never did bother giving a listen to Cathedral, led by ex-Napalm Death vocalist Lee Dorian. When I first got the promo of their newest effort, Endtyme, I asked around to see what I should expect from the group, most of what I had been told is that their best material was far behind them and that their most recent music was basically acid-trip stoner rock and that the new album would most likely completely suck. Needless to say I was totally surprised when I put the CD in for the first time and found that I actually liked it. Endtyme is 9 tracks and over 60 minutes of pure Black Sabbath-worshipping thick, heavy doom metal. The album opens up with a heavy chugging instrumental track entitled "Cathedral Flames", thick with a doomy atmosphere and crushing sound leading into the groove-laden chuggernaught "Melancholy Emperor". The rhythm to this song got my head nodding and toe tapping in no time and is easily one of my favorite tracks on the album. "Requiem For The Sun" is a slow and heavy track that starts off weakly but once Dorrian’s vocals carve through the thick sludge the song picks up considerably. "Whores To Oblivion" is a faster track with an astral rock feel and catchy groove, however the group chorus of "Whores To Oblivion… Rising Faster… Death To Utopia…" is extremely annoying and takes a lot away from the song. "Alchemist Of Sorrows" is a distorted chugger that isn’t one my favorites with the distorted harmonizer vocals and could and probably should have been left off the CD. "Ultra Earth" mixes a soft eerie sound with thick bass-heavy doom, and is a strangely very listenable track, one of those types of songs you listen to that will just totally chill you out with a fat blunt in your fingers or not. "Astral Queen" is basically as the title suggests, a psychedelic astral rock track, somewhat reminiscent of Black Sabbath’s "Planet Caravan". "Sea Serpent" turns things back into a heavy groove-rock sound in a hurry and apart from the overly harsh vocals of Dorrian, the track is rather cool. The final track, "Templar’s Arise" is a total waste of time, it’s just one monotonously long instrumental track of pure astral psychedelia that was obviously written under the influence of a few too many mushrooms. It’s alright once the guitars, bass and drum kick in, however the vocals are so incredibly annoying that I simply cannot listen to more than a few seconds of the track before having to stop the CD. Overall I’d say I’m highly impressed with Cathedral’s Endtyme as it offered a lot more than I had originally anticipated. Fans of groove-laden stoner-doom-rock in the vein of early Black Sabbath should definitely pick this one up, even only casual fans of the group should find at least a few tracks of interest here. More ups than downs, so give it a shot.

Written By: Teufel