Capable of delivering a solid melodic death metal album, they’ve jumped into a field where the stakes are very high, and their songs just can’t compete. Yet.
Smartly avoids the dinosaur-sized mid-tempo stompers that permeated non-Brett albums, instead focusing on the kind of affectual, somber, minor-based melodies.
Hushed, velvety confessions draped atop lonesome acoustic pluckings, their only friend the bewildering prairie that stretches as far as the eye can see.
Cracks a beer and hands it to you, saying Lee Dorrian is back. Seriously, nobody played and recorded and stomped their way through doom quite like Cathedral.
Resumes include Godspeed, Atomic Bitchwax, Scene Killer, Gallery of Mites… Y’know, ’70s rocker stuff, proto metal, grunge, and greasy Southern ID’d stuff.
The hooks make this a triumphant return to his roots. The man has wonderful pop sensibilities, and one only need listen to “Radio” once to appreciate them.