The Ethereal Mirror

So here I am, flying rather unsteadily (one of my wings is unendowed with skin) and holding a fountain pen to get Cathedral's autographs when I spot the chaos broiling beneath me. I have no idea what's going on, so I ask the winged bishop with a parapet on his head and he reveals to me two shocking revelations. The first is that Cathedral's new album is not at all like their old one, that they have morphed from pallbearing funeral doom acolytes into snake-hipped dancers with a doom riff or three to make dementia and depression feel A-OK. After I recover from the shock of tower-head's first piece of information, I just have a short moment to consider the import of the second - that the pen I am holding is in fact a missile - before I explode and am wiped off the cover of the reissue for all time.

I am the winged bishop with the parapet on my head, and I must apologize for that stupid dragon. She didn't understand the benefits of progress, but thought she could dwell in the past with her dreams of fountain pens and funeral doom. You see, she was born in the Forest of Equilibrium, whereas I have spent my life staring deep into the Ethereal Mirror. Let me tell you what I have seen:

At first, I witnessed nothing but my own face, caught reading mid-sentence from the holy book, while my other hand is implicated with a cherub's many-fronded penis, though that's hardly to the point. Then, four men shuffled into view wearing their hair long and their clothes unfashionably. Two of them carried guitars heavily on their backs, bowed down with the weight of their tones and struggling to move much quicker than a crawl. But then I spoke to them: I said, "Lay down your burden and walk free", and so they walked free of those concrete tones and could run and play and be merry. These men then began to play again without the pain of former times, creating good music to raise the soul. A song named 'Midnight Mountain' I proclaimed to be worthy and the four men were pleased with my words, for they even included handclaps in the bridge section in my honour. 'Ride' too I deemed a spirited effort, full of the joy of life and of movement, making me bounce gently on my wings and causing the parapet to wobble dangerously. Oh, if I could only go back to that fateful day!

For when my parapet wobbled it unleashed some creatures sleeping beneath the Cathedral roof, which swarmed out and muttered their words to those four men. Those pesky penis-cherubs were first, stroking the men with their long phalluses and inciting them to give in to their temptation and indulge once more in creating sinful doom riffs that stride boldly, crushing all in their path. They told the four men to write the song 'Fountain of Innocence', which grooves as mightily and erratically as the devil and his servants and infects the minds of men just as easily. However, the knob-angels were overpowered by a thin-legged damsel playing a human harp, who sowed the seeds of doubt into the minds of the men, which led to a worse fate: those devilish tones turned to acoustic strings in imitation of the doxy's harp, while the man whose name is Lee Dorrian was brought so low as to sing without harmony or rhythm. Oh! Let this be a lesson to beware the evils of women. And yet, if only that were the end of my tale, for it goes on.

From the wiles of the damsel, a strong and mindless character named Green Mouth Metal Hat seized the four men and tortured them with visions of the heretics Trouble and Black Sabbath and Pentagram until those men gave in to his punishment. They begged him for mercy, which he granted on the condition that they would compose for him songs of brute strength even heavier than those former heretics. They communicated amongst themselves and returned to him with many gifts, one named 'Enter the Worms' which did mix the slow and heavy riff worship with the euphoric solos that those others did create. The Green Mouth twitched in pleasure, but still he demanded more, to which the four men submitted, producing a present named 'Grim Luxuria', which they said was a mantle of toughened leather that would protect the wearer from madness, since its riffs were so strong that even the man Dorrian's crazed voice could not penetrate to the heart. The Green Mouth spoke and said this: "Men, you shall stay with my disciples. I accept your gifts."

And so, trembling with apprehension yet thankful for their lives, the four men joined the disciples, who had no arms among them, but possessed excessive ears and noses and grew grubs from their heads. These creatures did not take to the four men, but taunted them and drove them to desperation, laughing and whispering and shrieking constantly. Eventually, the men gave way to the squalor and insanity that surrounded them: from their now polluted minds they dragged such unsavoury ideas as I shuddered to hear, vile, stinking visions of decay and deformity called 'Ashes You Leave' and 'Jaded Entity', the blasphemy of which I could only withstand by a great effort. I recall their words only to warm others:

"Death is death, the little host that squirms,
smell the dark - the coffin's closed,
and I so soft - ooh so soft, no movement,
and no breath, no ears, no nose - no eyes."

And yet, that was not the worst that they would do. Their great torture and degradation led them to imagine 'Phantasmagoria', which - though not such a heavy burden as their sins from the Forest of Equilibrium - so distorts the soul of man that it should not be witnessed by those who wish to maintain their sanity or pursue a good life. Those sick bastards who I had helped had become grimmer and darker from different polluting influences. Though no longer suffering from the burden of their immense doom sloth, I say that they cannot be saved, since the songs they make (save for those two they wrote for me) are dangerous to the minds and bodies of men. Their twisted and fractured depths should be cast into the darkness, for none but a fan of pure heavy metal could enjoy or see beauty in such a creation. The parapet-head proclaims the Ethereal Mirror to be sinful.

As a huge fan of FoE with a penchant for the low and slow, I probably shouldn’t be reviewing this album. The low part is covered of course, as Cathedral are tastefully downtuned as ever, but the dudes are definitely more inclined to rock out than to doom on at this point in their career. Can’t blame them really, for it can take more than a little bit of restraint to play slow.

The testicularly fortified opening track “Violet Vortex” may be the heaviest on the disc. I love this straight ahead heavy metal because it proves that you do not need double bass, blast beats, sweep arpeggios, or any other wankery of that sort in order to be heavy. This song is quite appropriately entitled because the color or mood of it seems to be, indeed, purple. Like the inside of one’s eye sockets if one were to be knocked the fuck out. Unfortunately it only lasts for a little less than two minutes, but it does flow nicely into rolling chug of “Ride.” When I first heard “Ride” I was driving away from the used cd store where I bought The Ethereal Mirror, still kinda high, and after the initial bludgeon-blow of “Violet Vortex” this low, grooving metal was just fuckin tasty.

The first twenty-five seconds of “Enter the Worms” are a goddamn masterpiece, and one of The Ethereal Mirror’s few glimpses of that forgotten and fabled Forest. They play the first riff slow and ploddingly, and then crank it up to double time for the verses. It’s cool and all, and it doesn’t ruin the song or anything like that, but if you’re looking for full blown doom, this album isn’t it. This is Cathedral doing what they do, heavy metal, and the songs here have the swagger and confidence that make it clear that these musicians do not pander to any one audience. As a depressive doom-head, I’ll stay in the forest for the most part, and occasionally spin my Cosmic Requiem EP, with its nutty eccentricities and meandering psychedelia. This is, however, a riff-filled offering, and every song contains memorable and heavy moments. Sure, they may have been a bit “progressive” at times, take for instance, “Fountain of Innocence,” but what I really mean by that p-word is just “long songs that are less heavy.” The closing riff of “Jaded Entity” is ass-kicking in its bluesy brutality, kind of reminiscent of “Hole in the Sky,” tuned to low-as-fuck. I’d love to see a Cathedral jam session, because you can tell that these guys are having a bit of fun with their metal.

“Ashes You Leave” is undoubtedly a highlight of The Ethereal Mirror, with Dorrian in fine form as a one-eyed raving lunatic, and some excellent lead guitar work as well, making it no surprise that the Godfather himself, Tony Iommi, would join them for a guest appearance on their next album. Lee Dorrian’s voice is to these ears one of the most interesting traits of Cathedral. There is simply no other voice like it in metal or probably anywhere else in the universe, so weird and decadent in its bestial timbre. The ninth track of this Ethereal Mirror is a ball-crusher entitled “Phantasmagoria.” So fucking heavy. The guitar tone is fathomless in its heaving depth; I haven’t heard this kind of downtuned devastation anywhere else save for that of Triptykon’s Eparistera Daimones, which is interesting since the two albums are separated by seventeen years.

In short, this is a solid, rockin heavy metal album that is absolutely worth owning, and probably a good introductory listen if you’re new to the cosmos of Cathedral. It’s not too slow nor is it depressing, and makes for a great showcase of what this band is capable of performing.

Cathedral was and, indeed, still is a band that Johnny Jerk-knee will write off as a bunch of one gear Sabbath worshippers, but I always thought there was something far more unique and colourful to them than this. They’ve always had a retro Sabbatharian feel to them, but it’s not overriding or derivative, besides the atmosphere the band has is one of its own; that unique vibe that is similar to watching old horror films, drinking beer, and marvelling at how very awesome ghost-rider Templar knight ghosts are. In fact that’s very much my general impression of Cathedral’s classic output (the first three albums and early EPs in case you were wondering).

Lee Dorian is a man who happens to be the general make or break factor when it comes to Cathedral. I’ve heard people who complain about his lack of technical prowess and annoying mannerisms – you know the sort, people who consider Tim ‘Ripper’ Owens a valid art form. But if you have taste you’ll find Lee to be by far and away one of the most compelling, outrageous and downright bizarre singers out there. He’s like the stark, raving stoned madman of doom metal, outside on the streets attacking pigeons whilst angry magician, Scott Reagers casts spells… Liebling was still in bed. Anyway, he’s fucking fantastic. One thing of interest I always found interesting with Lee is his method of lyric writing; in his early days he’d simply write whatever came into his head after a few joints and fizzy-apple-drink, cider. The next afternoon, he’d wake up and go “Oh Christ, what have I done?” and actually find some abstract and enthralling dribblings had been scribed. If you have a habit of listening closely you’ll find that it’s certainly not too far removed from Geezer Butler’s quirkier moments (think ‘Spiral Architect’ and whatnot). But I must note that these are very classy lyrics, it’s not the point-at-page-in-Robert-E-Howard-novel-and-transcribe school of lyricism that The Sword is so renown for. I suppose it’s a lot like that amazing Dave Patchett album art; there’s a lot going on and it might not fully make sense (is that dragon thingy carrying a pen?) but overall it has an amazing effect.

The Ethereal Mirror is an album that is a sort of transitional piece for Cathedral, somewhere between the “what the fuck is that under that stone? Help, I’m lost in the woods!” mind-fuck of Forest of Equilibrium, and the good-time witch-finding doom of The Carnival Bizarre. As with most Cathedral albums you get a good juxtaposition between the more straightforward rocky songs and the crushing, autumnal doom metal. It makes for a fine and cohesive mix, whenever you find yourself singing along and rocking out, even, you’ll be taken back down into the depths of Lee’s madness and he’ll look you sternly in the eye and say, “I HAVE HOLES INSTEAD OF EYES!” It’s this variation that made Cathedral by far one of the most interesting bands in the doom scene. You certainly get a undeniable sense of fun that you wouldn’t find with, say, My Dying Bride and their ilk, that’s never out of place or excessively silly as the notion of ‘disco doom’ could well be.

With The Ethereal Mirror Cathedral took a less extreme route than was prevalent on Forest of Equilibrium, but this was far from a copout as I don’t think Cathedral could have got heavier than Forest of Equilibrium (which to these ears was more punishing than Napalm Death… I think people buy their records out of a sense of duty, anyway). So the interjection of a lot more NWOBHM and a more traditional metal writing style certainly was no disappointment, after all what’s the point of having another Forest…? It just means more trees. Some of these songs are accessible but they’ve still got Cathedral’s inherent weirdness stamped all over them, it’s just they happen to rock a bit more. ‘Ride’ is of course a classic example of this; it’s a groove-driven number with some classic Dorian lyricisms – really infectious stuff, but a natural progression. You know, we’ve heard that main riff before, but all that driving bent-note stuff still rules and it deserves to be played again. A well developed song, in all and it’s certainly integrated with the ‘Ides of March’ aspiring intro (referencing Killers = awesome). ‘Enter the Worms’ is an aptly writhing number; tormented and wailing but in a way that would have sounded out of place on Forest of Equilibrium, it’s pretty strange stuff once again, but that chorus is demented yet strangely beguiling. However, like its predecessor it’s stolen a great deal of lead guitar from Trouble, which is a very nice touch as Psalm 9 fucking smokes and everyone should know that.

If The Ethereal Mirror was ever somewhat notorious it was because of that ‘disco doom’ thing. Sounds pretty offensive, doesn’t it? Well, in truth it’s not like they are trying to marry some slap bass with Pentagram’s debut, so it’s all still within the realms decency. ‘Midnight Mountain’ of course, is the most pronounced in its funky leanings – you can simply picture the band having a few wry smiles over the fact that they’ve gone from ‘Ebony Tears’ to handclaps. But it really does work and it’s a lot of fun, you know you’d expect doom to have maybe more of a sense of humour about itself given that it takes most of its cues from a band who interjected “SUCK ME!” into a sprawling epic and named a song after their drummer’s beard. Maybe it’s an English thing? Paradise Lost must be French… Je suis une Nick Holmes’s overriding sense of melancholy…

But things do never stray that far into upbeat territory, there are far more songs like ‘Ashes You Leave’ than ‘Midnight Mountain’ here. Speaking of which, ‘Ashes You Leave’, cracking opening riff! I used to think this album as somewhat poorly produced, as probably best evidenced by that hissing quality to the opening rhythm guitar here, but it has dawned upon me that this sound is just perfect for what this album’s mood requires. Slightly weird and odd guitar sounds with a big punchy drum sound, it’s bloody good if you ask me. Anyway, ‘Ashes You Leave’ is probably the most similar to the Forest of Equilibrium sound on this record, but again the pace is upped noticeably to a less slow sort of slow, honestly Forest of Equilibrium loses races to snails, frequently.

The Ethereal Mirror is another great record from Cathedral’s interesting period, before the slump and before the end of that particular slump. Pre-slump yet pre-post-slump-rejuvenation, if you will. It solidified their reputation as a more interesting band than Napalm Death, zounds!

In a more commercial direction than the previous "Forest of Equilibrium" album, "The Ethereal Mirror" is still a great recording. The mood is definitely lighter and brighter for the most part, especially on the first half of the album which in the Age of Vinyl would have been called the A-side where songs slated to be singles usually went, but even on the second half of the album where the music gets more ponderous there are still touches of humour here and there, particularly in Lee Dorrian's singing. Still moving away from the Napalm Death-era grunting and growling, Dorrian sometimes appears to be hunting for a vocal style that suits his voice, his often lurid lyrics and the powerful music which all too often (and maybe rightly so) threatens to overpower him so he has to shout rather than sing to be heard and this tends to make him come over as a hammy showman.

"Violet Vortex" is a surprisingly varied intro at just under 2 minutes with a hazy wobbly guitar cloud that becomes a thundering series of riffs of which you could count at least three sets each deserving an entire song. Compared to this, "Ride" initially sounds a bit ordinary and underdone but locks into its groove quickly and turns out to be a neat and tight (but not too tight) radio-friendly rock-out. The following track "Enter the Worms" is the best of this first half of the album: it has a real retro-Seventies psychedelic metal vibe, a meaty sound and a sinuous flow and Dorrian's singing is probably at its best here, he leers and tastes every word no matter how repulsive or ridiculous the lyrics may be. At once malevolent and seductive, this is a great highlight which sets the band up for, um, "Midnight Mountain", the album's ridiculous moment from its previous sublime: the band's sound and style of lyrics are ill-suited for performing poppy songs with hand-clapping choruses but at the time the album was being recorded (early 1990s), Cathedral were in the process of being signed up to Columbia Records and the guys had to impress the label with something the bean counters employed there could understand and relate to so, ergo, we must have "Midnight Mountain".

"Fountain of Innocence" fulfils the obligatory ballad-type song requirement with acoustic guitar passages and some clean vocals from Dorrian; from then on, the band lets loose with what it did best in those days: huge chunky songs of pounding rhythms and thunderous riffs sometimes highlighted with delicate melodies. Songs like "Grim Luxuria" and "Jaded Entity" mix no-nonsense powerhouse guitar chords with runaway lightning lead guitar and Dorrian veering perilously close to hammy performances. "Jaded Entity" has the edge over "Grim Luxuria" in its second half where surging bass-heavy riffs go hell for leather broke and start mixing up speeds. After that, "Ashes You Leave" loses momentum slightly in its awkward manner, the singing and the music a bit mismatched and not quite jelling together despite the searing guitar blast introduction; the song later improves when Gary Jennings takes his turn on lead guitar and the music speeds up, introducing new riffs almost right up to the end.

The plod factor returns with the lumbering "Phantasmagoria" which is almost a return to "Forest of Equilibrium"-period Cathedral with that wonderful haunted guitar intro that features a screaming fall into Hell. Dorrian almost ruins the funereal atmosphere with his overwrought histrionics, otherwise this song by sheer force of thunder and the power of its almighty riffs could well have been the best song on the album. As with previous songs, new riffs appear up to the fade-out end.

The album finishes up on a delicate acoustic note with "Imprisoned in Flesh", featuring some decent restrained singing from Dorrian with a gruff sting in its tail: a clever way to finish off a monumental recording that can leave you exhausted and overcome by those pounding rhythms yet at the same time wanting more of those powerful booming riffs that fall from Jennings and Adam Lehan's fingers on the fretboards throughout most songs. The band's sound on this album is steely and menacing, especially in the instrumental parts of "Grim Luxuria" and "Jaded Entity" and is less thick and crusty than on the debut album. At the same time, if you listen closely the guitars can be scratchy as if they're about to fall about from over-use but this adds an endearing quality to the band's music: you know it's not too efficient and streamlined and buffed-up and the guys have an easy-going attitude to what they do. This was one of the things I like about the band and this record, that the guys could perform such jaw-droppingly powerful music with such a carefree and breezy attitude.

While I sometimes wish Cathedral could have done on this second album more of what they did on "Forest of Equilibrium", this probably would have locked the band into a narrow groove and the expectation among their fans would be that the third and later albums should conform to the same narrow template. Obviously there are people who expect that of their favourite bands and some of these bands are happy to keep pumping out the same old tunes but Cathedral have not been one of these even though at times they may be inconsistent and the quality of their music has varied over the years. I followed the band up to and including their fourth album "Supernatural Birth Machine" (I had the special digipak edition with Dave Patchett's artwork and the silly comic) and then thought, well, they are past their best and I don't want to get disappointed so I stopped buying their music.

After "The Ethereal Mirror" was released, Cathedral did get signed up Columbia Records and there followed a period in which the band tested the label's patience with releases like the "Statik Majik" EP, featuring a gloriously messy 20-minute-plus meandering track at the end of which Dorrian "meanders" out of the studio and into a bathroom where he flushes a toilet. This and other pranks eventually got the band thrown off the label (I'm thankful for that) and back to England minus some members but to their credit the band survived and moreover got at long last a stable line-up which has stayed the same to the present day.

After making their doomy intent clear with their grim yet glorious debut, Cathedral cleverly expanded their music in terms of width rather than girth. Instead of offering up another slab of super slow odes to funeral moods, the band double checked their influences, and came up with a self-styled take on the whole of seventies metal and it’s attendant facets. The band are still beholden to the ghost of Sabbath in a major way, but it’s also clear that the band have their ears in other places. To wit, their recent doom predecessors Saint Vitus, Pentagram and Witchfinder General seem very much present in spirit, as are more arcane influences as Cirith Ungol and Celtic Frost. And atop all that stands the band’s own ever stronger song writing skills, topped by Lee Dorrian’s always dementedly clear voice and Gary Jennings never ending web of riffs.


Literally full of incredible tracks, the album gets off to a loping (and rather Budgie-like) groove with “Ride,” which pulses with a wonderfully bouncy yet incredibly bassy vibe. Along those lines, “Midnight Mountain” is a masterpiece, plain and simple. Meshing a funky vibe with skull crushing riffs, this one features amazing band interplay, awesome writing, and the closing section contains one of the HEAVIEST riffs ever. “Fountain Of Innocence” matches acoustic flourishes with more doomy weight, while “Grim Luxuria” returns to mid-tempo stomping in fine form. “Phantasmagoria” returns to the melting pot of doom that graced their debut, proving that misery still has it’s place in the band’s canon, and at almost 9 minutes in length, there’s plenty to go round. A quick but pleasant acoustic cut (“Imprisoned In Flesh”) closes the whole damn thing, which only demonstrates the band’s desire to experiment.


A very “live” and unprocessed sound is present, and it’s the perfect way for material this rooted in dynamic playing and vibe to be recorded. And believe it or not, this was only a warning shot for the album that would be the band’s finest work, Carnival Bizarre.

If you wonder how things will be like after the ¡°Forest of Equilibrium¡±, you can find some marks in the last track of Cathedral¡¯s first album. The use of some wind instrument has made the music become mysterious, and even a little erratic. That is exactly an important aspect in their latter works, the ¡°ethereal mirror¡±, and other albums.

Listening to this album was the first time that I entered the music world of Cathedral, the most kaleidoscopic world that metal band had ever created. The music of cathedral is so wonderful that you may feel totally different when listen to a same one.

Compared to the last album, this one has faster tempo, and Lee Dorrian changes his singing to some lowed clean voice. In some place, compared to an oppressive atmosphere, the songs become more ¡°cheerful¡±. But the cheer is not from the ordinary human beings, it is from those monsters in the cover and the devil behind them. The doomsday of human is the festival of the devil. I think maybe it is just the subject matter of the image in the ¡°ethereal mirror¡±.

There are two bonus tracks in this version of mine, which make this album more plentiful. For my own part, I most recommend the fifth track, ¡°Fountain of Innocence¡±.

Ethereal Mirror = heaviest album recorded for a major label? May be so, since it is Cathedral's most bludgeoning release, a real exercise in GRIT. Everything about EM, from Dorrian's almost unbearable vocals, to the bottomless well of doom 'n' distortion, results in a sublimely gritty listen. I, the Cathedral fan who prefers Carnival Bizzare and Caravan Beyond Redemption, am not overly impressed here. Phantasmagoria is ridiculously heavy, and Ride is an undsiputed Cathedral classic. Songs like Worms Crawl In are thick as molasses and played with a cutthroat intensity. The problem lies with Mr. Dorrians awful vocal peformance, and riffs that, well, don't stick.

Ethereal Mirror is the best Cathedral album for extreme metal fans... if Cannibal Corpse is your guru, satiate your thirst for unholy doom like so. If you appreciate a good tune, something you can pump your fist to, join the funeral macabre

Now talk about a leap forward in style and overall mood!!! After the all out doom displayed on the 'Forest of Equilibrium' album and the more upbeat but still very dark 'Soul Sacrifice' EP, this is the album where the band decided to turn the lights on.

The riffing and structures are still very much the same as the debut LP and the subsequent EP but there is just this bright mood pervading this gem of an album.

'Violet Vortex' is a great Sabbathy riff feast intro which is followed by the very catchy 'Ride.' Special mention must be made for the middle of the latter song which showcases a linear guitar theme climaxing with a dual guitar harmony. That part alone makes this album worth buying because it is simply pure songwriting genius. A lot of upbeat grooves are used in the previously mentioned track but it is subsequently broken down by 'Enter The Worms' a very heavy albeit catchy song that is a glimpse of what most of the album is made up of. Most of the other songs are similar to this bands early efforts in that they are noticably long and slow. What saves them though is the dynamics. This is something that Gaz Jennings obviously learned from dabbling in 70s progrock and folk. The only odd thing going on is 'Midnight Mountain.' Disco doom? Yes it can happen.

From what I know, the band doesn't really like looking back and remembering this album for a variety of reasons. One of the more obvious reasons was Columbia Records doing a total management/promotions balls up for this and other landmark releases (Carcass - Heartwork, Entombed - Wolverine Blues) and another one being that they were hurried into writing this album. Despite all of this, 'The Ethereal Mirror' still stands as a great album and, in my opinion, a real landmark release. Get this album.