Cathedral – The Carnival Bizarre (1995)

September 11, 2023

Huggy Bear, oh yeeeeahhh!

Cathedral were on a roll in the early to mid 90s, culmulating I’d say, with this absolute stonker of an album. Things slowly started to cool off after this, but goddamn, the band are on fire on this thing. First off, the production is huge. It takes away some of the chonk of The Ethereal Mirror and instead heaps on a bit of frosty clarity. Kit Woolven (RIP) and Doug Cook had the production on this thing locked the fuck down. The drums are perfect, every single drum hit pierces the mix clearly, without sounding false or triggered. The guitar tone is just unreal, as are Gaz’s riffs in general (as well as the groove section from the hideously underrated Leo Smee). Hey, let’s not also forget – rifflord Tony Iommi is also on here, I believe shredding the solo out in “Utopian Blaster”.

I think the opening section to “Night Of The Seagulls” has to be one of my favourite things of all time in any genre from any band. That riff, with the string bend, and the slightly off-time bell or chime going in the background… good heavens, that’s some good shit, for real.

But yeah, this whole album, all 62 minutes of it, rocks the fuck out. The OG psych-doom revival.