CATHEDRAL — Endtyme (review)

CATHEDRAL — Endtyme album cover Album · 2001 · Stoner Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
UMUR
"Endtyme" is the 6th full-length studio album by UK doom metal act Cathedral. The album was released through Earache Records in February 2001. Endtyme was produced by Billy Anderson and recorded at Chapel Studios, South Thoresby, England. The original release features 9 tracks but there´s a Japanese version available featuring a bonus track titled "Gargoylian".

The music on "Endtyme" marks a return to the dark doom metal of Cathedral´s debut album "Forest of Equilibrium (1991)" and partially the more melodic sound of the 2nd album "The Ethereal Mirror (1993)". The band had drifted further and further away from their crushingly heavy doom metal roots with each release since the debut, moving into more up-tempo groove based doom/stoner metal territories. While "Endtyme" is a return to a more straight doom metal sound it doesn´t sound like a copy of "Forest of Equilibrium (1991)". So while "Endtyme" is undeniably more slow and heavy than any of the 4 albums between it and the debut album, the psychadelic stoner metal influences and the groovy riffing from those 4 intermediate albums are not completely forgotten. Which by the way is pretty great as we in return get one of the more varied albums by Cathedral.

The first thing I noticed when I started listening to Endtyme, besides the generally slower pace, is the raw and organic sounding production. Compared to the pretty polished Andy Sneap production of the predecessor "Caravan Beyond Redemption (1998)", this album sounds delightfully gritty and dirty. To my ears this type of production suits Cathedral´s music much better than the more polished productions of the last couple of albums. The material on the album varies between slow doom metal parts, more groove oriented mid-paced doom metal sections, and some mellow psychadelic sections. A track like "Astral Queen" is fully in psychadelic mode. The musicianship on the album is tight but not in an artificial way. There´s a certain rehearsal room atmosphere to the recordings that´s greatly enjoyable. Lee Dorrian was never a very technically skilled vocalist, but he´s got a deranged charm to his performance on "Endtyme" that works perfectly with the instrumental part of the music. It´s one of his best and most focused vocal performances and fortunately there are not too many uhs, yeahs, and ahs on this album. That part of his vocal repetoire very quickly got old.

I don´t know if they put something in the water or what Cathedral did in the 3 years between the release of "Caravan Beyond Redemption (1998)" and the release of "Endtyme", but "Endtyme" is one kick ass doom metal album. Cathedral seems completely re-vitalized and they churn out one mother of a heavy riff after another on this album. A 4 star (80%) rating is fully deserved.
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