Cathedral - Forest Of Equilibrium

Cathedral - Forest Of Equilibrium

\r\nBack in 1991, the year of the Grunge explosion with bands like Nirvana, Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, that had released their best selling albums ever, and the metal scene to work underground mostly with more extreme forms of metal and some bands that became later well known such as Asphyx, Master’s Hammer etc. Oh… there have been some people also that considered as heavy metal, bands like Guns N Roses…
\r\nAround that time then, all out of the blue an English outfit made its appearance, the band called Cathedral and with their first album pushed the whole doom metal scene. This album was nothing but the cornerstone of 90’s Doom metal the one and only “Forest of Equilibrium”. An album that still people talk about it’s slow – riffing  (Sometimes ultra – slow) and the bands straight and simple playing with not many melodic lines  and the first effort of Lee Dorian to sing like a human being with semi – clear vocals after his departure from Napalm Death
\r\nBut the strong feature of the album isn’t the vocals of Lee, but the riffing of Gaz, riffs that sound like he dig them up one moonlit night from the musical graves of Iommi and Bruce Franklin / Rick Wartell twin (trouble). Just listen to “Ebony Tears” and I am sure that you’ll soon agree with me. Well, as I previously said the tempo is ultra slow but the length of the tracks sometimes is desperately huge, something that only will annoy the listeners that are not used to it. After all, Cathedral have been criticized for the long length tracks and when they wrote shorter and groovier ones many people accused them for being a stoner band … you can never satisfy all the listeners, for sure.
\r\nNevertheless, tracks like “Ebony Tears”, “Serpent’s Eve”, “ A Funeral Request” and “Reaching Happiness, Touching Pain” (with the great flute intro) will always sound so mesmerizing due too the great riffing and Dorian’s voice that no one should care about their length.
\r\nAnother fact that defines many of the Cathedral releases to come is the artwork of “Forest Of Equilibrium” originally made by Dave Patchett and shows some caricatures of human beings in some weird positions and complexions always on a blue background. The album has been released in 1991 by Earache records, a label that cathedral never changed through these years, on Gatefold LP, CD and CS.
\r\nOf course Cathedral with the next two albums took their place in the European metal elite scene, but I strongly believe that this album is monumental, for being released in the right time to push the doom metal scene to rise again and be more reachable by the fans (the same year also the first Solitude Aeturnus, album has been released.) So if anyone is about to listen this band for the first time I suggest to listen to some of their newer albums because this one is not easy to handle, but for sure is an album – monument\r\n

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\r\nFoest Of Equilibrium Line up :\r\n

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\r\nLee Dorrian - vocals
\r\nGary Jenning - guitars
\r\nAdam Lehan - guitars, acoustics
\r\nMark Griffiths - bass
\r\nMike Smail - drums
\r\nHelen Acreman - flutes (guest musician)
\r\nReverend Wolski - keyboards (guest musician)
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\r\nLampros “Witchfynder” Tennes
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