Cathedral’s The Last Spire will be released in North America on April 30, 2013. Recorded at Orgone Studios in London, produced by Lee Dorrian and Garry Jennings with assistance, mixing by Jamie Gomez Arellano, and art by Dave Patchett and Arik Roper, The Last Spire will stand as the band’s final effort. The first single to be released, “Tower of Silence,” was made available today, and it’s a heavy, doomy, gloomy masterpiece. I love the tone of the guitars and the slow-as-mud pace.
And lo, Lee Dorrian, mouthpiece of Cathedral for 23 years, doth solemnly intone the death rites of this mighty British metal Titan. Born in the dying days of Thatcher’s Britain, bonding over then-unfashionable, obscure names like Saint Vitus, Pentagram, Trouble, and Dream Death, Cathedral’s sole ambition was to record a demo tape. In fact they revolutionized doom metal, first pushing their influences into new avenues of grinding extremity, then pioneering groovier forms of ’70s-indebted stoner doom.
Lee Dorrian adds:
“When the last mix was finally done, there was a massive sense of relief. I think this was partly due to the fact that it meant Cathedral could finally be put to rest but also because we felt we’d done something that we were all very pleased with. I feel comfortable leaving The Last Spire as our legacy… The funeral of Cathedral has been a long but gratifying process. Deciding to end the band wasn’t an easy decision to make but we knew deep down in our hearts that it was the right thing to do.”
While Cathedral will appear on the cover of the Decibel Magazine’s May issue, they made “Vengeance of the Blind Dead” available on the Flexi in the March issue. If you missed out on that, you can hear the track at this link: soundcloud.com.
Enjoy it while it lasts, Yellers.
Rock Hard \m/
