UMUR "The Garden of Unearthly Delights" is the 8th full-length studio album by UK doom metal act Cathedral. The album was released through Nuclear Blast Records in September 2005. It´s the successor to "The VIIth Coming" from 2002. "The Garden of Unearthly Delights" features among other tracks, the 26:58 minutes long "The Garden". Cathedral have previously composed very long tracks (especially the 22:42 minutes long "The Voyage of the Homeless Sapien" from the 1994 "Statik Majik " EP comes to mind), but this one takes the prize as the longest track in their discography.

While it´s impossible to talk about "The Garden of Unearthly Delights" and not mention "The Garden" (which is a multi-suite track featuring many different sections and atmospheres), the album actually features 9 other tracks (and a total playing time of 70 minutes), and the remaining tracks on the album are also more than worthy of being mentioned. I could have done without the 5:58 minutes long closing track "Proga-Europa", which opens with 5 minutes of silence before closing with 1 minute of music, but other than that track, "The Garden of Unearthly Delights" features many powerful, heavy, and intriguing doom/stoner metal tracks. "North Berwick Witch Trials" is a personal favorite (damn that is a great track), but tracks like "Upon Azrael's Wings" and "Corpsecycle" are also among the highlights.

"The Garden of Unearthly Delights" features a heavy, powerful, and organic sounding production, which suits the material perfectly. Cathedral are as always a well playing act, pumping out brick heavy riffs and rhythms, but also more querky, psychedelic, and even progressive moments. Lee Dorrian´s voice and vocal style is a bit of an aquired taste, but to my ears his performance on "The Garden of Unearthly Delights" is among his finest moments. While there is a silly psychedelic tinged vocal part here and there, he predominantly sounds delightfully gruff and even a little angry too, which suits the dark and heavy parts of the material perfectly. The album features some female clean vocals too, courtesy of Lo Polidoro, and the female vocals compliment Dorrian´s vocals well.

To my ears Cathedral´s discography is a bit uneven in quality. There are both some incredibly great albums but also quite a few more standard quality releases. "The Garden of Unearthly Delights" definitely belongs in the former catagory, and sits well along side "classic" Cathedral albums like "Forest of Equilibrium (1991)" and "The Ethereal Mirror (1993)". It´s raw and heavy, but also both melodic and psychedelic/progressive and it is through and through an intriguing release. A 4 star (80%) rating is deserved.

arcane-beautiful On Good Friday, I seem to have a habit of listening to absolute classic metal albums on Good Friday.

In 2006 it was Opeth's Still Life, the other years are a blur, but 2009 was definitly Cradle Of Filth's Cruelty & The Beast. And this year, I had the pleasure to pick out this album. As you know, all 3 of these albums are in that 161 albums list I made.

This album really is special for Cathedral, and it's not just their best album, it's one of my favourite albums of all time (I forget what number it is, although that list is quite rough).

This album really is a step foward in what Endtyme and The 7th Coming where leading up to. With very doomy moments, very bone crushing guitar tones, this album really does rock you against a wall (some of the riffs on this album really are some of the best I have ever heard.) But underneath it all, it's a very 70's proggy folk album as well. With very experimental moments pulled off extremely well, it really is a journey with no filler, and just enjoyable thrills throughout.

Lyrically the album is also their best, with Lee really telling us stories, instead of playing upon doomy metal stereotypes. The artwork is also very odd and quite surreal, compared to the others (look at the characters on it, their very outworldy)

I reccomend you pick this album up, cause it really is a metal album which NEEDS to be heard. When I think of all the things I love about metal, this album comes to mind.

1. Dearth AD - Nice noisy intro. 9/10

2. Tree Of Life & Death - Lee really is a savage prophet in this song. Great lyrics, and a great chorus. My brothe really loves this song for some odd reason. 10/10

3. North Berwick Witch Trials - The riff in this song really is one of the best I have ever heard. I love how the song is like a story. And Lee's vocals really are quite amazing in this song. 10/10

4. Upon Azrael's Wings - A more experimental song with some interesting changes. Not the strongest, but one of the most interesting. 9/10

5. Corpsecycle - One of my all time favourite Cathedral songs. Great chorus, and it's nice to see Lee really go for quite a melodic style. The guitar riff rules and the lyrics are really great, like one of Lee's best contribtuions, and smartly written (the song is about the absuridty of life really) 10/10

6. Fields Of Zagara - Nice little acoustic instrumental with a great arrangement. 9/10

7. Oro The Manslayer - Ok, the main riff in this song is absolutelt amazing. This is one of the most rocking songs on the album. I love Lee's vocals on this song, he shows some interesting emotions haha. 10/10

8. Beneath A Funeral Sun - Very dark and quite disturbing at times. Especially when the wee kiddies sing that line in the chorus. Great and a very underlooked Cathedral song. 10/10

9. The Garden -WOW!!!! 27 MINUTES!!! This song really is an epic, folky, proggy, doomy, punky, discoey, experimental journey. Split into 9 parts, it really is an epic journey. Some absolute belting riffs, great vocals from Lee and some girl, and just an amazing and mindblowing piece of music. This song always comes on Shuffle when I use my I Pod, and I reguraly keep it on and just be emersed by its awesomeness.

CONCLUSION: This is one of my all time favourite albums...I LOVE THIS ALBUM!!!! That's all I have to say.

ps. I would marry it, it I could....