arcane-beautiful
Following their second album, again Cathedral showed a kind of progression into their 3rd album, with the use of an ep.
Now this is quite different from Cathedral's other e.ps. Yes it does show that progression that The Carnival Bizarre will show and some songs bare likeness to, and I believe may be foetal stages of the tracks from The Carnival Bizarre. But, this e.p also has a big mammoth over 20 minute track. Now, it easily could have gone on an album, but to be honest, putting it on this e.p kind of makes it special. It's the landmark moment, but the other 2 songs also are quite strong and show great potential (altough you can see why their not on albums to be honest). And again the sound quality fails in comparison to the albums at times.
As with most e.ps, this one is good, but its not a must have. You get this along with the dualdisc edition of The Ethereal Mirror, and its worth having it to get it free, but it's not something to try and get from the ends of the earth. This version is different to the original, with this one only having 3 tracks.
1. Hypnos 163 - Full of great riffs and some real kick ass moments. This song is quite reminiscent to Vampire Sun, at times. I love the punk moments in the verses. 8/10
2. Cosmic Funeral - I love how the song transforms from a slow doomy song to a disco punk song. Great arrangement and Lee shows some amazing tones to his voice. 9/10
3. The Voyage Of The Homless Sapien - This 22 minute epic really is a trippy journey. Now Cathedral have 2 major epics, with this failing slightly in comparison to their other epic The Garden, because I felt that The Garden really was a perfect jigsaw put into place, and this is more of a crooked edged one, but its the crookedness that kind of stands out in the track. The lyrics are also quite funny, when you analyse them. This song also shows a wide range of influences, from Black Sabbath (big suprise), Celtic Frost, Frank Zappa, The Cure, Siouxsie & The Banshees, and a whole back of crazy. 10/10
CONCLUSION: It's not perfect, but enjoyable nontheless.