arcane-beautiful Doom is such an interesting genre...From slow doom, funeral doom, proggy doom, gothic doom, punky doom, drone doom whatever you want to call it, it's all doom at the end of the day

During the 90's, Cathedral went through many different phases of doom, and even continue today to cross the doom borders, broadening their style and trying new ways to depress us...and I hate to say it, but they never cease to amaze me.

Lee Dorrian really has been at the focal point of all this, and with the turn of the Century, he unleashed this beast upon us...

Going back to his slower doomy roots rather than the increase in tempo over the pervious 5, this went back to square one in a way, having a similar vibe to the first album...but I think this album may be a wee bit better.

I know thats kind of sacreligous, cause the album is a bit of a landmark, but I do think that it's a bit overated, and this album is very underlooked.

At times, I really thought Cthulu was gonna break down the walls of my house and swallow me in his tentacles of doom and despair...

Now I'm not gonna give the album too much praise, their are moments that I'm not the biggest fan of, but to be honest, the atmosphere alone is worth the experience.

1. CAthedral Flames - Very doomy intro. Dark & disturbing. 8/10

2. Melancholy Emperor - Very Sabbath at times. The middle section does have riffs that sound like planets crushing you. Great arrangement. 9/10

3. Requiem For The Sun - Intro reminds me of Boris. Can be a wee bit touch and go at times, but it's still pretty interesting nontheless. Chorus is pretty cool too. 8/10

4. Whores To Oblivion - Fantastic riffs. Amazing arrangment. Great chorus. Love the proggy middle section. Great vocals. Interesting Merzbow like ending. 10/10

5. Alchemist Of Sorrows - Great lyrics. Interesting chorus. Love the doomy middle section. The punky section is cool too. 9/10

6. Ultra Earth - The riffs fo sound like they could drag you to hell. Great doomy atmosphere. Love how well the song changes. The lyrics are also obviously Orwell inspired. 10/10

7. Astral Queen - Pretty hypnotic. Reminds me of Planet Caravan (Black Sabbath, in case you didn't know), but a good bit better. Simple, but effective, but it does drag on a wee bit. 8/10

8. Sea Serpent - Great riffs. The instrumental section is pretty interesting. Love Lee's vocals. This is also one of this songs where the verses are way better than the chorus. 9/10

9. Templars Arise! (The Return) - Wow, what an epic. The intro reminds me of Iron Maiden's Sign Of The Cross. Love the doomy intro and the slow hypnotic vocals. Very eerie and powerfull. Love the ending with the haunting organ and guitar work, before descending to a doomy grave. 10/10

CONCLUSION: It's not their best, but its definitly a personal favourite of mine. I also need a hand with which album I should buy next (I have the first 3, and the 2nd last one as well, so don't recomend those)

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.