Cathedral - Endtyme
Earache Records
Doom Metal
9 songs (01:03:37)
Release year: 2001
Cathedral, Earache Records
Reviewed by Charles
Archive review
So here at last (for me, at least) we have my favourite Cathedral album, Endtyme. It’s the first one I ever bought, having no clue what doom metal was, and the first few times through the only track I liked was Whores to Oblivion, because of its goofy humour. Like a lot of great albums that have a token “catchy but stupid” song on, nowadays it’s pretty much the track that I play the least often.

It emerged three years after Caravan Beyond Redemption, and at the time I have vague recollections of it being hailed as a return to their doom, rather than stoner, sound. At the time I didn’t really appreciate what that meant, but damn, now I do. The short opener is a couple of minutes of low and slow, feedback-heavy guitar “vrooming” noise, which could almost con you into mistaking this for Sunn 0)))) or something like that. But once it merges into Melancholy Emperor, kicked off by a whole-hearted “ooohyeah”, Endtyme sets up its stall properly. Forest of Equilibrium most likely is the best comparison in the band’s discography. Back are the thunderous riffs that sometimes seem to be about to stagger to a halt, but which are propelled and enlivened by the sheer power of the doomy thud that enshrouds them. But we get more here, as well. A couple of tracks, such as Requiem for the Sun have a surprisingly strong sense of chilling, gothic melody. Endtyme also throws a real rarity at us in Astral Queen, a plaintive and quite sweet, mellow ballad which works very nicely as a breather after the staggering magnitude of Ultra Earth.

Speaking of Ultra Earth, this may be the heart of the album, and probably captures best what Endtyme is all about. It’s in two parts; the first a mockingly slow, apocalyptic dirge, and the second dominated by an unbelievable hard rock blues riff that you will have to search pretty hard to top. It tells us that though this is an entirely different record to Supernatural... and Caravan..., the ideas of those albums have not been discarded. It’s just that when they are framed in the midst of such thunderous aural horror their impact is trebled.

There is not that much else to say. If you like Cathedral, then you pretty much need to hear Endtyme. Of course, you probably have already. If you don’t like Cathedral, then I’d say what you need more than anything else is a doctor. In my opinion, although please feel free to disagree, this is the finest hour of one of the UK’s greatest metal bands.

Killing Songs :
Melancholy Emperor, Requiem for the Sun, Ultra Earth
Charles quoted 93 / 100
Other albums by Cathedral that we have reviewed:
Cathedral - In Memoriam reviewed by Andy and quoted no quote
Cathedral - The Last Spire reviewed by Charles and quoted 92 / 100
Cathedral - The Guessing Game reviewed by Goat and quoted 90 / 100
Cathedral - The Ethereal Mirror reviewed by Adam and quoted 90 / 100
Cathedral - Supernatural Birth Machine reviewed by Charles and quoted 79 / 100
To see all 11 reviews click here
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