Long before doom metal burst into popularity with both metalheads and non-metalheads alike at the end of the 90's, there was Cathedral. The British band, featuring front man and UK hardcore / grindcore legend Lee Dorrian, helped to reshape the sound of doom and push it into new areas of sonic extremism, and who became the flagship band for Rise Above Records, the label that would bring such titans of slow n' low heaviness as Church Of Misery, Moss, Electric Wizard, Unearthly Trance, Witchcraft, Orange Goblin, Sunn O))), Sleep and Goatsnake to your stereo. During the 80's, there were a handful of bands that continued to fly the flag of trad doom that Sabbath kick started, such as Saint Vitus, Candlemass, Trouble, and the whole Maryland doom crowd, for instance. But there wasn't anybody as slow or as heavy as Cathedral by the time these guys took the stage, who took the notion of the crawling Sabbathian riff to whole new levels of torpor. Formed after singer Lee Dorrian bailed from grindcore pioneers Napalm Death in 1989, Cathedral combined the heaviest modes of classic doom with Dorrian's unique vocal style, along with a love of 70's prog rock, and a guitar sound that seems as if it had been carved out of slabs of pure granite. They promptly signed to Earache and released their debut album Forest Of Equilibrium in 1991 , which has gone on to become one of the all time classics in the doom metal pantheon; later albums would pursue a groovier, more rocking sound that the band pretty much perfected on 1993's The Ethereal Mirror. Both of these crucial early albums have just been reissued by Earache on CD in expanded packages that have the original albums bundled with previously out-of-print bonus material, and each comes with a DVD that features a documentary on the making of the album; both are fucking ESSENTIAL for doom metal fans. The cassette edition just features the original track listing, along with a pair of bonus tracks.

Depending on who you ask, Cathedral's second album The Ethereal Mirror might be the best album they ever recorded. While it's hard for me to choose between the crawling prog-doom brilliance of their debut Equilibrium and this album (I love 'em both equally!), Ethereal did see the band begin to make the shift into groovier, more rocking territory, doing more experimentation with their crushing doom sound while at the same time becoming more "accessible", with the catchiest song Cathedral ever wrote included here: if Cathedral ever had a "hit", it was "Midnight Mountain", possibly one of the best stoner rock songs of all time. Starting off with that instantly recognizable riff and Dorrian's shout of "Oh Yeah!", the guitars spit out a gnarly lick as the song crashes into an undulating, insanely funky groove that'll bore a hole into the skull of any doom/stoner rock junkie that hears it. The twin harmonies and infectious riffing builds over a chorus-heavy bridge, then kicks into the impossibly catchy, fist-pumping hook, complete with hand claps; total genius. And across the album, Ethereal Mirror moves between stomping, doom-laden heaviness carried over from the debut ("Jaded Entity", "Phantasmagoria" ) and the pummeling psychedelic doom-rock sound that would define the albums that followed. They crank the tempo on songs like the aforementioned "Midnight Mountain" and ass-kicking opener "Ride", which features another infectiously anthemic hook and loping groove that foreshadows what Goatsnake would be doing a couple of years later, welding their monstrous ultra-heavy guitar riffs to pounding mid-tempo groove. It's solid stuff from start to finish, and highly recommended to anyone into this field of underground metal. You gotta hear this album if you want to see where everyone from Orange Goblin to Goatsnake to Electric Wizard got their inspiration from - it remains one of the high-water marks of doom metal, make no mistake.

For the CD editions, on top of all of that, both reissues are packaged with newly re-designed booklets and inserts that present Patchett's artwork in extended form.