1996's Supernatural Birth Machine was where Cathedral really fused their classic doom sound with more rocking qualities, something closer to what ended up being called "stoner rock". But it's still heavy as hell. These guys couldn't shake the Frostian guitar chunkiness if they tried. But groove is king on their fourth full-length, leaning hard into the more "upbeat" side of Sabbath's iconic sound. The band's diverse instrumentation and proggy undercurrents return, with some great Mellotron (courtesy of Garry Jennings) gliding through the first half of the album. Same goes for the somewhat tongue-in-cheek self-consciousness and humorous streak that's marked their last few albums, and even more of the pulp action / weird / science fiction subject matter that Cathedral was getting more and more obsessed with.

The gang kick off with the short intro "Cybertron 71 / Eternal Countdown (Intro)", that Mellotron swirling around a grotesque riff swelling up from the depths like some slithering, saurian roar. All mangled, running backwards, deformed. Then suddenly morphing into a moody and incredibly Sabbath-esque bridge. Dorrian has never sounded more like Ozzy than he does here. And then the album gets underway, "Urko's Conquest" kicking into high gear with its mix of Frostian crunch and 70's hard rock riffing; an awesome, supremely catchy mix of downtuned heaviness and big, filthy hooks, slipping into some funky groove. Totally infectious, like a concrete-encrusted Kyuss jam. A real chug-a-thon. Sets the tone for much of the rest of Supernatural, as the music moves fluidly through the pummeling old-school doom of "Stained Glass Horizons" (with its pulsating psych rock middle and galloping climax) to the grueling Neanderthal crush and shredding Nuge-worthy licks of "Cyclops Revolution" and Sabbathian earworm throb of "Birth Machine 2000". Then you have "Nightmare Castle" dropping some mongoloid stomp on you, loaded with dread-inducing riffage, clanking chains, eerie synth and Dorrian's trademark sneer dragging this dark, oppressive heaviosity through some murky dungeon dankness. "Fireball Demon" kicks back in with that groovy mid-tempo crunch, BBC sound effects bookend an almost KISS-esque hard rock hook. The jagged riffing on songs "Dragon Ryder 13" and "Phaser Quest" again evokes those 70's era hard rock guitar stylings, and "Suicide Asteroid" evokes the anthemic catchiness of their classic "Magic Mountain". And man, closer "Magnetic Hole" almost feels like a counterpoint to all of the groovy, swingin' "stoner" rock riffing that precedes it, dropping a sinister, slo-mo doom beast that wraps this up with one of the album's heaviest goddamned riffs. It's a monster tune, even when it morphs into an extended bout of almost Floydian psychedelic guitar , soaring shred and haunting melodic phrases rising over the grim two-chord dirge.

It's Cathedral at their most straightforward, with only a little of the bizarre elements that set Cathedral apart from the rest of their doom metal contemporaries, like weird whirring metallic noise, brief glimpses of the band's proggy tendencies, whirling electronics, sudden shifts into symphonic synth bliss....but the songwriting is in fine form, and if you're looking for catchy, crushing Sabbathian heaviness, this is one of the best of the era.