Description

Cathedral – Forest 0f Equilibrum – Cassette

Forest of Equilibrium is the debut studio album by Cathedral, released in 1991. This album is a seminal work in the doom metal genre, marking a significant shift towards a slower, heavier, and more somber sound compared to the speed and aggression typical of metal music at the time.

Cathedral, formed by Lee Dorrian after leaving the grindcore band Napalm Death, embraced a starkly different musical approach with Forest of Equilibrium. The album is characterized by its slow tempos, thick guitar riffs, and an atmosphere saturated with despair and melancholy. Dorrian’s vocal delivery, marked by its deep, ominous tone, complements the doom-laden lyrical themes that often explore existential dread and a sense of looming catastrophe.

Tracks like ‘Commiserating the Celebration’ and ‘Ebony Tears’ exemplify the album’s dense, oppressive sound, which helped define the aesthetics of doom metal. ‘Forest of Equilibrium’ is celebrated for its pioneering role in the genre, influencing a host of bands that sought to explore the darker, more introspective paths of metal music. The album remains a critical favorite for its innovative approach and its profound impact on the trajectory of heavy metal.

Along with the early material chronicled on In Memorium, Forest of Equilibrium remained an artifact of Cathedral’s early gloom sound before they eventually evolved into one of the more exciting heavy metal bands of the mid-’90s. Still fresh from his infamous stint as the looming vocalist for the original and most notorious grindcore band ever, Napalm Death, vocalist Lee Dorrian teams up with the guitarist duo of Garry Jennings and Adam Lehan to create some of the most lumbering heavy metal ever heard.

The group takes the grinding guitar tones of grindcore and slows them down to a nearly unbearable pace capable to either hypnotizing the listener or inducing sleep. While the two guitarists churn out their doomy guitar riffs, Dorrian does his best to balance the delicate line between singing lyrics with hints of harmony and emanating deathly growls from the depths of his dark soul. Besides the guitars and vocals, the songs themselves actually deserve some recognition despite their tendency to creep along at a sometimes tedious pace.

‘Ebony Tears’ and ‘Funeral Request’ in particular still stand as two of the group’s more memorable songs even if this early sound has since been abandoned. In addition to these two songs, ‘Soul Sacrifice’ deserves some notice as the one song to actually up the album’s tempo towards mosh-friendly levels, though it is much better performed on the succeeding Soul Sacrifice EP.

The ultra-murky sound quality of Forest of Equilibrium also makes it a unique album far different from any of the group’s other releases. Like the dense layers of compressed distortion that transform the group’s guitar tones into monolithic waves of bone-shaking sound, the poor sound quality gives the album a surreal sense of dense, dusty murk that nearly eclipses the music with a shroud of disorientation. This album doesn’t compare to later Cathedral albums such as The Carnival Bizarre in terms of artistry or consistent style, but it does possess an undeniable aura of dark gloom that these later albums can only hope to emulate with their increasingly clean sound and hints of joy.

Earache Records

Song List
1. Picture Of Beauty & Innocence – (intro)
2. Ebony Tears
3. Serpent Eve
4. Soul Sacrifice
5. Funeral Request, A
6. Equilibrium
7. Reaching Happiness, Touching Pain