Label: Sub Pop
Released: Jul 27, 2004 |
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I feel that, in a sense, I was lied to about Blue Cathedral. I was geared for an over the top rock’n’roll affair with throwbacks to 60s and 70s heavy-metal and psychedelia. While this is true for some of the songs, I was surprised with the amount of non-vocal instrumentation on this album. Even when Ethan Miller is singing, his vocals are so unintelligible and injected with reverb that they just blend in with the rest of the noise.
The goal of “Whiskey River,” and “The Antlers Of The Midnight Sun,” is to see just how much chaos Comets On Fire can cause in one song. Both are deafening and filled to the brim with screaming vocals, raucous guitars, echoplex, and saxophone, among other things. They come across sounding like a mix of the 13th Floor Elevators and MC5. “The Bee And The Cracking Egg” begins like the two aforementioned songs, but catches you off-guard with a mellow, spacey break in the middle of the song before rocking out again in the end.
The instrumentals provided a much-needed respite in between the rockers. “Brotherhood Of The Harvest” is a hazy organ driven number, reminiscent of Pink Floyd. “Wild Whiskey” is mellow, psychedelic, and bears the closest resemblance to guitarist Ben Chasney’s solo work as Six Organs Of Admittance.
Overall, Blue Cathedral comes across as slightly disjointed, but this is also why it will appeal to fans of many different genres of rock music. I can definitely see metal-heads, classic-rockers, and even tight pants wearing indie types getting into this record.
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