Cathedral: The Guessing Game

As pioneers and standard-bearers of the current doom metal scene, Cathedral have spent an admirable amount of their two-decade existence attempting to break away from the genre's constricting template of Black Sabbath riffs played as slow as humanly possible. With their ninth release, seemingly a concept album based around social decay and other British grumbles, they have struck a fine balance between their monolithic guitar groove and a more heady blend of prog, folk, psychedelia and even the occasional burst of Bonzo Dog Band-style jazz whimsy. And, although grounded by the rainy disposition of their lyrics – wage slavery, surveillance culture and political malfeasance are all covered here – these sparkling sojourns to the outer fringes of 70s rock would cheer even the most jaded metaller. Doom has rarely sounded so joyous.