MetalProgressive Rock
Rise Above Records releases “The Guessing Game (Rethink)” on 30 October, a new mix of Cathedral’s ninth album made from the original masters. The label says the recording rights have reverted to the band and that they have used them to redo the one thing that never convinced them: they were happy with the production, not with the mix. The result, it says, is “a more cohesive, stripped-down, raw and powerful sound”.
The man who redid it is Jaime Gomez Arellano, a longtime collaborator. The original was produced by Warren Riker and released by Nuclear Blast on 26 March 2010 as a double album — the band’s first — and it came eighth in that year’s Metal Hammer critics’ poll.
The new version is thirteen tracks across five sides of vinyl, with alternate takes and extended versions: “Immaculate Misconception”, “Funeral Of Dreams”, “Painting In The Dark”, “Death Of An Anarchist”, “The Guessing Game”, “Edwige’s Eyes”, “Cats, Incense, Candles & Wine”, “One Dimensional People”, “The Casket Chasers”, “Ghost Galleon”, “The Running Man”, “Requiem For The Voiceless” and “Journey Into Jade”. The label says the format “allows the tracks to breathe like never before”.
“Edwige’s Eyes (Rethink 2026)” is already out, with a video. The sleeve is the one it always had: the question mark painted by Dave Patchett, who signs almost every Cathedral cover.
“The Guessing Game” was recorded by Lee Dorrian, Garry Jennings, Brian Dixon and Leo Smee, with Smee adding mellotron, flute, synthesisers and autoharp to his bass. Cathedral released one more album, “The Last Spire”, in 2013. The label’s announcement carries no statement from anyone in the band.
Text by Roger Estivill