12 years ago, Cathedral called it a day. They did so with a brilliant record, “The Last Spire”. The final song – although “song” doesn’t feel like the right term – was “Society’s Pact With Satan”, a 30-minute statement on the world that was never mixed. The producer recently found it and dusted it off.
It opens with the sound of a nightmare. We’re two minutes in before the ominous guitar emerges, backed by funereal drums.
When Lee Dorrian finally enters a couple of minutes later, it’s just him and an organ.
No one ever did it like Cathedral. No one ever dared to. Equal parts prog, doom, and what I imagine an acid trip must feel like (I’m on shaky ground here – a Rennie is too much for me), this is as slow as a sloth and heavier than watching the News at 10 right now.
So much so, that when the inevitable breakdown comes, it crushes even harder.
What’s striking is that although this track is 12 years old, the themes Dorrian rants about still ring true today. The more things change…
There’s even a gorgeous acoustic passage just after halfway – a sort of palate cleanser – which makes the gallop that follows even more intense, before the earth is crushed and the ground salted.
“Society’s Pact With Satan” would be a brilliant, bold piece at any time, but here, as a reminder of what we lost when Cathedral departed, it’s astonishing.
Rating: 9/10
