Cathedral immediately established their firm rooting in the metal scene by pooling together heavyweights from the grindcore, thrash and death metal genres in order to generate their doom-laden and eccentric sound. With members including ex-Napalm Death frontman Lee Dorrian and guitarist Gary Jennings, previously from Acid Reign, and also Mark Griffiths, Ben Mochrie and Adam Lehan from renound thrash-metal bands such as Filthkick, all adding to Cathedral’s doom-inspired image. With the demo ‘In Memorium’ and a three-track session being released in 1990 and 1991 Cathedral set-up a grounding of expectation, with tracks such as a cover of Pentagram’s ‘All Your Sins’ adding a world of intrigue. This was followed up by a tour in Britain with S.O.D and later with St. Vitus, Sadus and Morbid Angel, before the release of debut album ‘Forests of Equilibrium’ in 1991. This debut offers tracks such as ‘Soul Sacrifice’ that characterise Cathedral’s slow-paced penchant for doom metal, hurling it back into the spotlight as a counter force to the fast-paced offerings previously exhibited by Dorrian’s ex-band Napalm Death. Before 1992’s tour of Britain with Anathema and My Dying Bride, Cathedral firmly established a static line-up with the recruitment of drummer Mark Ramshey Wharton, formerly of Acid Reign. This then lead to prolonged touring around Europe of their metallic sound alongside label-mates Carcass, Entombed and Confessor, as a part of the established ‘Gods of Grind’ tour, before leading up to a career-defining appearance in the USA with Napalm Death. Following tour dates that launched the band into Japan to support Brutal Truth in 1993 and a place on Earache’s Black Sabbath ‘Masters of Misery’ Tribute, Cathedral took a slight line-up alteration. Bassist, Griffiths’s decision to pursue his own direction by forming Year Zero appeared as the prelude to a year of change, with Lehan and Warholn’s departures in 1994. Yet, Cathedral continued to take their snail-paced doom to the masses with heavy touring to promote 1994’s ‘The Ethereal Mirror’ album, with guitarist Victor Griffin and drummer Joe Hasselvander on loan from US death metallists Pentagram. However, the line-up was short lived and Griffin and Hasselvander quit the band during a tour that saw Cathedral opening for their heroes Black Sabbath. Sheer determination to exist within the razor-sharp genre saw Cathedral take Scott Carlson and Dave Hornyak on board in 1995 for a short lived tour of Europe with Deicide and Brutal Truth, before financial constraints caused them to leave the band. However, Cathedral continued to stomp their way through the scene with the release of ‘The Carnival Bizarre’ album featuring Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi, with the new line-up including Leo Smee and Brian Dixon. This record was followed up by the studio album ‘Supernatural Birth Machine’, with the monstrously crunching sounds of tracks such as ‘Urko’s Conquest’. With the setbacks of band line-ups hovering over Cathedral’s identity, the band took a back-seat and Dorrian pre-occupied himself with the ‘Dark Passages’ Doom compilation on his own label, Rise Above, before re-emerging in 1997 with Cathedral at the 100th anniversary festival of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ in Whitby, along with the ‘Hopkins (The Witchfinder General)’ CD, featuring the renound video to the ‘Hopkins’ track. The grandiose nature of this video helped with Cathedral’s re-establishment of identity, which was finally affirmed with the release of ‘In Memorium’ in 1999 that provided a re-issue of their original 1990 demo and live recordings taken from 1998. Yet amidst the reformation of Cathedral as a doom-metal identity, band members continued to play astray, with Dixon forming the short-lived side project Arabia and Smee forming Firebred with ex-Carcass guitarist Bill Steer in 2000. Meanwhile, Dorrian crossed over into the mainstream by contributing guest vocals to Dave Grohl’s Probot project album in 2001, and formed Supergroup Teeth of Lion Rule Divine with Burning Witch’s Steve O’Malley, Goatsnake’s Greg Anderson and Iron Monkey’s Justin Greaves. Aside from being deeply submerged in the depths of sub-groups Cathedral’s ‘The VIIth Coming’ album was scheduled for release in October 2002, with a UK headlining tour with Electric Wizard. Their establishment as a headlining act catapulted the band into the realms of further success, and saw the Earache compilation ‘The Serpent’s Gold’ piecing together a history of their stomping sound with previously unreleased material, pre-dating their position as a support act for H.I.M in the UK in 2003. Cathedral recorded ‘The Garden of Unearthly Delights’ in May 2004 before being immersed on tour alongside Cradle of Filth in December of the same year, reinstating their position as successful pioneers of the Doom genre. This is a pioneering spirit that has lead them through the barbed wires of tumultuous line-up alterations during the band’s early days. However, an appearance alongside acts such as Metallica and Deftones at the 2006 Download festival and an encapsulating spirit and dedication from frontman Dorrian affirm Cathedral’s unique and unrivalled position within the doom and death-metal genre.