Sons of Tonatiuh Sons of Tonatiuh
Hydro Phonic Records
Real nasty spawn, these Sons of Tonatiuh, born under a bridge in the worst part of Atlanta, left to muckrake a miserable existence from wee hellions with pockets full of coal to teenage pariahs with duffel bags full of stolen goods, now barely alive, toothless and hungry, channeling their anti-social behaviour into a rent-by-the-hour racket. This here self-titled full-length debut is what happens when street urchins demand to be heard; ugly, crusty, disease-ridden doom that’s lost all sense of control and shoved a twisted scrap of sheet metal into your leg just to get at that moldy, half-eaten sandwich in your pocket. Socially morbid, squeegee-bleed, spastic death metal with the rank odor of sewer water, fetching flies and whores, holding dominion over the unseen, chemically ruined, appalling and bloated rot, lecherous companion to all kinds of Black Cobras, Weedeaters, and Scum. Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.
Twenty years of caravans and carnivals, funeral marches and phantasmagoria, witches and whores. Twenty years of shaping the pagan metal landscape with heavy grooves and medieval riffs. Twenty years of Lee Dorrian’s high mass madness and apothecary anarchy. Twenty years of Cathedral. Twenty years of DOOM.
Ok, I’m not here to tell you whether or not Cathedral’s first ever double album, The Guessing Game, is good or not. We are well beyond those kinds of formalities. As members of an illustrious, iconic group of doom metal pioneers that includes Black Sabbath, Pentagram, Candlemass, Trouble, and Electric Wizard, Cathedral have earned your undying devotion, your unfaltering allegiance, and the benefit of the doubt over the years (not that they’ve ever needed it). I will tell you, however, that The Guessing Game’s stylistic blueprint is gloriously eclectic; Cathedral flexes its signature, thick, Stonehenge sized guitar muscles on songs like “Edwige’s Eyes” and “Casket Chasers” but the progressive, psychedelic demeanor of songs like “Funeral of Dreams” and “Cats, Incense, Candles and Wine” hearkens back to the days of Vanilla Fudge, Pink Floyd, Gentle Giant, and King Crimson. Of course, you’ve also got the classic dope n’ roll of “Requiem for the Voiceless,” which crawls on all bony fours like a hungry prisoner to a plate of cold gruel. So, is it good? You already know the answer to that, my friend. But if you must really know, it’s unruly and evil, and sounds like twenty years of doom has finally taken its rightful toll.
Check out this video teaser for The Guessing Game!
Sons of Tonatiuh
Cathedral